For these vintage fashion sellers, a faded T-shirt with a story can be treasure
2 vintage resellers in Fredericton look beyond the fabric to curate their collections
In a cramped storage locker facing a drive-thru restaurant in an alleyway, Braeden Taylor flipped through a rack of faded and oversized shirts.
He pulled one out. A graphic of monkeys and some text lined the front of the piece.
"El Camino Youth 2001 … this shirt doesn't exist anywhere else," Taylor said.
His storage locker, only big enough to fit two or three people, is decorated wall to wall with old T-shirts and crowded with racks and boxes of clothing from different eras.
Taylor opened the space a year ago to bring customers in for private shopping appointments.
"Instead of just being, like, 'Come to my house and look at my clothes,' it's nice to just have a solid location for people to come to," he said.
Taylor, a full-time barber for his day job, is the co-owner of Cherry's Thrifted. His business curates a line of unique and vintage clothing.
"I've always had a knack for older things," he said. "Like, when I was younger, I collected old antiques … I like clothes, I like old things. Just kind of worked out nice."
He gets his stock buying bulk from distributors in the area, thrifting, and from trades with other resellers.
Taylor and his shop are just one of many vintage resellers in the Maritimes. It's a close-knit committee of people who are always supportive of one another.
"We're all fairly close … Everybody's trying to help each other out. It's not a cutthroat community."
Catherine Boyd, owner of GenLess clothing, agreed.
Boyd says she's still new to the reselling and curating community, but in Fredericton it's one of the most supportive ones she's been in.
"I think that's one of the mentalities I really appreciate about the community here is that it's like we want everybody to succeed," Boyd said.
Showing off her curated collection in a bedroom of her home, she describes her curated pieces as genderless clothing that anyone can wear. She also takes pride in the fact that her business doesn't contribute to the waste of fast fashion.
"Whether it's a men's button-up paired with a skirt or a mesh top for a woman worn on a man with a pair of jeans, it's just fluid in that way that the label doesn't affect who it's supposed to be for."
Boyd curates her clothing from all around the Maritimes through thrifting, trades and Facebook marketplace and brings them back to Fredericton, where she sells them through local stores and markets, or through online shops.
"I take other people's trash, take it as my treasure, and then I share my treasure with everybody else," Boyd said.
She even said connecting with seniors and buying clothing from them has been a great way for her to find gems and learn interesting stories that go beyond the fabric.
Boyd pointed out a NASCAR jacket decorated with various racing-related patches hanging on the wall.
Boyd said she got the piece from a big NASCAR fan and truck driver who lived in Fredericton and would regularly drive through the states and Canada.
She said while driving his rig through Daytona in 1992, he decided to stop and watch the race to see one of his favourite racers. That's where he got the jacket.
"This is a piece that I find is so special because it had so much meaning to him … there's passion, there's love in that piece when it was bought," Boyd said.
But when it comes down to business, Boyd and Taylor have different approaches.
To price his items, Taylor said, he has to research the brand of the shirt, check the market value online and check the exclusivity of the shirt. Hunting down more exclusive pieces can be difficult.
Taylor said he tries to keep his prices around market value online, but some consumers find it difficult to understand why some items are priced the way they are, and what makes them valuable.
"If I'm selling something for $70, it's not because I found it for three. It's because I've had to put in this much work or I've had to get it off this person, so then I can have it at my shop," he said.
Boyd said she prices her stock lower compared with other places around the Maritimes because she wants it to be fun.
"My whole theory behind it is that this is supposed to be fun … and, like, the process of getting that piece shouldn't be a stressful process. It should be something that's accessible."
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