Judas Priest 50 Heavy Metal Years 1969-2020 Signature Thank You For The Memories Shirt

Both Chiswell and McNeilly speak of not shopping, but collecting. To be a vintage shopper, you have to have a magpie mindset. The two scour Etsy, Ebay, estate sales, auction houses, thrift stores, and vintage stores together. “I have close to maybe 100 true vintage pieces of clothing, and 50 reproductions,” Chiswell says. “That’s false. You have at least 220 vintage and so many regular reproduction dresses,” McNeilly says, and Chiswell laughs. Men’s clothes are harder to find (“A lot of men wore their clothes until they basically broke,” Chiswell says). Chiswell collects wiggle dresses. Her favorite is from Ceil Chapman, a ’50s designer who made dresses for Monroe. She collects belts, particularly ones made from pure copper, and has several she purchased at auction that belonged to Loretta Young, an actress in the ’40s and ’50s. They’re wrapped up delicately, and from what I can tell, are rarely, if ever, worn. “We were scared to unwrap it,” Chiswell says, unwrapping a cream-color belt with reverence. “When they were packaged [at the Judas Priest 50 Heavy Metal Years 1969-2020 Signature Thank You For The Memories Shirt house], someone broke one of the buckles.” On her TikTok, she chronicles the intricacies of fashion treasures she’s found, from a 1880s coin purse to a never-opened set of false lashes from the 1950s. For as long as she can remember, Jasmine James has worn Nike gear. The designer of JJVintage — who is from Oklahoma, but now based in Brooklyn — grew up wearing the sportswear brand almost exclusively. “I love everything they make. I used to collect vintage Nike jackets, just so I can look at them every day,” she says. It’s only natural that her love of sporty clothing has forayed into her own designs today. Through her upcycled vintage label, she makes tanks, dresses, and more out of retro sports merch from brands such as Nike and more—and her pieces are quickly becoming a hot commodity on Instagram.