The Vintage Twin is a miracle in a shop. The store’s mission is to make it affordable to own items that nobody else can have. Fans of individuality, The Vintage Twin only offers one of a kind items. It all came about when twins Morgan and Samantha Elias wore reworked vintage pieces they made around NYC. Due to their epic fits, the ladies were stopped repeatedly by strangers who were curious to know exactly where the unique items came from. We heard they were having a pop up in NYC, so we decided we had to interview Morgan Elias, founder of The Vintage Twin. Read some of her tips to shopping vintage and be sure to check out their pop up on Bowery this week!
What are some tips to shopping vintage the right way?
1. Quality. Most important when we treasure hunt is checking the quality of the garments we find, to see if they can be salvaged for us to rework a new piece from or if the piece can be sold as is.
2. Patience. Sometimes we hunt for hours and don’t find anything that really ‘wows’ us. Then just as we’re about to give up, we’ll come across some unreal band tee authentically from the 80’s.
3. Selectivity. We hunt many vintage furs in efforts to lessen demand for new furs to be made. In doing so, we always check thoroughly for cracks and tears in the fur, vintage fur especially needs to come from a loved home or else you can buy a jacket and it will literally fall apart on you!
4. Imagination. We find pieces that may not look trendy upon first glance, but with a bit of vision, a crop, bleach, stud, or even just pairing it as is with a modern piece, it’s a must have when we’re done with it.
Your favorite vintage piece you’ve ever found?
My leather jacket is my most treasured piece, The Vintage Twin herself (my twin sister Samantha, whom I founded the company with), found it for me. It’s the perfect fit, not too big or small, loose enough to put a hoodie under for this insane weather and worn it’s in just right.
Who is The Vintage Twin?
My family started calling my twin sister/partner, Samantha, the ‘vintage’ twin as in the more vintage of us two, given she only wore vintage clothing. Hence, ‘The Vintage Twin.’
What inspired you to do a pop up?
We started selling vintage t-shirts in our moms basement in 2009 over a 2 day ‘first ever pop up shop.’ That is when the brand was born, we sold out in the first day and realized there was a strong demand for owning pieces no one else would be wearing. We were both in college at the time and realized girls and guys would show to the campus bars in the SAME exact graphic tee from American Apparel or Urban. People were thirsty to express their individual style. So we did our first Pop Up midtown in NYC and it was a success! We continued doing them every summer until we opened a store on Samantha’s college campus in 2012 and finally launched online. As of last year, we are now online based. We find value in the pop ups because given we are mostly online, we like to give our brand loyalists the opportunity to touch and feel the goods in person as well. Our reworked, limited edition printed flannels are now available in Bloomingdales, so it’s nice for our Vintage Twins to be able to have a permanent location where they can check out the goods. We’ve been doing the Pop Ups on the Bowery for the last year about once a month, each for a week at a time.
