Part of the motivation for us to start Aux Etoiles was the blow up of ‘prairie’ styles in NYC. As children of both the 1980s and Kansas, we definitely get the floral puff sleeve. As we approach the one year mark, however, we’re a little surprised at the generativity of the second hand/vintage world. Whatever is trending in the elite corners of fashion can be found at your local thrift store: high waist, oversized blazer, billowy shorts. It’s all there. When you start digging around, whatever you’re looking for materializes. Check out this puff sleeve, pointelle sweater:

Additionally, some things from the past were just made to last. Vintage denim may be the best example. All cotton denim holds up so much better than any pant with stretch. Broken in Levi’s immediately give any outfit a bit of Americana, rock and roll.  In this way, wearing vintage keeps one above the trends.

For me personally (Kara), wearing vintage everyday really put the entire fashion industry and my consumption habits into sharp relief. Because there’s SO much stuff out there already, I could ignore the constant bombardment of ads, sales, images and make do with what I already have. I started to look at images from my favorite designers as #inspo and not things I needed/wanted to buy. Vintage styling is more of a challenge, which is really what makes fashion so fun.