Your New Online Destination for the Coolest Vintage Finds
In a digital world where fashion trends feel dated after only one season of social media inundation, the concept of creating your own look with not-so-of-the-moment pieces sounds refreshing. And if you’re like the women behind new vintage site Petra von Kant, you’re driven not by trends but by fostering a personal aesthetic that’s revealed in the way you construct an outfit. The site just launched this week, and we were eager to get the inside scoop from creators Olivia La Roche and Alexes Bowyer on the story behind their stylish site.
Both women come from creative backgrounds (Bowyer is a jewelry designer, and La Roche works in the editorial and e-commerce space), and they merged their love for vintage in the form of Petra von Kant (the name was inspired by Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s film The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant). Together they buy, style, model, and take photos for the site. “Our backgrounds fit perfectly with the multiple hats we wear,” La Roche says. “We present what we love, and we hope it makes its way to like minds.”
So what can you expect to find on Petra von Kant? An unwavering point of view, for starters. “Dressing editorially is a philosophy that drives our brand. We are both people who try to be fearless when creating an outfit, and the lower risk of vintage makes that possible. Vintage doesn’t have to be era-specific, the way we contextualize it; it’s a new way of modern dressing.”
See below for a roundup of our favorite items you can shop right now (hurry before they sell out!), and be sure to let us know if you’ll be snagging anything from Petra von Kant in the comments.
We told you this shoe trend was coming back!
Not your basic leather pants.
Check out another one of our favorite vintage sites for more inspiring ideas.
Nicole Kliest is a freelance writer and editor based in New York City who focuses on fashion, travel, food, wine, and pretty much anything else that's amusing to write about. After graduating from Pepperdine University with a bachelor's in journalism and creative writing, she started her career back in 2010 as Who What Wear's photo editor and throughout the last decade has contributed to publications including Fashionista, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, The Zoe Report, PopSugar, Fodor's Travel, and several others. She also copywrites and has worked with clients such as Frame, Sea, 3x1, Intelligentsia, and others to develop brand voices through storytelling and creative marketing. She's very passionate about the ways we can improve our sustainability efforts in the fashion industry as well as cultivating content that's diverse and inclusive of all people. When she's not checking out the latest restaurant opening in her West Village neighborhood or riding her bicycle along the West Side Highway, she can be found scheming her next trip somewhere around the world. (Up next is Vienna.)