I have ALWAYS been super into vintage everything. Back in the day, the only way to shop vintage was hitting up the local secondhand store & digging through the racks. Back in the day I also wasn’t a blogger, so I had ALL the time in the world to weed through racks & racks of vintage & I did it ALL. THE. TIME.

I would go, by myself, to a thrift store & spend hours seeing what I could find. Some of my best vintage scores to date include: a paper thin Harley shirt for $10 (sold for $100+ now!!), Chanel riding boots in pristine condition from the 70’s for $300 (worth $7k!!), & the most insane Acne Studios dress for $7 (!!!!).

Back in the day, this was my hobby. But now… times have changed, & I do majority of my vintage shopping online. It’s definitely different because you can’t see or feel what you’re looking at- but the options are ENDLESS & if you know me, you know I can spend hourssss hunting online for the good stuff.

Shopping vintage online, I have learned, is scary for a lot of people & I FEEL THAT! You don’t want to pay a grip of money & risk it being a fake or in horrible condition. Good thing that has never happened to me & if you landed here looking for tips on how to snag some badass designer vintage- you’re in the right place.

I GOT YOU COVERED.

7 Tips for Shopping Designer Vintage Online

1. be detailed with your search

Don’t go into it blind! Have an idea of what you want & use that as the starting place for your search. For example, I saw a photo of Ariana Grande rocking the cutest Louis Vuitton bag on Instagram & I had to have it. I could tell it was vintage so first I started searching for what that bag was. With a few google searches, I found out it was the Louis Vuitton Danube bag.

I then went to all my fave vintage sites & began searching from there. I had the specific name of the bag so that definitely helps narrowing down the sea of vintage. If the site your on has filters, use ’em! You can sometimes filter by condition or style, which always helps if you’re looking for a crossbody & not partial to what brand. Ya feel me?

2. but feel free to browse a little

That being said, I do spend a lot of time BROWSING. They may not have the EXACT bag you want, because that’s the nature of vintage things… so peek around! The other day I spent hours looking up vintage Fendi Zucca bags. I didn’t have a specific style, so I just did my search & went to town.

From there, you may end up finding a great vintage reseller who has a TON of rad vintage bags & find something you didn’t know you needed. When you find that great vintage reseller from browsing, bookmark it & check back regularly.

3. read & look carefully

ALWAYS read the description carefully & hit up that zooooom feature. I am pretty picky, so I like the most detail as possible. I want to know the fabric, the condition, & any obvious “blemishes”. Plus, if the description is short/doesn’t tell you a lot, I normally wouldn’t trust that seller as much. Professional vintage “hunters” are VERY detailed with their descriptions so that you know exactly what you’re getting. If they don’t say much about it & the price seems to be good to be true, I’d probably pass on that one. & YES- zoom in. If the product listing doesn’t have high res images, message the seller to get them. I like to examine the product closely before pulling the trigger on purchasing.

4. don’t shy away cause of a little flaw

… & on that note, if it has a flaw, don’t be scared. There are just some things you have to accept with purchasing vintage & the big one is that it’s never gonna be perfect. They are USED after all, so really it depends on how comfortable you are with a little “wear & tear”. For me- I am okay with a small stain or tear if it’s under an inch. Anything bigger than that & I will probably pass.

For purses in particular, I don’t care as much about the inside of a bag if it’s a little dirty, but again- a big stain kinda grosses me out. I also pay a lot of attention to the strap cause that’s where a lot of wear & tear happens. I don’t want a thrashed strap.

That said, the price will be lower the more “wear & tear” there is on a piece. So ultimately, it’s up to you what your limits are in regard to flaws!

5. how to spot a fake

This really comes down to common sense, but the good thing about vintage, fakes are much more rare. Some of the main things I look for are typos on the bag or on the brand name in the description. I mean shit, if the bag itself says “GUCHI” or something weird like that, obviously it’s a fake. If they misspelled in the description, it also could be a sign it’s not real.

My best suggestion for knowing it’s real is investigate the shit out of the seller. Check out there page, see what else they’re offering, read comments, check reviews, & if you have any doubts- message the seller to see if they have proof of authenticity.

6. know your measurements before hand

If you are shopping for vintage designer clothes, have your measurements ready. Not just the size of your favorite Topshop dress- you need your actual measurements. You can do this yourself, but if you don’t feel comfortable with that, go to an alterations lady & ask if they can help you get your measurements. Sizing on vintage clothing is always a little different (typically running VERY small) so when in doubt- message the seller with your measurements & they will help you figure out sizing.

