V…as in Vintage.
On Thursday I attended the social opening of Lane Leavens’ Future, a vintage studio + collective. There was music provided by Margo May, cocktails by The Campground, and a special discount offered to attendees for the night. Future is the first Bauer Building alley shop to open in the Crossroads Arts District in Kansas City—an avenue of retail that is new to KC. Leavens has incorporated a sense of community into her shop by offering wares from emerging artists and small-batch makers.
This community involved, exclusive style shop is a developing form of consumerism. First there was a rise (and rising) in the Etsy community of vintage curators but the concept of a stylist gathering vintage and rare goods has become a tangible outlet. Mallory, one of Future’s contributors and owner of The Reserve, has a mainly online outlet specializing in vintage leather goods. Leavens also has a vintage Etsy marketplace called TangledMane.
Whether everyone started realizing there is value and a uniqueness to vintage or if we can attribute the rise in thrift interest to Macklemore *cue “Thrift Shop”*, it is a growing and revolving market.
Thrifting has been given a boutique shop vibe and an ease of access to shoppers. The stylists and seekers behind these shops are doing the dirty work for you. Wading through dusty old antique malls and vintage shops can be exhausting and often you can come up empty-handed. It can be great and fun; especially when you hit the vintage jackpot but let’s be real it’s always a shot-in-the-dark.
The finds in these collectives do tend to be little more expensive than if you found it in your town’s antique store on the corner but consider the price raise as a finder’s fee. These curators are making shopping easier for vintage lovers. Most of the time they have Instagram and/or Etsy accounts that you can shop through as well. There are some great thrift studios on the coasts that sell through this method which is awesome because you can’t exactly make a day trip to Cali to go digging through an antique mall. You have access to NYC vintage from the comfort of your bed. Like this vintage curator out of LA, Bamcal.
Arizona Trading Company, Plato’s Closet, and other established buy-and-sell stores are variations of this type of shopping that have been around but the difference is that at a shop like Leavens’, there is a curator bringing in a particular style or quality. These large, chain re-sell stores are less (and usually not at all) selective, you can find great things there but it normally requires a lot of digging. The atmosphere says just that.
Check out the linked Etsy pages above and be sure to share and comment any vintage online marketplaces that you know of!