Three months ago, I went on a monthlong traveling spree from Europe to the US. Hopping from city to city, it was an endless search of finding the vintage I wanted to curate for you. But not gonna lie, I was stuck on a time constraint as I was traveling with my family and of course, there’s not much time you can have in a city when you have to be on a rush.
Nevertheless, that hasn’t stopped me from wanting to squeeze in my hottest archival finds!
Amsterdam
Let’s be real: this is not the place for fashion. However, I did find some insanely cute jeans and an Edwardian beaded bolero! When I did my sourcing, I noticed that the most common silhouette for jeans were low rise, cargo and bootcut. It instantly reminded me of my girlhood where I’d see my sister wear Limited Too tees with low rise bootcut cargos with sneakers and a newsboy hat. Always the one to test drive the silhouettes, I knew that these were going into my suitcase immediately once I tried them on.
While I was on the hunt for more archives, I stumbled upon a place that had this gorgeous Edwardian beaded bolero. Stuck between a feather bra and this bolero, I immediately picked the bolero. As much as I LOVED the feather bra, it just wasn’t going to be practical for Singapore’s hot and humid weather. Also, feathers are too delicate for me to pack along for the rest of my monthlong trip, so it was a skip. BUT, the bolero was worth the risk because despite its extremely delicate nature and wear, its wired beads held up so well for 100 years! Plus, it was something I could see many of you layer over an LBD or a white tank top.
My intuition knew that it was going to sell out. Lo and behold, the tiger print jeans I hauled there sold out long before I could even upload it online!!!
NYC
When you can do so many things in one day, it’s not called a New York minute for nothing. During the three days I was in NYC, I had the fortune to squeeze in a thrifting trip for two out of the three days when I was in Manhattan. On the first thrift trip, I was focused on partywear. I found this insanely hot backless Victorian style velvet top, an All Saints mesh snake print top, DKNY sequin pants, a black silk halter dress and red velvet bolero top. Out of all the pieces from the first haul, I think the black halter dress had my soul as it was screaming Marilyn Monroe. That type of luminous silk for the quality that it was is something that I don’t see nowadays at a good price. I feel like silk is getting quite expensive and TBH, polyester -especially recycled polyester - is the closest thing to replicate that type of luminosity if you are to get a dress that’s like that within your wallet.
Before I left the city, I made sure I had to do ONE more thrift trip! While I expected myself to go on a haul, this day taught me something different. You don’t need to haul back many items if you can get that one good thing. That one good thing was a pair of archival Alexander McQueen jeans from Fall 2008, which featured some light rips, a contrasting panel and the grey denim felt so lived in. It was THE perfect low rise straight leg jeans that every baddie was obsessed with back in the day. I knew that I HAD to take it home.
LA
Originally, LA was not even part of my travel itinerary. I was supposed to stay in San Diego for one week because a wedding was taking place there. But since there was no bachelorette party, I knew I needed some time to kill when I was in SoCal. My dad encouraged me to go to LA and even though it was an extremely short trip, I managed to squeeze in one day of thrifting out of the 2 days I spent there!
In the morning, I hit up DTLA. As the thrift mecca for Nasty Gal back in the day, I wanted to channel my inner Sophia Amoruso and cherry pick the best of the best. Not going to lie, the area is gnarly, BUT the finds? You can’t go wrong. I was in denim heaven: 7, Levi’s, Rag & Bone, Rockies, Bubblegum and Tummy Tuck! The last three brands are no longer around and the Tummy Tuck style isn’t something you can find online easily. They made the cutest high-waisted jeans that neither make you like a cast member of Seinfeld or look like an auntie in ill fitting mom jeans. The Levi’s that I found had these insanely cool rips at the knees that you could tell were customized by its previous owner. Though these 512s are high-waisted, I like to wear them slightly lower for that slouchy boyfriend jean vibe I always loved since high school. I normally don’t find 7 Jeans very often, but you can’t not sleep on the studded pockets at the back! I knew I HAD to take them.
Giorgio Armani S/S 2000 bodysuit
After DTLA, I swung by Culver City to continue hunting. While I always wanted to find a runway piece during my sourcing trips, I had the fortune to find a vintage Giorgio Armani S/S 2000 bodysuit. This puplish pink bodysuit was unreal: not only was it made of silk, it had a mesh brief that makes it look like it’s an illusion tank top. While it’s not obvious that it was a bodysuit on the runway, the model made it look like it was a crop top! It was something I never saw before, so I knew it HAD to go home with me. The same shop also had many beautiful pieces like the lily print Tyler McGillivary tube top. While he’s a recent designer, this archive gem is not to be slept on. I also found a ‘90s cottagecore Dolce & Gabbana dress, which was giving me Kylie Jenner vibes. Idk what it is, but that dress had INCREDIBLE cutting. Even though it was a size or two bigger than my size, this dress just needed to find the right owner!
If I had to compare the vintage selections between LA and NYC, I’ll say that LA had a better inventory because there are a lot of pieces that can be worn in Singapore all yearlong compared to NYC, where it’s winterwear in October.