The risk is definitely worth the reward.
Alexia Ioannou, Founder of Nou
Tell me about your experience as a woman starting your own business.
At times, working for yourself can feel very isolating. The best knowledge really does come through experience, and sometimes the only way to learn is through making mistakes. I always tell my friends, you never sleep the same after starting your own business. There is a lot of pressure to keep things flowing, and that can be tough when you’re naturally a creative like me. The business side of things can definitely feel overwhelming. With all that being said, the risk is definitely worth the reward.
Do you have any tips for other women who want to start shopping vintage but don’t know where to start?
Sourcing vintage goes beyond just having a knack for it. It’s hours of research and discovery. It’s hedging bets. It’s doing the work on yourself so your intuition is strong and clear. I’ll be digging in the most random of corners in the world and come out with just five pieces that I really believe in. I hand-carry everything home just for you, try everything on to make sure it fits and feels right, and often pay a premium that doesn’t make sense for reselling. Just like any other career, you have to really love what you do, and that feeling will reflect in the work you produce.
Victoria’s Secret
Ballerinas 7/8
Mariana Vergara started her vintage store, Merci, C’est Vintage, as a hobby when she moved to Paris for school. “I was a uni student with an extremely refined eye that was way bigger than my budget,” she says. She spent her free time sourcing items that spoke to her from Paris’s many vintage markets and either saving them for herself or selling them to her three best friends. Because she didn’t speak any French, when people would ask her about one of her finds while out, she’d respond with the simple phrase, “Merci, c’est vintage.” Hence the name. That’s when she ventured onto Instagram to make her hobby into a business. “I just sourced beautiful pieces that I loved and posted [about them],” she says. “And then I started creating loyal customers.”
Recently, Vergara ventured off the web and started selling her finds at pop-up events, allowing her to create in-person relationships with the community she’s amassed online. Her latest was held at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in Manhattan, while another took place last summer at Soho House in Paris. If you missed them, though, there’s always plenty to find online.
Learning history through clothing is a really beautiful part of this industry.
Mariana Vergara, Founder of Merci, C’est Vintage
What’s your favorite part about your work on Merci, C’est Vintage?
I think it’s probably the fact of being constantly stimulated by beautiful clothing, jewelry, home objects, and antiques. It’s sort of an escape. It’s refined my eye in ways I couldn’t imagine. Also just learning history through clothing is a really beautiful part of this industry.
Now that Merci, C’est Vintage has been doing IRL pop-up events, I think that connecting with my customers has also been incredibly gratifying. I just had a customer that has been buying from me for years at different stages of her life recently need me to source her some jewelry for her wedding, and I did. This was such a highlight of my experience with Merci, C’est Vintage. To be able to grow and evolve with my customers and to find them special pieces that I know will be cherished forever and at memorable points of their life is really incredible.
Tell me about your community. How do you interact with it? How have you gone about building it?
Community is so special. When I started Merci, C’est Vintage’s Instagram, it was a hobby, and I treated it as a mood board, so I took it very lightly. Every follower I got would be like a new friend—every new customer I would have really deep conversations with. I would follow up after each purchase. I’d ask them to send pictures, and it sort of felt like I was creating a community of vintage lovers without really having that as a goal. I just felt that I was sharing this passion for beautiful items with other people. For now, this is still possible because most of the purchases happen via Instagram. (Although, we are launching our website soon.) I know that once the business starts scaling, this might not be as possible, but I’d like to think that I will forever be able to have close relationships with my customers. When you buy Merci, C’est Vintage, you are buying into my personal sourcing, so I find the transaction personal. I want to know where these precious treasures go to. Now, these IRL events that I’ve been hosting this past year have made this sense of community even stronger.
If you like pretty things, you’ll want to follow Julia Rabinowitsch’s vintage brand, The Millennial Decorator, on Instagram immediately. Really, you should add push notifications for her page as well since practically every pair of ’80s, ’90s, and early ’00s Dior and Chanel shoes she releases sells out in minutes. Rabinowitsch started the brand in 2020, when she was living on unemployment and in search of a creative outlet. “I started TMD with the intention of wanting to share how I was decorating my life in a unique and affordable way,” she says. “My answer to that was through vintage.” Her mom instilled in her at an early age that buying vintage and secondhand was the way to go, so naturally, the practice stuck with her through the years.
