BY EBBA SÖDERGREN

Bold claims I know, and perhaps some of them might just be my own delusion speaking, but I’m going to tell you the true story about how vintage shopping changed my life for the better and let you take what you want from it.

Growing up as a lost, shy and lonely child I was definitely as far from cool as you could get. While desperately looking for a place to belong, my lifelong interest in clothing came to become something more meaningful to me. Fashion became my way of expressing what I was too shy to say. It gave me the outlet to express who I was and to associate myself to something.

The word “fashion” seems to have a negative connotation for many. A concept created to be consumed by the vain. Something that interests women who don’t have anything more important to do. Those people are not looking deep enough to see what someone’s clothing choices really say about them. Perhaps Miranda Priestly said it best herself in The Devil Wears Prada (2006)… 

“You think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select… I don’t know… that lumpy blue sweater, for instance because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise. It’s not lapis. It’s actually cerulean. And you’re also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent… wasn’t it who showed cerulean military jackets? I think we need a jacket here. And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. And then it, uh, filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic Casual Corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room from a pile of stuff.”

In other words, it doesn’t matter who you are and how uninterested in fashion you might be. Whatever you decide to wear, you’re consciously or unconsciously making a statement. What does your clothes say about you? A suit for work, because you want to be seen as trustworthy, serious and professional. A sheer top without a bra, because you want to be seen as a rebel, a feminist, a provocateur. Or the latest it-designer-bag, because you are just that girl.

After all, fashion has become one of our biggest industries. Because whether we like it or not, there is no denying that fashion is part of our identities. And so it became a part of mine.

But in order for me, a broke 14 year old, to keep up my newfound fashionable identity I had to find ways to be creative.

I started off by cleaning out my old childhood toys and clothes and uploaded it to an online selling platform. And so it began. I sold my old stuff in order to buy new. And once those new stuff got old I sold them too. Sometimes for even more than I had originally paid.

In order to get as much out of my money as possible I had to be smart about my fashionable spendings, it began with shopping at sales which eventually turned into buying secondhand myself. I remember it so well. The vintage Levi’s 501 craze – circa 2016. While searching the internet for bargains, I came across more than enough to fill my own desire. In fact, I came across so many that I figured I could make a business out of it. At first I started off with buying 10 pairs. I kept the ones that fitted me for myself, and posted the rest for sale at an online auction site. After a few days I was surprised to see how much money those jeans had made me. I had found my perfect teenage side hustle.

Two years later and hundreds of sold pairs of jeans later, as the only actual true claim of my title – yes my vintage reselling hustle funded my move to Italy.

When I for the second time in my life found myself feeling lost, clothing once again would come to be my savior. Without any real thought to it, one evening after an unfulfilling day at work I figured I needed something new in my life. So I decided to go to Italy.

For a vintage fashion lover like myself, Italy is the place to be.

Vintage designer treasures everywhere, many more than I could buy for myself. During my first two weeks in Florence I had already had time to visit (probably) all the city’s vintage stores several times and even befriended a vintage store owner. A new idea came to my mind. 

With the help and encouragement of this unnamed vintage store owner I came up with a concept, created a website, registered a company and sourced a couple of pieces and within weeks my small business Vintage by Ebba was up and running.  

Now, after a decade of buying vintage, four years of running my company and a wardrobe filled with all pre-loved fashion, I am able to look back and see just how much that small switch from buying new to buying vintage has changed my life for the better. It’s strange how it all happened so naturally, it seems like vintage chose me as much as I chose it.

Here you go vintage, these are my three favorite things about you <3: 

1. The first thing that stands out is the economical value. The thrill of finding a bargain. Buying branded pieces of high quality at an H&M price. Things to love, wear, re-use and of course resell(!!) when you get tired of it. It has allowed me to have a wardrobe with circulating pieces going in and out, always staying up to date with fashion.
2. The second thing, the cool-factor. Finding unique pieces, and styling them in new ways. Being able to answer with my new favorite line “oh, sorry it’s vintage” whenever someone asks where I got my favorite distressed leather jacket. Buying that original 90s vintage Prada bag because I could not afford to buy the new re-released version of that same style (but the vintage version is much cooler anyways). 
3. And lastly maybe the most obvious one, the satisfaction of shopping sustainably. No words needed!

So how do I wrap this love story up? 

Sometimes it’s crazy how the butterfly effect works, how a small little action of doing something that in the moment seems insignificant can affect the rest of your life. I can’t tell you that you will become as obsessed as I am but, If you haven’t yet, you should try buying vintage, or at least sell your old stuff. You have a potential buyer right here. 😉

TO FURTHER EXPLORE VINTAGE BY EBBA:

Vintage by Ebba website: http://vintagebyebba.com/

Instagram: @vintagebyebba

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