Finder's Keepers

 Gaia Repossi, Creative Director of Repossi Joailliers

image via James Merrell for The Wall Street Journal

Psycho Sisters in Little Five Points

image via Google images

FINDER’S KEEPERS

By Alexandra Fizer

ATLANTA—The vintage and thrift retail industries are experiencing a spike in popularity amongst the city’s fashion set that are unwilling to sacrifice their quantity for quality.

The growth in customer base is occurring despite the appeal of shopping hotspots that the city is known for such as Lenox Mall and Phipps Plaza. Recently, areas such as Little Five Points and Midtown have gained notoriety for their impressive selection of gently used designer items.

But vintage and thrift shoppers assert that the idea of hunting for gems priced significantly below their actual market value is not new.

Kristina Herring is a seasoned vintage and thrift shopper, “I started in high school probably around 2005,” she said. “It’s always been a way to find pieces that nobody else has or has seen before. I definitely go for the exclusivity.”

That exclusivity may be short-lived. The popularity of vintage and thrift shopping has risen in recent years thanks to the availability with which fashion devotees can access the favored, and often secret, shopping spots of their style inspirations.

Online fashion websites such as The Cut.com, Fashionista.com, and Garancedore.fr have all devoted numerous posts to unearthing the stores that supply the wardrobes of It girls and celebrities from every genre.

Publications such as The Wall Street Journal have taken to the women’s trend. Last month, the daily business newspaper published a piece following Gaia Repossi, 25-year-old Creative Director of Italian jewelry company Repossi Joailliers and frequent style blog fixture, to her favorite vintage shops in Paris.

Angie McLean, owner of vintage shop Psycho Sisters in Little Five Points, details the way they and many other vintage and thrift stores acquire their merchandise.

“Mostly, we give customers money for their clothes,” she said. “We also get them from state sales, from closeouts, stores going out of business and out of state."

But the ease and practicality of this relatively fallow shopping trend comes with a price. Often times, it’s a high one.

“A lot of them are overpriced. They rip people off by saying they buy clothes but pay you $5 and sell it for $45,” Herring said. “They’ll even price something at or close to its original value. That’s not what thrifting or vintage shopping should be about.”

Michelle Moore, a Texas native and practiced vintage shopper shares Herring’s sentiments about the dwindling thrill of the hunt.

“Now that more and more people are starting to catch on it’s losing its appeal,” she said. “Shop owners know that more people with more money are hip to the trend now so they can hike up their prices for those new shoppers that can afford it.”

According to The Economist, the recession that hit the US economy and the retail market particularly hard ended in June of 2009. But when it comes to shopping, it would seem things still haven’t rebounded.

And with the steady increase of fuel prices, customers are perhaps more aware than ever of their spending habits.

Herring can relate, being on a self-described “strict college budget”.

“Students do it more because it’s trendy,” she said. “When you’re older, you want something that’s going to last, that’s not pre-owned and has marks or flaws.”

Though Moore doesn’t let her age deter her from taking full advantage of the shopping trend.

“I’ve found Chanel for $200 instead of $2,000,” she said. "I know friends who’ll look to thrift stores for their kids’ Halloween costumes or something you only wear once."

However, the two women do share a newly adopted strategic approach to their vintage and thrift shopping, a result of the increase in the trend’s popularity.

“It’s very hit or miss. Sometimes you’ll find the perfect thing then others you’ll find nothing,” Herring said. “It’s tricky and has become timed”.

“It’s very time consuming,” Moore said. “You have to be patient, especially now considering you have so many people looking in your best places for the same great pieces you want.”

Pausing mid-sentence to pick up a silk utilitarian blouse in cream buried amongst an assortment of loud shades and sequins, Moore’s eyes focused.

“Persistence is key”.

Here are links to The Wall Street Journal piece, Psycho Sisters's website and a "City Guide" piece from Garance Dore, a popular streetstyle photographer. Enjoy!

