Cameron Silver — The Green Dream

S2E1:

Pre-loved with
Cameron Silver

Dana Thomas: This is Dana Thomas, and you're listening to The Green Dream, a podcast about how to green up your life.

Climate change is bearing down on us like a mighty hurricane. And it's scary as hell, but it doesn't have to be. I'm Dana Thomas, a leading voice in the sustainable fashion movement. On The Green Dream, I welcome global experts, creators and change makers from politics, business, and the arts for dynamic conversations on how you can green up your life. The Green Dream is the podcast of hope.

This episode is sponsored by Another Tomorrow, a women's fashion brand that redefines luxury with a commitment to ethics, sustainability, and transparency from farm to fabric to atelier. Find Another Tomorrow on its website, anothertomorrow.co, at its flagship boutique, 384 Bleecker Street in New York City, and at select stores.

This episode is also sponsored by Phlox, a personal style consultancy and high fashion vintage retailer, where responsible fashion meets creativity, individuality, and beauty. Developing your own personal style and buying what’s "you" is the key to sustainability. Phlox presents timeless, modern, vintage clothes with a heavy dose of glamour. To shop and learn about available services, visit phlox.com, that’s p-h-l-o-x.com, or follow them on Instagram @phloxslowfashion.

The red carpet is back in full. In the last month alone, we’ve had the MTV Video Music Awards, the Emmys, and the Venice Film Festival, which I covered for British Vogue. For these high glam moments, some stars are choosing to wear vintage fashion, meaning clothes from another era, be it ten years ago or fifty years ago. For the opening night premiere of director Noah Baumbach’s film White Noise at Venice, the model Emma Chamberlain wore a scarlet Valentino gown from 2007, and actress Tessa Thompson stepped out in a sculpted strapless silver satin bodice and black sequin pants by Armani Privé from 2009.

Vintage dressing fits right into The Green Dream philosophy: keeping clothes in circulation as long as possible, giving them a second, third, fourth life, or more. The secondhand clothing market is the fastest growing segment in the fashion business today, accounting for $130 billion a year in sales worldwide. And it is expected to be twice the size of the fast fashion market by 2030.

Which brings us to my guest today: Cameron Silver, the founder and owner of Decades, a top vintage couture boutique in West Hollywood, California. I think of Cameron as the King of Vintage Couture. Born and raised in Beverly Hills, Cameron has great flair, and seems to know everyone who’s anyone. We first met in 1999, when I was working on a feature for the New York Times Magazine about the Swinging Sixties London fashion designer Ossie Clark; Cameron had an exhibition of Clark’s work in his Decades showroom. I fell so in with one Clark outfit—a fitted tunic with slim pants in a Chinoiserie print on black satin—that I bought it. I later passed the suit on to my daughter, until she outgrew it—she’s very tall—and then I resold it through Decades. So now the 50-year-old Ossie Clark suit has yet another life.

Cameron’s introduction to fashion was unconventional: In the early 1990s, he was touring America, singing German cabaret—he even cut an album for Hollywood Records, called Berlin to Babylon. Here’s an excerpt!

In his spare time on the road, Cameron hit thrift stores and charity shops, looking for hip designer men’s fashion. “On the racks I’d see all this great women’s wear and a lightbulb went off,” he told me for my book, Deluxe. “I was looking at vintage not as vintage, but as modern clothing that happened to be 30 or 40 years old.”

He decided to give up on singing and, as he writes in Decades: A Century in Fashion, his gorgeous coffee table book published in 2012 by Bloomsbury, he embarked “on a career as a purveyor of only the finest pre-worn clothing.” In 1997, he opened Decades in a 1926 Art Deco building on Melrose Avenue. “I had no experiencemanaging a business, and no real education in fashion, other than as a consumer,” Cameron wrote in his book. “But I knew that I wanted to introduce a new world of customers to vintage. Before purchasing any single piece, I would always ask myself, ‘Is it modern?’” If you go in his store, or take a look on his e-tailing site DecadesInc.com, you’ll see the answer is always yes. I’m thrilled to have him on the program today.

