Why Are There So Many Vintage Stores-Within-Stores?

The secondhand-shopping landscape is ever-mutating and infinite. In the last month alone, I’ve perused vintage clothing in small stores in upstate New York and the Lower East Side, on apps like Grailed and Poshmark, on TheRealReal’s and Vestiaire Collective’s websites, and on friends’ Instagram stories during closet-cleanout sales. This slightly manic method reflects a shift I’ve seen in the way people shop nowadays: partly online, partly in-person, for a mix of new and pre-loved pieces. Subsequently, I’ve noticed another recent development: contemporary designers making room in their brick-and-mortar spaces for vintage store-within-stores.

Earlier this month, Banana Republic took a big swing by bringing in Marcus Allen of The Society Archive to curate a 100-piece selection of the brand’s old wares. The Society Archive — which first partnered with the retailer in April 2022 — has made a name for itself by amassing a collection of vintage American fashion (think ‘90s Abercrombie & Fitch), becoming a sort of one-stop shop for the “rugged yet refined, nonchalant yet sexy” aesthetic friends and customers have responded to, Allen tells NYLON. His hand is all over the pop-up in BR’s Soho location, which includes an extensive shirting collection and, his personal favorite, a “simple, clean, and very ‘90s” cotton-linen blend ribbed crewneck knit. A few blocks over, Brendon Babenzien of Noah once hosted his own short-term operation stocking surf wear and well-worn skate shoes. This model cleverly builds the 2024 way of shopping into its footprint — instead of leaving customers to source old Banana Republic or Noah elsewhere, brands are keeping buyers in the building while standing by the staying power of their product.

Sonia Mosseri of Still Here is also selling clothes she didn’t design, and it’s paid dividends. Her brand’s bread and butter is denim, worn by Miley Cyrus and Kaia Gerber, but Mosseri is expanding the brand’s vernacular to tees and other wardrobe essentials. Since opening The Vintage Room at their Upper East Side outpost over the summer, she says they can’t keep Prada blazers in stock, and when I visited the store in the fall, they had sold through their initial secondhand offering — curated by Mosseri and featuring lots of Jil Sander, Armani, and Yves Saint Laurent — in mere days. In consideration of her customer, who she tells NYLON is “a woman who appreciates the finer details in vintage and knows how to mix the new with the old,” Mosseri is similarly flexing her curatorial skills and making it simpler to achieve a cohesive, sought-after look with contemporary wide-leg indigo denim and an ‘80s L.L. Bean raincoat.

It all comes down to ease and an expanded expression of good taste that both reinforces a heritage brand’s timelessness and implies a newer one’s potential for it. So while you could scroll through 30 pages of fuzzily photographed leather jackets on Depop with no guarantee they’ll actually fit or wear out your wrists at Beacon’s Closet, you could, instead, head up to Madison Avenue to pick up a pre-loved Bottega shirt — and a pair of new Still Here camo pants. Some people enjoy the thrill of the chase for that one special vintage item, but I’m more than happy to let brands take on being not only innovators of the new, but also expert curators of the old.