Gilded Gypsies is my love child. It's been tucked away in my heart for about 7 years now. I came to realize that selling vintage was my true calling while working on the feature film American Gangster. It literally was a eureka moment, like a light bulb went off in my head. When I came to NYC, I thought I wanted to work in either the music industry or fashion, I even had a specific job that I wanted in music, A&R. I temped at record labels, hung out at clubs and lounges AND other record labels meeting people to further my career in the music business but my first passion (fashion) just wouldn't leave my mind, and so I switch gears. I've had my hands in fashion across all boards since deciding to focus my energy on fashion. I've experienced every dream I've had as a 13 year old girl reading Vogue and Sassy magazine. I've worked with supermodels, I've been on white backdrop sets in a loft at photo shoots like I said I would when I was a 13 year old watching House of Style. I've been to amazing fashion shows during fashion week, I've worked for top fashion mags like W magazine and I've even interviewed at Christian Dior...and let me tell you, interviewing at Dior is like having Zeus invite you to walk amongst the gods!
But it's my experience as a film costumer that has led me to my true passion and that's vintage fashion. Trust me, before working in film, I've always had a strong connection to the past. As a little girl visiting my great grandmother in Florida, me and my cousins would explore, and in our exploration my imagination would often drift to the past and what it must have been like. I can remember running down a dirt road singing the Supremes at the top of my lungs imagining I'm a child in 1960s rural Florida. When I landed my first period film, I had no idea what the job was until I showed up for the interview and with all sincere honesty, I was more elated about the time period and impending costume research than I was about the fact that Denzel Washington was the star...and that's saying a lot!
There was a older woman who would come to the costume shop about twice a week that we would get vintage pieces from. So one day out of curiosity I asked her where she found all that she brought to us for the movie, and she told me that she'd been a collector for years! That her house was overflowing with so many vintage and antique items, and that she rents and sells to films all the time, travels the world to find great pieces and also sells her items at the Chelsea flea market in the summers. Everything she said to me was me...she even looked like me, it was literally like looking in the mirror and seeing myself in 30 years!
And so with American Gangster, Gilded Gypsies Vintage was born. GGV didn't have a name at the time, but she had a place in my heart, mind, body and soul. God shows you your calling in life...it's just up to you to see it.