But before we get to our conversation, I have some big news: The Green Dream’s literary critic Hermione Hoby has made the shortlist for the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award for her most recent novel, Virtue. This is huge! The Mark Twain prize "honors an exemplary work of fiction from the previous calendar year that speaks with an 'American Voice' about American experiences." Not bad for an English gal! The winner will be named on November 4. We’re hoping it’s Hermione and we are so honored to have her on The Green Dream team. Do get her book.

Now, let’s get to my conversation with Cameron, who spoke to us from his home in Los Angeles.

Cameron Silver, welcome to The Green Dream.

Cameron Silver: I'm delighted to be here and I'm drinking green juice in honor of The Green Dream.

Dana Thomas: Green juice in honor of The Green Dream. Thank you so much. So you are the King of Vintage, or as you call it pre-loved fashion. First let's describe or define what pre-loved is. What is pre-loved?

Cameron Silver: Pre-loved or vintage insinuates quality clothing from the past that was most likely worn before. So it's on its second or third or fourth Mom and Dad. I focus on high-end designer. I'm interested in things that represent the time and place–the zeitgeist of fashion of a certain season, or year, or decade.

Dana Thomas: Thus the name of your store, Decades.

Cameron Silver: Exactly.

Dana Thomas: Now I'm here at the Venice Film Festival, and every night we have a big red carpet moment. Last night was Luca Guadagnino's movie "Bones and All," with Timothée Chalamet and Chloë Sevigny and Taylor Russell. But two years ago, when I was here, Cate Blanchett was the president of the festival jury, and she wore exclusively vintage, except for one evening she wore something that was later auctioned to benefit Venice and restoring Venice. So she was shopping her closet. And then Tilda Swinton who received the Lifetime Achievement award, she also shopped her closet for the festival and only wore vintage, or, as she put it, shopped her archive. So last night I saw a lot of new fashion. I've seen a lot of new fashion. But when I went to Luca's dinner the other night, I wore a scarlet silk satin Prada evening coat that I bought in 1995, with a handbag from Prada that I bought, I think in 1996. As you'd like to say, it's chic to repeat, right?

Cameron Silver: Completely it's chic to repeat. And I think when Cate Blanchett and her stylist Elizabeth Stewart really made a commitment to repeat things that she had worn previously, or rework them, it represents how people want to dress now. Of course, we all like something new and, you know, shiny and bright. But I've always said that the fashion icons, or anybody who's ever had a retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, of which is just a handful of people like Iris Apfel, for example, Jacqueline de Ribes. Single-owner collections of women of note.

Dana Thomas: Nan Kempner!

Cameron Silver: Nan Kempner. She was somebody who wore her clothes over and over again. That's style. Style isn't wearing something once and having a photo-op. I'm always much more interested, especially when I help clients who are making an investment in buying something, how this will live within the duration of their wardrobe and how they'll revisit it and make it look fresh and stylish each time.

Dana Thomas: I remember Nan Kempner telling me that when she was looking at a new Dior couture jacket and she said, "But I'm going to wear it with my old jeans and I'm going to wear it with these beads that I bought in the market of Marrakesh decades ago. And then these great sandals that I've had for about 20 years." So she was always buying new and mixing with old and wearing it on Park Avenue or in her country house in the Hamptons or wherever they had their place.

Cameron Silver: And that's really how rich people have traditionally dressed. They've always bought things as an investment to repurpose. I think that the social media generation initially thought, "Oh, I could only wear something once." And I'm grateful that...

Dana Thomas: The outfit of the day.

Cameron Silver: Yes. Or you know, the big haul and the sort of mass consumption. I think it's wonderful that people like a Cate Blachett, or I just saw recently Armani's been using a lot of archival pieces being worn by different actresses and models, just to show that these clothes have relevance beyond being a one-hit wonder. That's what I find so interesting. No pop star wants to be a one-hit wonder. What does a garment want to be a one-hit wonder?

