The High Art of Buying Other People’s Mistakes

How a decade in the fashion business taught me to stop chasing the "new in" section and start building an infrastructure to care for things with a past life.

Let me tell you a story about how I founded a company to basically serve my wardrobe.

20 years of fashion backstage

I’ve been in fashion business most of my professional life - aka nearly 20 years. For 10+ years I had a RTW fashion brand which means I’ve seen it all - production failures, missed deadlines, Paris Fashion Week tradeshows 2x a year (sound so glamorous. It isn’t.), photoshoots, styling, selling, own retail stores, Vogue covers, lawsuits, fancy parties, negative cash balance.

Then I switched from retail to consulting - fashion PR, business, lecturing at universities, launching other brands. Then came the digital fashion phase - virtual worlds, decentralized assets, collectibles. Was so fun but didn’t last long.

The Thrill of the Broken Thing

But the driving force behind all my mad ideas is curiosity - how to solve mundane problems with existing or future technology. One of those problems for me was fashion repair and having easy access to a transparent digital repair process that’s reliable, convenient & simple. It didn’t exist. So I built one.

Probably my favourite vintage find to date - a 90s YSL silk bias cut dress, scored for less than your average Zara piece.

I shop vintage & secondhand not because of some singular worldview - but simply because I enjoy a good hunt. And the thrill of finding a true gem in a pile of fast fashion mediocrity.

With such hobby I am, inevitably presented with a wild variety of issues, present in non-new garments. And I had no desire to spend my own time commuting to dingy repair shops and arguing about who left the glue marks on my Prada boots. I wanted to have more options, not just the one around the corner.

And that’s how Tingit came to be.

Tingit connects people who have things to fix with artisans who know how to do it. From your neighborhood all-rounder to ex-Hermes & Louis Vuitton workers, Tingit unites hundreds of leather artisans, cobblers, seamstresses, sneaker experts & specialty restoration craftsmen. Currently it only operates in France & Lithuania (random, but that’s where I’m from) - but big part of my decision to start this publication was to gauge people’s interest in vintage & secondhand fashion - and decide which market to open next.

What I’ve learned in 2+ years of operations is that people have no idea how professional repair, restoration & cleaning looks like - and still think it’s a complicated beast. Half of our customers didn’t know you could professionally clean sneakers and they’d look like (nearly) new.

So let me show you a few examples from my own wardrobe and how I score incredible vintage finds confidently, knowing that I’ll be able to bring them back to a beautiful condition, even if they arrive with a heavy stamp of previous life, well lived.

My most treasured Armani (with all 17 of its moth holes)

Cute little things those moths, arent’t they?

First up is this magnificent Giorgio Armani silk jacket, bought on TheRealReal for 130 Eur. The neck detail is to die for. The sharp, tailored shoulders giving best of 90s. 17 moth holes, found upon inspection - not so much. These little post-it notes mark all the holes found by Tingit artisan - they fixed it with a Japanese sashiko technique and now you couldn’t find a trace of it.

This vintage Giorgio Armani jacket is my whole personality atm.

In Defense of Cigarette Burns

Next is an absolute stunner of a jacket - Jil Sander, 100% cashmere, with the most beautiful interweaving blue & brown threads, bought on Vestiaire Collective for 100 eur. because it had a cigarette burn mark at the very bottom of the jacket.

Let me repeat that - 100 eur for the softest cashmere I’ve ever touched, by Jil Sander. Don’t tell me to go after the latest of 2376 COS drops a year when garments like that are readily available.

The seamstress cut the bottom of the jacket and now it looks brand new.

The 40 Eur Versace Resurrection

Then, the most incredible tassel clutch by Versace in pure, raw silk. Bought on Etsy for >200 eur. Perfect condition, except for the completely destroyed inner lining. I paid 40 eur for a Tingit artisan to change it to a new black silk one and now have a piece that nobody else owns.

And yes, you can just go and get a tassel clutch from your local Ayllon, Khaite or some other latest-it-brand, but this one will always be so special, because I brought it back to life with one simple fix.

This is your sign to scour the internet for vintage tassel clutches

When boots Don’t Fit - Stretch Them

And finally - iconic Celine by Phoebe Philo boots, also from Vestiaire Collective. Can’t remember the price but it was ridiculously small, sub-200 eur range for a pair of knee-high boots with no flaws - except that the shaft was so tiny, apparently nobody could zip them up, including me. So off to the stretcher they went.

Chased down these Celine boots to channel my inner CBK with Rohe black wool top, Theory skirt, scored on The Outnet for 70% off & The Row City belt that elevates every outfit to the impossible level of chicness.

Lo and behold - a few days later, I’m able not only to zip them to the top, but include a sock as well. Next time you have a (leather) shoe that’s too small or narrow, take them to the cobbler.

Shopping Confidently Beyond A-grade Condition

And this is just the beginning. My vintage wardrobe is vast, so is my stash of stories about the fashion objects I pursue. And I’ll probably start collecting links & examples of non-ideal condition secondhand items, so you could shop for them confidently and know what to do next.