7. bargain… without expectations

Never be scared to give an offer! These vintage sellers are picking their prices & more often than not, they are down to negotiate. I always throw down an offer first things first, “would you take X amount for this?” or “what’s the lowest you will go for this?”. Honestly, this rarely fails me… but don’t have expectations either. Every once in a while I come across a VERY serious seller who won’t accept a deal. I will still try, but don’t be butt hurt if they say no.

There are some vintage items out there that may seem a fortune, but they could be very rare or collectibles, so again- if you come across a piece like this & it seems like the seller is charging too much, do some research searching that style before you low ball the seller & potentially insult them.

8. if you regret your purchase when it arrives

THIS HAPPENS & although it sucks to think you were getting a pristine vintage Louis Vuitton bag & you received a dirty piece of junk- don’t flip. First things first, email the seller & let them know. Typically they won’t offer a refund, but you never know! It’s always worth a try.

If they say no, you have a few options! If it is a bag that is dirty or a little too distressed for your liking, take it to your local shoe repair (they work on purses too!) & see what they can do. They can fix up a strap or help with a rip in leather. If it comes really dirty, take it to your local dry cleaners & ask them for their opinion.

If you get it back from the alterations & dry cleaners and you’re still not obsessed, you’ve atleast got it cleaned up to resell (see below for sites to sell on!). You will most likely get most of your money back or even more, especially with all the work you put into making it nice again!

My Favorite Places to Shop Designer Vintage Online

+ DEPOP: my late night GUILTY PLEASURE. Depop is an app that looks exactly like Instagram, but people sell their old clothes. You can follow accounts so you’ve always got a fresh feed of new (vintage) items to look at. I follow a lot of sellers on here who slang vintage designer which is seriously so fun to scroll through at night when I should definitely be sleeping.

Just like you get lost in the feed of Instagram, you can get equally as lost in Depop. Follow me on Depop & peep who I am following, there are a lot of goodies on there!!! THAT SAID- you gotta be careful for fakes on apps like this cause I feel like it’s less regulated. Again, check out the seller’s store & message them with any concerns or questions you have. You may need to do a bit more sifting on Depop & just be prepared to weed through peoples Abercrombie jeans from 2001 to get to the good stuff.

+ ETSY: my forever go-to. I LOVE ETSY!! From handmade jewelry & cute phone cases to designer Fendi jeans & vintage Louis bags- Etsy is an actual treasure trove of goodies. Again with Etsy, this site take a little bit more weeding through because there is SO MUCH STUFF.

Luckily you can also get super descriptive with your searches here. I like Etsy because the sellers on Etsy are pretty serious. Etsy is a lot of peoples BREAD & BUTTER, so they don’t take it lightly. Especially the ones selling vintage designer goods. They are pretty detailed with what they are selling, have good photos, & are super responsive to messages.

+ GRAILED: I’ll be honest, I haven’t shopped on Grailed yet- but I’ve got my eye on this site big time. It’s for MEN only, but I personally love mens clothing… especially vintage mens (although as I look through the site, they do have some purses so I am a bit unsure here??).

Check out this epic Gucci vest for example or this insane Fendi Zucca reversible jacket (I think I need this??). I am thinking this site will probably sell women’s clothes at some point so I will continue to watch this one.

+ TRADESY: I love Tradesy because it is GUARANTEED authentic which takes a lot of the work out of hunting. Tradesy has old & new and ALL designer, so if you’re looking for vintage make sure to put that in the search. If you just type “dior bag” you are gonna be hit with some PRICEY new Dior bags. Tradesy is a little bit more onthe pricey side in general though… but if you’re not good at spotting fakes, it’s worth the extra cost.

+ EBAY: good old eBay!! I honestly never got into eBay until recently & now I am hooked. There is something really riveting about a bidding war man. It could be a problem, but for now, I am having fun with it. It’s where I scored this epic little Dior saddle bag for $200 (I won the bid!!!).

With eBay you need to have an idea of what you want before you go into it. This wouldn’t be your “browsing” site. I would probably say eBay is more for the advanced vintage shopper cause this is where you will find a lot of fakes that are REALLY convincing. My advice- start with some of the other ones first & work your way up to eBay.

vintage bags I’m loving

what i’m wearing:

7 Tips for Shopping Designer Vintage Online + Where to shop