Dana Thomas: It doesn't, absolutely not. And you know, it's really lovely when I do wear something that I've had for a while and somebody says, "God, that's really great. And when is that from?" And I say, "1995." And they're like–well, first they go, "You kept it that long?" And then I say, "No, I've been wearing it that long. I wear it all the time." Some of these pieces are my most worn pieces. They become your friends.

Cameron Silver: Yeah. It's testament to being a smart consumer. I think when people start wearing vintage in their day-to-day living, or the demystification of wearing something used is reduced, then suddenly you're not freaked out to buy something new and make that investment and think about how you're going to be a Nan Kempner and have it rotate. It's very liberating. I wore vintage to my prom in 1987. So I've been doing this a long time. It's very inherent to how I dress. Wherever I go, I love to thrift. When I was last in Venice this summer, I went vintage shopping in Venice, vintage shopping in Florence. I love doing that. I discover a city by what people don't keep.

Dana Thomas: I'm sure!

Cameron Silver: It's almost archeological to me. And then I like looking at new things, but that's just how I dress. I don't want to wear all brand new duds. I think it's boring. And I just don't think it's style.

Dana Thomas: And it also doesn't have a lot of soul or story behind it. It's really great when somebody says, "Oh, that's a great red coat. Where did you get it?" And I said, "Well, I was going to the Cannes Film Festival in 1995 and realized I had nothing for the red carpet except a black cocktail dress and a black long dress. And I walked into Prada and I saw this red coat and thought, 'Boom, I've just dressed up my outfit.' And I've been doing that ever since." So there's a story behind it, as opposed to saying, "Oh, I bought it last week at Prada," and it comes and it goes. It has background. It has history!

Cameron Silver: This reminds me of when I first opened the store in 1997. Prior to the doors opening, I was visiting a lot of women of a certain age within their closets, and a woman named Maria, who had sold most of the contents of her condo in Century City in Southern California, she'd been widowed, she slides open the mirrored doors of one of her closets and pulls out a dress and said, "This is the dress I met my husband in." I mean, that's what it's about. Or, you know, when you're turning over your closet, if you're one of those weird people, like me, change the season, and I find something I forgot about, or I put my hand in a pocket and find a theater ticket–I like that I can have wonderful memories triggered. But honestly, I'm the type of person who remembers everything where I wore it, when I wore it. So a lot of people have diaries of that. It's just in my head.

Dana Thomas: Right. Now, of course, wearing second-hand vintage, pre-loved clothes is sustainable as well because you're keeping them in circulation, right?

Cameron Silver: Completely. And when I opened the store, that was really not on the radar of people. It was more an interest in getting something one-of-a-kind, or a reaction to the height of minimalism, that people wanted things that were a little glitzy.

Dana Thomas: Or opulent.

Cameron Silver: Yes, it's become a real nice by-product, but really a non by-product would be the green aspect of pre-loved. It's really the only green way to consume. And we can use organic fabrics making a new garment, but there's still resources being used. When it's something that was made 30-, 40-plus years ago, or even, you know, more recent like a neo-vintage piece that's five or 10 years old. It really does not affect the planet in the same way that a new garment that's even been made in a very green way can.

Dana Thomas: Right? Because in the end, these clothes aren't going into landfill. They're going into somebody else's closet.

Cameron Silver: Yeah, we've got to..

Dana Thomas: And on somebody else's.

Cameron Silver: Yeah, we've got to keep the clothes living. I just did an edit of my closet for a charitable event in New York, for Housing Works. So like for me, it's great cause all these clothes that don't fit me anymore will have a second life, and I'll raise money for a charity.

Dana Thomas: Exactly. And my daughter this week went to a big black-tie birthday party here in Venice and wore a dress that I bought back in the 1990s. And she looked fantastic in it. And it was so different from everybody else's–it was really one-of-a-kind–green silk, hand-painted. And I thought, you know, maybe I can't fit in this dress anymore. Maybe I have to wait 22 years for my daughter to be able to wear it. But then she did and she looked spectacular. It's a great dress.

