The Soft Sell Of Vintage Clothes, Vintage Values
And it introduces a whole new generation to fabric glories of the past. Today, Gentle and Gradante have set up racks at Wesleyan University. Gentle is wearing a mod burgundy velveteen coat trimmed in fake fur $10 at a thrift store. Gradante looks spiffy in a gray-checked coat, onto which he’s affixed a peace-sign button. About that button: The two met several years ago on a trip to an anti-war protest in Boston.
Their politics are decidedly to the left, and they are self-admittedly haphazard capitalists. In fact, when Gentle made her first sale, she was uncomfortable taking money. Now, they cheerfully take cash for goods, but they refuse to push their wares. No pressure, no loud voices, and if someone wants to wander off to try on their clothes before purchasing, cool. A petite young woman in a pullover comes up and slips on a leather bomber jacket, priced at $30.
She says she’ll be back after she gets the money, and she rushes into the Usdan Campus Center. About half of the customers who promise to return don’t, Gradante said. They decide the price is too high, or they find that the ATM is an unforgiving beast. Another young woman with the beginnings of dreadlocks tries on a coat, says it makes her look like a sausage, rehangs it and leaves. Gentle always shopped at thrift stores. One day she took Gradante along, and he was hooked.
Neither professes to be an apparel expert, and it’s easy to be cowed by their in-the-know customers who rifle through racks and cry out over a particular seam or button hole. They do have a Diane von Furstenberg dress, but it’s frumpy. There’s a pink-checked Chanel-esque suit, but they bought the rest of the stuff simply because they liked it. More students trickle past. Gentle would like to open a storefront. They can only stuff so many items into their (vintage) Dodge van.