The Wall Street Journal shops with Gaia Repossi

Psycho Sisters  

Garance Dore

Long, Tall Ladies

 Top to Bottom: White Linen Jacket, Green Paper Bag Waist Pants and an Assortment of Denim from Long Tall Sally.
images via Alex Fizer

LONG, TALL LADIES

By Alexandra Fizer

ATLANTA—This Sunday, the DoubleTree Hotel welcomed Georgia’s long, tall ladies to a pop up shop event hosted by Long Tall Sally, a specialty retailer that caters to women 5 feet 8 inches and above.

The Buckhead location hosted the event for the privately owned London-based retailer  in its spacious softly lit conference room. The towering shoppers were offered water and orange juice as they circled the racks and white-clothed tables draped with finely tailored garments and accessories all fashioned with the taller woman in mind.

The primary mission of the event was to bring stateside a collection of clothing for those that hover around the 5-foot-8-inch mark.

Tanya Triplett, the pop up shop manager, puts it plainly, “The number one mission was to bring specialized clothing to a customer, to get in touch with as many people as we could to let them know about the show,” she said.

Long Tall Sally is not the first store of its kind but is seemingly the only surviving contender in the increasingly discouraging retail market for tall women’s fashion.

Triplett is aware of the dearth in options. “There were three major tall clothing stores for females that went out of business within six months of each other,” she said. “Tall women can’t just go into any store and buy whatever they want. They just don’t have the clothes, there’s no market for it.”

Though major department stores, such as Macy’s and JCPenney, offer sections designated for tall women, the selection and quality of product is seemingly unsatisfactory to customers.

Gladys Jules, owner of GrandCare Systems, a company that seeks to help older generations become more familiar with new technology, certainly feels this sentiment.

“You can get a few things from JCPenney but even now JCPenney doesn’t have nearly the number of things they used to. It’s very difficult,” she said. “The only time you can get anything tall is just slacks, so that whole arm length thing is a big problem.”

A problem that Long Tall Sally aims to correct. “This is all we do,” Triplett said. “The whole thing—the rise, arm length, bust size, the different types of figures of women.”

Triplett continued to point out where Long Tall Sally differs from other retailers that carry options for the statuesque set. “Instead of taking into consideration the rise for women, they just add the length on,” she said. “The rise is the fit.”

At 6 feet 1 inch, Jules, who comes from a family of tall women (her mother and daughters range from 6-foot to 6 feet 2 inches), can’t help but harp on the daunting task of finding properly suited items.  But for her, the problem area is rather specific.

“Clothes that are made for most people are not proportioned to a taller height,” she said. “Usually the waist is shorter or if you’re tall from your waist down to your knee that’s extremely difficult because you have very, very long thighs so the clothes are not made to accommodate real long thighs.”

The problem of long thighs runs in the family. Exacting the length of the trouble area with her lengthy fingers, Jules continued very precisely.  “All the length is here, which is the problem that both my daughters have and my mom,” she said. “They just don’t cut them to fit them...really there’s no choice. [Long Tall Sally] is the only store available.”

Despite her average 5-foot-5-inch frame, event-goer Sha’ron, Atlanta-based personal stylist and owner of DminJ Couture Clothing, was still able to reap the benefits of the specialized pop up shop conveniently placed in the lobby of her hotel.

“It was so unexpected,” she said. “I didn’t know they were having this but they have some cute stuff.”

With the ability to cater to a specific niche in demand of more fashionable options and appeal to an audience outside of its target, the future looks bright for Long Tall Sally in the States.

“Our home office is in Canada. We only have two stores—one in the Mall of America in Minnesota, and another in Nunica, Mich.,” Triplett said. “ But that’s kind of a month-by-month basis if we’re going to keep that store open but right now it’s going really well.”

What are the company’s long-term objectives? Triplett is optimistic about the company’s aspirations to expand.

“We’re hoping to open three a year,” she said. “Georgia was sort of an experimental place for us. So it’s pretty cool.”

Be sure to check out Long Tall Sally's online site and online magazine.