Cameron Silver: Plus, you get the magic of that shared memory. I love when I see someone wearing something that was mine, or like my younger friends who I'm happy to gift something to, as they're kind of starting their careers. It's great to see something in my closet that doesn't necessarily work for me at this point in my life, work for someone at this point in their life more effectively.

Dana Thomas: Now here at the Venice film festival, this year I haven't seen much vintage yet. I think it's because everybody's just coming out of Covid for two years. And it's just so exciting to get a new dress and have some place to wear it, right?

Cameron Silver: I think there's such an exuberance to play dress-up right now and to support the fashion industry and designers who really suffered, especially evening wear designers, since there weren't a lot of places to go when we were locked in our houses for a year.

Dana Thomas: You've had a lot of stylists come to you in the last 10 or 15 years to source great vintage fashion for the red carpet. What have been some of your favorites that have come out of Decades and gone on the red carpet for the Oscars, the Emmys, the Golden Globes.

Cameron Silver: It's very eclectic. One of my favorite dresses was a Christian Lacroix dress that Elizabeth Stewart put Cate Blanchett in for a very private event for SK-II skincare in China. And there weren't even amazing photos taken of it. But the dress went viral. It was a beautiful rust-colored gown with golden embroidery. I would say other favorites–it could be very random things. It's dresses worn by Chloë Sevigny at Vanity Fair party, Marisa Tomei at the SAG Awards, working with Diane Lane at the Oscars.

So this was actually something where I was consulting with the house of Azzaro and we brought back a dress from 40 years ago–the three-ring dress that was a vintage dress that was brought back and Diane Lane wore it. And I wasn't in the audience of the Oscars, but people apparently gasped because she looked so incredible. More recently, in this social media, doing-it-for-"the-'Gram," it's been nice to see a lot of younger pop stars embracing vintage. I mean, half of these kids who are 18 or 19, I don't even know who they are. We just had the comedian Leslie Jones in the store yesterday and she's like, "I want to wear vintage, you know, for the Emmys and things like that." So I love that it's cross-generational, that people just get that it's cool. We did a huge pull yesterday for a producer. So it's not just the front-of-the-camera people. It's the behind-the-camera people, who also understand that you can be stylish and you don't have to buy something brand new. I'm interested in mixing something new with something old. It's like, I think every time you go on a red carpet, it should be like you're getting married. So it's something borrowed, something blue. Well, hopefully not borrowed from Decades. You got to buy it from Decades.

Dana Thomas: Buy it from Decades, borrow from Chopard.

Cameron Silver: Yes, exactly. They're very generous.

Dana Thomas: Or Bulgari. Or Cartier. Exactly.

Cameron Silver: Or if you're in Venice, borrow from Nardi. He said you popped in, Mr. Nardi, to his store.

Dana Thomas: I did. I fell in love with those rings.

Cameron Silver: The masks?

Dana Thomas: He is a lovely man and the mask rings are really good.

Cameron Silver: They're incredible.

Dana Thomas: Right there on Piazza San Marco. A nice shout out to Nardi on Piazza San Marco. Good stuff. And then I had lunch with somebody the next day and she was wearing the rings. Yeah, it was good.

Cameron Silver: We gotta support our legacy.

Dana Thomas: Yes. We have to support the artisans.

Cameron Silver: Oh, I love that. You know, the vintage also is a reminder of legacy brands. Like when you're in Venice and you've got Nardi, or you've got the Rubelli fabrics, all of these great heritage brands, one of the ways we can celebrate them obviously is to support their new work, but also recognize the power of their historic designs and their influence. I'm so jealous I'm not in Venice right now. But I'm hoping to go to Save Venice in a month. We'll see.

Dana Thomas: I'll come back and see you here.

Cameron Silver: I'm game to Save Venice, yes.

Dana Thomas: Exactly. We're game to Save Venice. So you're working on another project with Marni, the Italian fashion house. Can you tell us about that?