“We first started solely as a vintage homeware account, and I had very small drops centered around homeware,” she explains. “Think Elsa Peretti bean dishes, coffee table books, Picasso lithographs, etc.” A year after starting TMD, her love of fashion drew her to curate her first non-homeware drop, which she focused on vintage shoes after noticing a gap in the market. “At the time, a vintage brand solely dedicated to footwear didn’t exist, but I thought it was a far more inclusive and interesting route than only doing vintage clothing or even a mix of both,” she says. “With clothing, I knew I would be sourcing one-of-ones versus shoes that could fit everyone.” When she found it to be successful, she kept the shoe drops coming. “Today, we have monthly vintage drops that feature vintage heels ranging from a [European] size 35 to 42,” she says. For her, TMD offers women of all ages the chance to discover the best of what vintage has to offer. “Every shoe I include in our drops has a timeless nature to it, and I often talk about giving our shoes a true second (or hundredth) life. The heels are meant to stay with you for life as a real investment versus just a trend.”
Finding a true vintage gem is like uncovering a work of art—something of the past that you only hear myths about.
Julia Rabinowitsch, Founder of The Millennial Decorator
What drew you to start sourcing designer vintage and eventually launch The Millennial Decorator?
Vintage has always been a big part of my life. My mom raised me [on her own], and when I was born and for many years of my life, most of my toys, clothing, and even crib were secondhand. My mom instilled a deep love of fashion in me and was a fashion importer herself from Paris to the States, so the world of vintage and fashion was always inscribed in my life. I launched The Millennial Decorator completely organically. Vintage, to me, was and continues to be an extremely interesting convergence in new and old fashion. For someone like me who looks for unique pieces to wear in a somewhat affordable way, vintage was the best solution. Hence The Millennial Decorator being born. I launched a vintage brand because I personally was sourcing vintage for myself, both for my home and wardrobe. I found that in a sea of affiliate links and influence, it was hard to make a purchasing decision that is truly unique to you and different from the rest. The world of vintage and The Millennial Decorator allows women all around the world to buy that special pair of shoes they know will be different (and probably longer-lasting) than all the rest.
What is it like discovering a really special vintage item, and what are some of the best ones you’ve sourced in the past?
There’s no better feeling. I started sourcing vintage shoes when no one else was doing it, and the heels I sourced early on have become staples and cult favorites today. I’m talking about the Chanel mesh slingbacks with ribbons, the pointed Chanel two-toned slingbacks, the perfect crisp pair of suede Chanel flats from the ’80s, or the Karl Lagerfeld–era Rosebud Chanel heels. We still include all these staples in our drops, which is always very special. To me, finding a true vintage gem is like uncovering a work of art—something of the past that you only hear myths about. Each shoe is a real relic in that they express so much about the time period, designer, and brand, and to see how they still translate in today’s time and the ways that women are [wearing them] feels really special. Some of my favorite shoe finds [are] Chanel Rosebud sandals by Karl Lagerfeld, a perfect pair of red patent Chanel flats, pink satin YSL heels, Chanel bow mules, Tom Ford for Gucci bow string sandals, and so many more.
Tell me about your experience as a woman starting your own business. What are some of the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Growing up with a single mom, all I ever saw was a strong woman working for our livelihood. It’s a blessing that I never saw anything else, because today, I feel like I have the best women supporting me. Instead of being fearful that I was doing it all on my own, I felt uplifted. Luckily, I have been able to work with the best individuals around the world who have helped me to get to where I am today—designers who took note of me and influencers who started wearing our heels early on. That was a big help. Of course, there are many challenges I face. Navigating being an entrepreneur as a female comes with its brevity, but I’ve learned that as long as I surround myself with the right individuals, I’ll be okay no matter what. It took time for people to take me seriously and see me as more than just another vintage brand, which took and continues to take hard work, day and night, seven days a week. I was extremely surprised to see how welcoming the larger fashion industry has been for someone in the vintage realm. We’re not really looked at as competition when working with contemporary brands, which has been amazing to see, and the work we’ve done with modern-day designers like Mirror Palais is some of the work I’m most proud of today.
Working for yourself is hard, but I feel it’s also an amazing, uplifting, and empowering process, especially as a female.
Celine
Havana Oval Sunglasses
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