My first entrepreneurial venture was collecting vintage clothing on eBay & reselling to New York boutiques

Part I: How I Fell In Love with the World of Vintage Fashion

I didn't start out thinking I would have a vintage clothing business. It's just that I have always loved beautiful fabrics and designs, buttons of faceted Czech glass or hand-painted baked porcelain, antique silk trim and ribbons, yards of heavy, sumptuous silk satin from the 1920s and earlier in peacock green, robin's egg blue, shimmering silvery-grey, midnight blue, deep rose red, cream, that falls in heavy, liquid waves from your hand.

I started collecting vintage clothing on eBay around 1999. It was slow at first, just a matter of curiosity. I thought, "Wow, I can't believe you can actually buy a laced, velvet bodice from the 19th century right here on eBay or a 1940s power suit or an amazing Carnaby Street mod 1960s minidress." At first I just browsed page after page, homing in on things that caught my eye and looking at more detailed photographs, reading about the features of the sewing and tailoring techniques, looking up bias cut, accordion pleats (like), ruching, (depends), passementerie, soutache (not a fan.)

Then, inevitably, I told myself it wouldn't hurt to buy just one or two special items, just for a lark. But I kept falling in love with things. I was tempted by many things that while beautiful, turned out to be fairly common (velvet opera capes from the 1930s, Edwardian wedding dresses, "Emilio Pucci-esque" wild 1960s print dresses (but unfortunately none by the master himself or any of his proteges, like Averardo Bessi, and therefore not worth more than thrift store prices), driving dusters and goggles from the 1910s, Brooke Shields era late 1970s Calvin Klein jeans (that I didn't get to have when I was a child!), 1950s mink fur swing coats (don't go all PETA on me here - they're antiques.)

I started to buy things. And then I started noticing that certain designer names were often highlighted and seemed to be important, so I began to research them. Each time I found a spectacular item from the past with a designer name attached I would go research that designer, their career, how they started out and what their primary design periods were. On impulse I bought a few items that I didn't absolutely love based on the name of the designer on it, like Paul Cardin, Pauline Trigère, Jeanne Lanvin, Halston, only to find out that they each had periods when their clothes were considered highly desirable and collectible, but outside of that the name meant nothing the and clothes were of no interest to vintage fashionistas.