Cameron Silver: Yes. So during fashion week in New York, I will be hosting an event featuring archival and one-of-a-kind pieces by Marni in advance of the show they're doing in New York City. And I love that we have this opportunity to upcycle Marni pieces, and revisit pieces, as well as celebrate more artisanal things. But one thing I have found is that people of discriminating wealth do not necessarily want something everyone has; they're not influenced by influencers. So I think more and more brands have to create these capsule, one-of-a-kind or strictly limited collections. And that's what we'll be celebrating with Marni. And the clothes are edgy. They're not conventional or commercial. They're very editorial. And I'm happy to be able to, you know, hang out in New York and make my friends look like rock stars.

Dana Thomas: And the idea is that everybody in the audience is wearing Marni while watching the Marni show, right?

Cameron Silver: That's always the dream of every brand, especially for your clients to wear the clothes. I know what I'm wearing to the show. It's good. It's really, really good. It weighs about 35 pounds though, so I'll have a hernia after wearing it.

Dana Thomas: This episode is sponsored by Another Tomorrow, a women's fashion brand that redefines luxury with a commitment to ethics, sustainability, and transparency from farm to fabric to atelier. Find Another Tomorrow on its website, anothertomorrow.co, at its flagship boutique, 384 Bleecker Street in New York City, and at select stores.

This episode is also sponsored by Phlox, a personal style consultancy and high fashion vintage retailer, where responsible fashion meets creativity, individuality, and beauty. Developing your own personal style and buying what’s "you" is the key to sustainability. Phlox presents timeless, modern, and vintage clothes with a heavy dose of glamour. To shop and learn about available services, visit phlox.com, that’s p-h-l-o-x.com, or follow them on Instagram @phloxslowfashion.

Dana Thomas: My guest today is Cameron Silver, the King of Vintage Couture and owner of the secondhand couture boutique Decades in West Hollywood. Cameron's book Decades: A Century of Fashion is published by Bloomsbury.

You also support this idea of wearing secondhand clothes or vintage or pre-loved clothes by doing trunk shows – the old-school, Bill Blass-style trunk shows where you travel around the country with a trunk full of clothes and you have events at people's homes, or in department stores, or in boutiques. Tell us a little bit about those: where you go, who comes, their reactions, what they buy?

Cameron Silver: Well, I am an old school retailer. Decades was born by thank-you notes, which we don't do anymore because they're not green–so we don't send thank you notes. But I believe in going to your client and reaching them where they are. So I spent a summer in Sag Harbor doing a popup that will expand next summer to the entire summer. Coming up, I'll be in Memphis, and actually Germantown, a little bit out of Memphis. And then I'll be in Nashville, Tennessee, at someone's home. And again, these are men and women who love clothes, but need someone who's a curator to help bring them the best of the best. So you meet your clients where they are, make it easy for them. Treat everybody no matter where they live–there are fashionable people. And I think luxury brands tend to focus too much on the coasts. But there's a nice country in between Los Angeles and New York, with very enthusiastic and grateful customers. And, let me tell you, when I do a trunk show in the south and someone's spending money with me, she's like, "Thank you, thank you, thank you." Because that client is so happy to have access in person, not just, you know, virtually shopping online, to things that are special and unique.

Dana Thomas: And they have social lives. They're very social.

Cameron Silver: They're totally social. They're social, and they are philanthropic, and they're traveling. But people want to shop local, they want to embrace, they want to support local merchants, so I'll often guest at a boutique. I'm like an upseller. So I'm maybe doing a pop-up at someone's store, but we're selling their proprietary inventory. I tend to focus on female-owned businesses and I will also bring guest designers who are very limited, who are modern designers, but maybe they're sustainable in their production, or they're upcycling. So it's really nice that I could bring a mix of vintage pre-loved, as well as emerging independent brands. And now I'm working more and more with major luxury brands, who will send me capsule collections because they want to get in front of people. And maybe you don't have a boutique in Nashville. I have the ladies, so I can get your clothes in front of the right people.

Dana Thomas: Now, you got into this in a really curious way.

Cameron Silver: Yeah.

Dana Thomas: You used to sing cabaret.

Cameron Silver: Yes. I used to recycle old songs. I specialized in German cabaret, the songs of Kurt Weill and Friedrich Hollaender. And I would thrift when I was doing gigs...

