For each time you hear an Angeleno smugly say “I thrifted it,” there’s a narrative behind the final palms that held the garment. Perhaps it belonged to a wonderful Hollywood costume designer. Perhaps it was languishing behind a Silver Lake dad’s closet.
Both manner, our garments carry reminiscence. Whereas there are the large moments — just like the gown your fave wore to the Oscars, or your first dinner at Damian — it’s the small moments in between that give a bit life. They’re the stains you possibly can’t rub out, the holes across the collar, the crease marks without end etched into cloth. “Second life” is used usually on this house, but it surely’s actually one lengthy, serpentine timeline.
Although vogue and passing down garments are a collaborative effort, for classic retailer sellers, a well-curated assortment is a deeply private act. Every vendor brings their very own story, information, and creativeness. We should always all be grateful.
In L.A., we’re fortunate to have a number of the finest classic shops within the sport. The place else may you discover Ben Davis in the identical place as an Armani swimsuit? For this story, I reached out to 4 classic sellers and requested them to share their most cherished objects — those they will’t deliver themselves to cross on, be it from their very own wardrobe or a current acquisition. All the shops opened inside the final 10 years: Le Boudoir (2022) makes a speciality of new, Paris-imported lingerie; Aralda Classic (2015) is understood for frolicsome designer womenswear; Wild West Social Home (2023) makes use of a membership mannequin for uncommon and high-end finds; and Millersroom (2015) is a haven for high quality denim and remixed button-ups and blazers.
From leather-based chaps to a classic Dior coat, the objects that these sellers shared are reminders of why they do what they do — and what makes a bit final a lifetime.
Clémence Pariente of Le Boudoir: Classic A-1 Real Leather-based Chaps 
Clémence wears Réalisation Par gown, Suzanne Rae footwear.
I began accumulating lingerie once I was about 15 years outdated. I’d babysit on the time, and all the cash from babysitting would go into this. I’d by no means inform my mother, however I’d put on these tremendous massive, lengthy ’70s attire and underneath, a full set: garter, stockings, corset. Nobody would find out about it. I wasn’t even relationship. It was totally for myself. It had no male gaze concerned in it. It was very a lot one thing that made me really feel so empowered, so female, so assured. I felt robust. It was my very own secret. Tremendous punk, in my head.
My type was extra sleazy classic: loopy ’80s lace, purple leather-based, studded items that have been actually influenced by all of the steel I used to be listening to. I began using bikes just a few years in the past as a result of I went via a breakup, and I feel I wanted a superb adrenaline rush. One thing that may make me really feel. I felt so depleted of self-confidence, and I used to be such a shell of myself. I used to be in search of one thing that may empower me, and I beloved the concept of with the ability to journey bikes with different girls.
“That’s why I started thrifting sexy leather pieces … I like the idea of removing those pieces and recontextualizing them into something more empowering.”
— Clémence Pariente of Le Boudoir
That’s why I began thrifting horny leather-based items. I beloved it as a complete aesthetic, however I wished to take away it from this motorcycling boy world. I like the concept of eradicating these items and recontextualizing them into one thing extra empowering.
I take into account every bit that I discover in Paris somewhat treasure. They’re like little trinkets from my travels. The French manufacturers are higher, and it’s simpler for me to search out some Dior items, for instance, as a result of they’re extra inexpensive there. My clients love the romance and rarity as a result of it comes from Paris.
However whereas on a journey in Idyllwild, I discovered these assless chaps, and I don’t suppose I’ll ever promote these ones, as a result of I feel that is the one piece that really comes full circle. I rode in it, opened the shop and used it to type a Playboy shoot.
I didn’t journey for too lengthy, however I feel it gave me the arrogance I wanted to open the shop. I assumed that if I can journey a bike on my own, regardless that I used to be fearful of even driving a f—ing automotive, l can do anything.
Brynn Jones Saban of Aralda Classic: 2004 Classic Dior Coat 
Brynn wears Vivienne Westwood Fall/ Winter 1991/1992 from Pechuga Classic, vintage slip gown, Darner socks, Prada footwear. Hair Mike Lorenzano; Make-up Sophie Haig
At a younger age, I used to be actually drawn to garments and vogue. Music movies and magazines have been an escape for me. It was this final fantasy of mine to have the ability to see such fantastic garments and gown in them.
I grew up with Spice Ladies, Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears in my prime teen years. It was unimaginable for me to expertise that enormous pop phenomenon via my youth. The textures and the velvet and sequins of the time by no means went away. You discover plenty of that at Aralda.
I began sixth grade in 1996, and “Clueless” was simply all the things to everybody. So I confirmed as much as faculty with a pen with feathers throughout it and a sequin shirt. I used to be so into expressing myself via garments. Wanting again, it was such a tremendous time as a result of I used to be so assured, and I didn’t actually care in any respect what folks thought. Like, sooner or later, I wore a beeper that wasn’t even working simply because it was a part of my look.
I moved to Hawaii from Portland after I graduated highschool and went to highschool for a semester and a half, then dropped out. I stayed in Hawaii and labored random jobs at a sandwich store and a lodge. Then, I moved to Honolulu and began working at this large mall there known as Ala Moana. On my breaks, I’d cease by the flamboyant shops and get tremendous impressed. That was autumn/winter of 2004, and I bear in mind so vividly going into Dior. This was throughout John Galliano’s tenure with the home. It was wild; there have been loopy prints — plaids, leopard spots — in my favourite colours. Again then — I don’t even know in the event that they nonetheless do that — they’d these massive flatscreens within the shops enjoying the runway present on loop. I bear in mind standing there watching the entire present.
