Shop for One-Off Finds From Home

T R A V E L

+

L E I S U R E

A G LO B E T R OT T ER ’ S GU I D E TO T HE L AT E ST I N T R AVEL Edited by SIOB HAN R E ID an d HAN NAH WALH O UT

Vintage Robert Clergerie boots from Thrilling.

Shop for One-Off Finds from Home 6.

How e-commerce has helped save vintage shopping—allowing fashion lovers to visit their favorite boutiques, wherever they are in the world. BY L E I L AN I MARI E L AB O N G

FROM LEF T: C OURTE SY O F THRILL ING (2 ); AM BER MA ALO UF/C OURTE SY OF ROAM V INTAGE; C OURTE SY OF THRILL ING. IL LUST R AT IO N BY MAY PAR S E Y

A BLACK FENDI clutch from the 1990s sits on

From left: A cropped Dior jacket from e-store Thrilling; an Emilio Pucci scarf from Thrilling; Roam Vintage founder Natasha Garrett.

the dusty shelves of the vintage store called the End in southern California’s Yucca Valley.

Like most nonessential businesses, the boutique temporarily closed its doors during the pandemic. But thanks to a partnership with the online vintage platform Thrilling, plenty of virtual shoppers are eyeing the handbag. The end, it would seem, is hardly nigh for the End. The shop’s nostalgic, time-tested inventory is benefiting from a 21st-century paradox that’s disrupting traditional fashion retail. “During

7. Celebrate Black L.A. A groundbreaking public-art project prepares to make its debut.

BY SIOBHAN RE ID Next year, Los Angeles will unveil one of its most anticipated transit projects yet: an 8½-mile extension of the city’s light-rail system from Crenshaw Boulevard, in South L.A., to LAX. The route garnered criticism when it was first announced because a section of the line runs at street level, a design that is associated with higher fatality rates and accidents.

In response, activists in the neighborhood—home to one of the

COVID-19, we’re seeing why an online channel is critical for vintage,” says Thrilling founder Shilla Kim-Parker, who launched the digital marketplace in 2018. “While there is a customer destined for every one-of-a-kind item, that person probably doesn’t live across the street.”

Currently, 130 different brick-and-mortar shops are listed on Thrilling, and applications to join have doubled during the pandemic.

Other online retailers are discovering new ways to help shoppers navigate the unpredictability of vintage sizing. When former fashion model Anna Gray and tech entrepreneur Rudd Taylor founded the digital vintage market Object Limited two years ago, they created an easy-to-use app with tools to help users get the right fit. While shoppers trade sizing tips in the comments, an Instagram TV show called How to Wear Stuff explores style and measurements even further. “We make it feel like you’re dressing up with your friends,” Gray says.

Angeleno Natasha Garrett was concerned that sales at her two-year-old Web shop, Roam Vintage, would drop during the pandemic. But she’s happily discovered the opposite to be true.

“It may be due to the kinds of pieces I source, which are inspired by my roots in northern California and the Southwest.” These days, she collects inventory from wholesalers all over the world. “Virtual vintage shops are really setting the bar for traditional retail,” she says. “Now more than ever, a strong Web presence is an absolute game changer.”

largest Black communities west of the Mississippi—came together to conceive an open-air museum that pays tribute to the history of Black activism while aiming to counteract the effects of gentrification. The $100 million development, titled Destination Crenshaw, is slated to debut sometime next year.

“This was an opportunity to serve people who have historically been denied a voice in the design of their communities,” says lead architect Zena Howard. Stretching over 12 blocks of Crenshaw Boulevard’s historic core, the project is made up of elevated viewing platforms, sidewalks, and pocket parks.

Each space will be “culturally

stamped” with permanent and rotating street-side artworks from Black Angeleno artists. “Most people do not realize how prolific the people of South L.A. have been,” Howard says, alluding to notable residents like the late hip-hop artist Nipsey Hussle. “We want to leverage design to tell the story of the place.”

T R AV E L A N D L E I S U R E . C O M

19