Dana Thomas: And you traveled all around the country doing this right?

Cameron Silver: All around. And I would be doing sometimes a two-week theater concert gig. And I would thrift in the daytime, looking for men's clothing. I found women's clothing. This was the mid-nineties. And I had fortuitous timing. Consequently, my parents' living room suddenly filled with clothes. I say a store was born rather than a star, because I did not become a famous performer, but I became a successful retailer.

Dana Thomas: And you called it Decades because you carry things from every decade pretty much, right? From about 1920 onward?

Cameron Silver: Yeah. I mean occasionally we'll have an Edwardian piece, or a more historic garment. I personally love a lot of vintage textile. So I'm looking for myself for some things that are Uzbek, like a Genghis Khan-type of cross-stitch coats. So I like anything that's unique or one of a kind, but truly the focus is more 20th century. And then, of course, we have a huge business and more modern designer consignment. But it's all about being curated, it's all about customer service, high touchpoint retail. You know, there was a woman who came into the store two days ago and needed something to wear to a fancy wedding in Sag Harbor next weekend. And I was like, "I got you. I just spent a month in Sag Harbor. We're going to find you the perfect dress for this super fancy wedding. And you know, something? Unlike the two or three women who bought a Zimmermann dress this season, you're not going to be in the same dress." That's one of the liberating things about shopping vintage and pre-loved.

Dana Thomas: So what did you find for her?

Cameron Silver: We found her a Preen dress that was probably five or six years old, that had no hanger appeal. And on the body, the way it was constructed, and it was printed sequins and it just sort of gathered at the hip, and I'm pretty good at clocking someone–I always say I've seen all of Hollywood naked, so it's pretty easy for me to help someone figure out what's going to work–and you know, she was broad shoulder and narrowed hip, so it's, like, something bias-cut or that gathers at the hip, and she could do something that gathered at the hip cause she was already narrowed hip–it looked so good on her. It was not what she was thinking she would want, but she bought it. And she had ordered dresses from Moda Operandi–you know, she'd ordered all of these new things–and nothing had satisfied her. every time I find the right dress or suit, or whatever it is for the client, it's a win.

Dana Thomas: It's a win. Now, what do you think we'll see on the red carpet for the Emmys in terms of, do you think we'll see a lot of vintage?

Cameron Silver: I think we can. It's very complicated because you know, a lot of these brands have deals with the talent, and with the stylist, and with the publicist...

Dana Thomas: Red carpet revenue.

Cameron Silver: So there's a lot of things going on there. I have more and more brands buying archival pieces of their own. I just had a legendary American brand buy a dress of theirs that was probably 30 years old for their archive, with the intention of putting it on somebody for a party–for an actress.

Dana Thomas: Tom Ford apparently buys anything from the Gucci era that comes in from you all because he doesn't have any archives.

Cameron Silver: Yeah. People are constantly building their archives. But for a lot of historic brands, sometimes one of the ways to revitalize a historic brand is by placing vintage on people of note. It makes people wax nostalgic, and then it helps jumpstart a revival of a brand. So I'm sure we'll see some vintage. But again, we are kind of coming out of this epic, long pandemic. I know that a lot of these brands want to see their recent red carpet gowns on the red carpet. So, you know, I can't compete with an LVMH-owned brand that's paying somebody a lot of money to wear their clothes. But I'm glad that there are enough people I work with who want a little vintage in their life. And you know, sometimes you want to own your clothes. I always say I deal with the owners and not the loaners. It's always wonderful to dress a celebrity who recognizes, like, "Oh, maybe I'll wear this dress to my agent's son's Bar Mitzvah someday after wearing it to the Emmys." There is a life outside of public dressing.

Dana Thomas: Now, I remember one time you came back, you'd been shopping in the closet of Catherine Deneuve.

Cameron Silver: Yes.

Dana Thomas: I found that so chic.

Cameron Silver: There were some good times. I had the code to her apartment, and we would just edit the closet and smoke those little skinny cigarettes.

