Seth from WCAGA helps us get Hayden's hot vintage look!
Hayden's not the only one in Hollywood who's hearting the vintage-inspired line, What Comes Around, Goes Around. Lindsay Lohan, Haylie Duff, Vanessa Hudgens, her BF Zac Efron, and Victoria Beckham all j'adore!
Two college buddies, Gerard Maione and Seth Weisser, started shopping vintage in the 90's and made a killer biz out of their passion! Today, these guys not only sell their swoon-worthy vintage finds, but they also design a line based on vintage styles, and they sell pieces to major designers like Ralph Lauren. So where do they find this stuff? How do they know a gem when they see it? What should we look for when we're going vintage shopping? Read on for Seth's shopping tips and spring inspirations!
Hi Seth! So, how did you get into Vintage? My partner and I were inspired by individual style and we though vintage was the best way to show our individual taste and show our individual style. At the time we had been shopping in New York and everything was really dodgy and thrifty. Hoping to get lucky, we really felt that a place where people had an edited selection of vintage, where things had an eye to what was happening in fashion, would be a really creative and innovative concept.
Can you give us vintage shopping tips? Try to find things that are timeless. Try to find things that are quality. A lot of vintage pieces are made really, really well so they'll have a sustained timeframe in your fashion life. Find things that don't look too retro. We go for very modern, even if they are 50 or 100 years old. There are still things that will translate without making you look dated. Look for the condition of things like odors or stains or damages. Those are lifelong issues. A lot of vintage pieces need to be altered. A lot of vintage pieces need to be dyed or treated so depending on what the piece is and how much you love it depends on how much time you want to put into it.
Sometimes, I'll mix decades and the look is disastrous. How can you help?
To have a good fashion statement, you should be mixing new and vintage effectively. Eras can be mixed just try not to do too much. I think most greatly styled people are making a statement without trying. I think a lot of people put too many things together and as a result, they look contrived.
Do you ever sell or buy on ebay? Should we? Selling is hard. It's more of a dealer's market but sometimes I buy. As a buyer of a store, it's fine because the piece doesn't have to fit me. If I was personally shopping on ebay, I'd be super hesitant because you never know how it might fit and you might get buyer's remorse. My experience has been that people who are selling on ebay knowingly or unknowingly misrepresent what they're selling and sometimes you can get stung.
What should we look for as Spring approaches? Within our Spring collection we have a really great ethnic, bohemian collection that has really innovative, embroidered peasant tops and they are a lot more special than more common ones. We've tried to create ones with gold lame and unique colorations. I think this Spring, bohemian and hippy is going to be important because the world is in the consciousness where peace, love, and happiness has to come and overwhelm the economic disaster. Our Spring collection has that feel.
Posted on: Wed Dec 10, 2008