Don’t Call It Retro. ‘Archival’ Is the Hottest Thing in Fashion
This 2018 Versace look is a replica of one that Naomi Campbell modeled in a fall 1992 show. The brand’s ready-to-wear collection includes a silk shirt with beaded fringe ($3,250), along with belt ($1,225), scarf ($475), and earrings ($650). The skirt can only be made to order by request. The 110mm Icon vitello boots, on the other hand, are available for $3,625.
Photograph by Joanna McClure for Bloomberg Businessweek. Prop styling by Amy Henry. Styling by Paola Ramirez. Ron Galella/WireImage (Campbell)
It could be any boutique on Fifth Avenue. Italian tourists in fur coats browse a selection of Chanel Classic 2.55 purses that flank a Gucci Dionysus, last year’s holy grail of handbags. Nearby, women with bouncy blowouts pore over Cartier Trinity rings and Kwiat diamond studs. For all the excitement, you’d never guess this stuff was all preowned.
In the RealReal store on Wooster Street in New York’s SoHo neighborhood, you might find a $600 Balenciaga City bag, $800 Hermès Collier de Chien bracelets, even a $1,500 Fendi Baguette—the pint-size floppy rectangle that rocketed to “it” bag status in the late 1990s as Carrie Bradshaw’s carryall of choice on Sex and the City. That the items aren’t directly off the runway doesn’t detract from their value; it enhances it.