Dana Thomas: The skinny cigarettes. All that Saint Laurent.

Cameron Silver: I mean, there was a lot of it. She had a lot of amazing clothes, like fabulous, fabulous clothes. It was a privilege. And she also shopped vintage. I knew her because she would come to the store and shop. So I mean here, like one of the great icons and beauties of cinema history would buy vintage clothing.

Dana Thomas: And fashion. You know, she was one of the muses of Saint Laurent.

Cameron Silver: Of course, yes. And continues to be a muse of the house.

Dana Thomas: And Gaultier.

Cameron Silver: I would love that she would shop my store and then I would shop her closet. You know, I've worked with a lot of celebrity collections. We've worked with Anjelica Huston, another great icon. Doing her edit in her closet was fantastic.

Dana Thomas: I imagine so.

Cameron Silver: Love a good icon.

Dana Thomas: You'll have to come do my closet next. I know you always tell me, "Just keep it. Keep it."

Cameron Silver: We've done some good work with you. You know what dress we just got yesterday? When I was in the Hamptons, a friend of mine said, "You know, I've got that white Tom Ford dress with a cutout." And from somebody kind of well-known–an important pop culture figure. So she'd had a lot of fun in that dress. So we had a restoration of the thong portion of the dress and it looks incredible. I don't know if it's going to go to a museum or a Kardashian, but someone is going to be really happy to get that dress.

Dana Thomas: Somebody's going to be really happy to get that dress, absolutely. Amazing.

Dana Thomas: Now, I've been reading lately, and people have been talking lately, about how the vintage market's changing a lot with the flood of all the overproduction of fashion from the last 10 years. Basically, what I wrote about in Fashionopolis–that everything's just amped up to a level, with 32 collections a year, with luxury fashion trying to keep up with a fast-fashion pace, and just the tsunami of clothes that we've had on the markets and people being encouraged to buy and replace and buy, and replace and buy, and replace and throw away, and or sell, or give to secondhand charity shops or to consignment. And that this flood of clothes is really diluting the vintage market. Do you find that at all happening at Decades, do you see that there's been a deluge of secondhand, especially in the Mary Kondo era where everyone's been told to clean out their closets? Are you getting too many clothes?

Cameron Silver: I think brands have way too many drops. Some of the brands I consult with, I must get every week. "Oh, we have a new sailor drop, or this print drop." I do think that production got very curtailed as a result of the pandemic. So a lot of these brands don't produce as much. For example, there are a pair of Marni pants that I am wearing next week in New York–the waist I need, there was one pair available. So the production is a little bit smaller. I will be jimmy-rigging these pants with safety pins to wear because the waist is too small and I don't care how much green juice I have in the next 96 hours, they're not going to fit.

Dana Thomas: Going to take a lot of green juice.

Cameron Silver: So I really think that in the high-end world, they've recognized that less is more. It also teaches the customer that if you really want to buy something, you have to buy it in season, not on sale. I think that more brands not having in-season sale is going to change the way we consume. But I do agree that there are way too many collections.

Cameron Silver: I think it's all about quality, not quantity. I was just doing some personal shopping for two different clients yesterday, and nobody wanted anything basic. It had to be really special, exceptional, unusual, prints had to be cool. And these are not people who will wear something once. I showed how you could buy this jacket and work with this dress and this skirt and these pants and how it will rotate not only in the season, but in future seasons.

Dana Thomas: Do you have any tips for listeners on how to find good vintage, or what to look for when looking at a vintage piece, to make sure that they're getting good quality, or it's in good shape, what to check out? How would you sort of counsel them to become better pre-loved consumers and shoppers?

Cameron Silver: I'd say, first and foremost, know your fashion history. So know what's good. Learn the names of brands so that you can clock something and see a label. "Oh, Jacques Heim, I know who Jacques Heim is." Maybe somebody who's not as famous. Quality is everything. There are some garments that you just can't give enough plastic surgery to, to survive. I mean, if something is really damaged and you want to turn it into a wearable garment, it's difficult, so really think about condition. Have a really good tailor.

