Vintage clothing comes of age in Port Jefferson

After operating an antiques shop in Port Jefferson for a few years, Nancy Altman Guzzetta began to feature and wear vintage clothing. Customers literally bought clothes "off her back." When good vintage clothing became scarce in the early 1980s, she stopped selling and began renting her costumes, retiring the rarest, irreplaceable ones to preserve them for future generations.

People wanted special clothing for all of life's celebrations, such as weddings, christenings, bar mitzvahs and galas, with weddings leading the list. Costumed theme weddings - Renaissance weddings, for example - grew in popularity as couples sought to have unique ceremonies. Guzzetta's work was described in "New York Best Bets," a book by radio personality and consumer advocate Joan Hamburg: "Nan will costume you and your entire wedding party for less than you'd pay for a new gown you may never wear again."

As her collection grew, Guzzetta bought a historic Victorian house on Main Street in Port Jefferson and moved her museum-quality collection there. She renamed her shop Antique Costumes & Prop Rental because people referred to her business as "Nan of Port Jeff." For 15 years, she has costumed people for the Dickens Festival in Port Jefferson each December.

Outfits start at $100 to rent, and go up depending on the garment and the amount of time it is needed.

As costumed events became more and more popular, she was dressing people from all over Long Island and then the rest of the country and, later, from around the world. She has been dressing people for Halloween parties at Oheka Castle and an Edwardian Ball at Old Westbury Gardens; in authentic period clothing for the centennial at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; and other 100th anniversary celebrations such as Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania and Meadowcroft, which required circa 1900 tennis outfits.

She dressed people for the annual Somewhere in Time party at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan, at many events in New York City - including the annual Met Gala, which has been called one of the biggest red carpet event in the country - for Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and even Carnival in Venice, Italy, which happens later this month. "I've never been there for Carnival," she said. "But my costumes have, and they've had fun."