Christian Dior Fall 2004 by John Galliano
A pair years in the past, I purchased the insane large cocoon jacket Gisele Bündchen wears within the present. I additionally had no enterprise actually even shopping for that as a result of it’s so uncommon and a collector’s piece. It’s so rooted into this reminiscence of mine. I used to be like, f— it. I’m shopping for this, and it’s very sentimental to me now. I used to be having a extremely good yr on the store, so I purchased it not only for me however for my youthful self.
Kyle Julian Skye Muhlfriedel and Max Feldmann of Wild West Social Home: Vivienne Westwood Seventies Seditionaries Muslin High, Classic 2001 Gucci Snakeskin Karate Pants 
Max, left, wears Raf Simons AW2005 Eisenhower Jacket, Maison Martin Margiela SS2005 Artisanal Inside-Out Pants. Kyle wears Gianni Versace shirt, Vacheron Constantin watch, Margot de Taxco necklace.
Kyle Julian Skye Muhlfriedel: We’re constructing an ecosystem with Wild West Social Home. I actually do imagine that if we put a moratorium on making clothes, nothing would change. We now have all of the clothes we ever want. I don’t like plenty of how we’re pressured to work together with clothes. There hasn’t actually been any innovation previously 100 years in it. We provide our members a solution to devour clothes that’s higher, cheaper and extra sustainable than what they’ve been provided. It’s a rising-tide-raises-all-boats ecosystem. And that’s actually what we’re getting at right here.
“This top just feels like pure punk lives in it … Whoever had this found it for a reason, and I’m sure it’s lived 100 lives before it got to me, and I like to think about the souls that inhabit it.”
— Kyle Julian Skye Muhlfriedel speaking about Vivienne Westwood’s classic mid-’70s high.
My mother and father have been each within the punk scene. These tops have been offered strictly by mail order inside punk magazines. You’d ship in a test for 550 British kilos, inform them what print you wished, and it could come again this fashion. I’m very involved in objects and locations that really feel like they’ve a soul. There’s an historical Mesopotamian perception that bodily objects can invite an exterior presence from a soul into it, and I’m very into items that I imagine conjure that. I feel vogue is strictly that. I ponder who owned it earlier than me. This high simply looks like pure punk lives in it. There was no mass dissemination of counterculture the way in which now we have now. Whoever had this discovered it for a cause, and I’m certain it’s lived 100 lives earlier than it obtained to me, and I like to consider the souls that inhabit it. This isn’t a bit you come across by chance. It makes my coronary heart cease anytime somebody rents it out.
Classic Mid-’70s Vivienne Westwood high. Max with Classic 2001 Gucci Snakeskin Karate Pants.
Max Feldmann: My dad used to run file shops again in Arizona earlier than I used to be even born, so I all the time had classic T-shirts rising up. It began to click on when folks began asking me how a lot my shirts have been. When my mother was on the town she’d requested me to go along with her to an archive retailer, and I noticed items and silhouettes that I used to be not seeing anymore being created. The authenticity behind a number of the outdated Comme des Garçons, Margiela — it spoke to me otherwise. It’s a greater solution to gown. I began moving into Japanese designers like Yohji Yamamoto and Quantity (N)ine. It simply opened me as much as this world. I used to be a males’s purchaser for six years and labored at so many alternative retail shops, and I’d by no means seen silhouettes like that. They have been simply so bespoke. When all the things’s certainly one of one, however that one factor matches completely, there’s no higher feeling on this planet.
Once we obtained a brand new consigner, I used to be actually excited, as a result of I had seen these karate pants earlier than in different fabrications, however I by no means noticed them on this snakeskin. These have been worn on the runway — Spring/Summer time 2001 Gucci by Tom Ford. I simply love the form, the silhouette and the development. And it has a wrap tie. Males by no means put on wrap ties. It’s so versatile and will match wherever from like a measurement 30 to a measurement 36.
Marquise Miller of Millersoom: Classic Carhartt Pants 
Marquise wears Martine Rose and Supreme T-shirt, classic cardigan from Millersroom, classic Levi’s pants from Millersroom and Loewe footwear.
Classic garments have been my entry level into vogue. I’m obsessive about “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “A Different World” and “Kids” with Rosario Dawson and Chloë Sevigny. I beloved these kinds a lot, I used to be like, “I’m going to figure out a way to make a world out of it.”
Millersroom is a comfort retailer. It’s a classic comfort retailer the place you’ve gotten your books, you’ve gotten your information, you’ve gotten your Picasso guide. You even have your Levi’s. You’ve your reconstructed celebration gown. However then once more, you’ve gotten a distressed jacket together with your blazer.
“It’s about the best jeans that hold up. It could be a Dickies. It could be a Carhartt. It could be an old pair of Walmart Rustler jeans.”
— Marquise Miller
Individuals who store on the retailer all the time desire a good pair of denims, and I attempt to inform them that it’s not about Levi’s denims. It’s about one of the best denims that maintain up. It could possibly be a Dickies. It could possibly be a Carhartt. It could possibly be an outdated pair of Walmart Rustler denims. You simply want a superb pair of denim that sustains and can look stylish with no matter loafers.
I really feel probably the most profitable once I put on these Carhartt pants. They’ve been via it, however they’re nonetheless right here, heavy and nice. There’s a lot character within the stray paint strokes, the blackened thighs. I have to really feel like I do know what I’m doing, they usually assist me really feel extra assertive and in alignment. I really feel assertive once I really feel aligned. They’re my superpower pants.
I really like that I can change the world with my imaginative and prescient via vogue. What I say goes. I’m going out and supply new outdated garments, and I really feel good. Once I’m styling, I really like once I’m capable of deliver one thing from right here and blend it in with all of the fabulous designer garments, and my purchasers gravitate to my piece. That’s my favourite. That’s once I was like, I’m actually doing my massive one as a result of that brings one thing that I do know they’re not gonna have the ability to discover wherever else.