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!
Alex, I like your article. I'm glad that you took my advice into consideration and started separating your graphs. This made your story much easier to read. It also flows very well. Your piece has different voices and I believe it's constructed very well.
ReplyDeleteThe pictures are great, but I would have liked to see pictures of the people you interviewed, just to add an image of the people being mentioned in the article. Overall, I enjoyed your piece and I feel it was throughly done.
I like where you were trying to go with this article. Your pictures were good as well. However, I felt like it was a little too safe. The only sources you used that were outside of Atlanta were other publications. Next time I think you should try to get actual interviews from people outside of the city. It will improve your reporting skills and give a wider perspective to your story.
ReplyDeleteAlex!! LOVE the ending!! Really great article! I noticed a few sentences that are worded awkwardly and in a way that makes the sentences wordy, particularly the last sentence of the article. I think wordiness is necessary for fashion articles because you have a lot to describe, but I think if you structure your sentences differently, rearrange them, they will be a lot easier to read.
ReplyDeleteI love your last sentence, but when I read it a second time, I found it difficult to read through. A suggested way of rewording it: "Pausing mid-sentence, she picked up a cream-colored silk utilitarian blouse from underneath loud shades and sequins. Her eyes focused." I'm not suggesting you change your sentence to this, I just want to show you what I mean by structuring your sentences differently. Also, in the 2nd graph, first sentence: instead of saying the growth of the customer base is occurring..., you could try "the/[or such and such's] customer base is growing..."
To a certain extent, I agree with Jordan only if your focus isn't Atlanta, but it seems you are focusing on Atlanta because of your dateline.
Alex, I really like this topic. Vintage shops are really popular in the Atlanta area and across the country. I liked that you explored various areas of vintage/thrift shopping looking at the pros and cons and including a variety of voices.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of text between the first and second quote, but the ones you chose to include enhance the piece. *Quick Grammar Note: The period in this sentence goes inside the quotation marks- “Persistence is key”.