Dana Thomas: Have a really good tailor.

Cameron Silver: Just as important as your therapist. Because a tailor can help the duration of a garment live in your closet. I always say to women, "Shop more like a man," because men are very meticulous about tailoring. I mean a man doesn't buy a suit and roll up a jacket sleeve. A woman will do that. And for men, I've encouraged men to shop more like women, buy something that's colorful or print or outside your box. And I think more and more men are doing that. And then of course we have fluidity so anybody can wear anything. So, at the end of the day, don't follow anything I said, wear what makes you happy, and who gives a shit what anybody says.

Dana Thomas: Exactly. And, you know, I think also trends don't matter anymore, right?

Cameron Silver: No, no, no. We are completely liberated from trends now.

Dana Thomas: And you know why?

Cameron Silver: It's all because of you!

Dana Thomas: No, it's not because of me. I was at the American library one Sunday working on Fashionopolis. Actually, it was a few Sundays in a row, and every Sunday afternoon, this young fashion assistant from one of the major houses came in and she took all the Vogue magazines from the 1980s, and then all the Vogue magazines from the 1990s, and then all the Harper's Bazaar magazines from the 1980s and all the Harper's Bazaar from the 1990s. And she kept paging through, and when she saw something that was cool and great, she took a picture of it. And then she was taking it into the office on Monday to say, "Okay, here's some different references of things we can do." That basically, everything that a new house is making. It's very rare to find somebody who's just sitting at their desk and going, "Hmm, I need a new idea." Instead they're referencing everything that's already been done and hodge-podging it together. Now you can wear anything, even colors, because everybody's referencing every era, every decade, like your shop, all in one collection, and it's just become this stew of fashion.

Cameron Silver: I see how designers will shop at Decades, they're shopping every decade within the store. And they build looks. I mean, yesterday on a consulting gig, I was putting some looks together and I'm mixing an archival Rochas piece with a pair of Cavalli jeans. And just putting these distinctive looks together as inspiration references. And there are certain things that never go out of style when it comes to fashion. It's like animal prints never go out of style. Stripes never go out of style. Pucci prints never got out of style. There's always a cowboy reference.

Dana Thomas: Pucci print never goes out of style.

Cameron Silver: Yeah. It's just shop smart, buy the classics, but then buy some twisted pieces, and have fun. It's not brain surgery.

Dana Thomas: And when you talked about quality, would you say one of the great ways to tell about quality is simply just touching it and feeling it?

Cameron Silver: Oh yeah. I am shocked by how so many brands are using mediocre fabric right now. And these are expensive brands, where you're touching something that feels horrible, and you're charging three or four thousand dollars for a jacket. I think it's a real frustrating thing. And I know like you do a cheaper fabric, so you have a higher margin because you can still charge the more expensive price and you're making it offshore. It's not made in Italy or, you know, you're doing a second- or third-market production. But yeah, I mean the vintage pieces tend to have way better fabrics. That's why they survived. That's why the moths like them.

Cameron Silver: If the moths like the fabric, that means it's good stuff.

Dana Thomas: That's why the moths like them!

Cameron Silver: Yes. It's so true. It’s so true.

Dana Thomas: Are there any brands that are bankable in your opinion? I know Hermès for leather handbags and leather goods is always bankable. But are there any others?

Cameron Silver: It's Hermès, it's Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Dior, Alaïa. These are brands that always have a strong resale value, that people will always want.

Dana Thomas: And we can resell too. I've done that with you. Or I bought something from you. And then I brought it back 20 years later and I made a profit.

Cameron Silver: Exactly. I mean, Tom Ford-era Gucci. But now people want the Frida-era Gucci. The cool kids are into the Frida Gucci because it's the antithesis of the Alesandro Gucci. So I think sometimes things are reactions. Things are reactions to what's popular. And very much demographic wise. Perhaps a Michael Kors collection dress at Decades may have a negligible resale value at the store in LA, but I take it somewhere else in the country and that dress is more desirable. At the end of the day, it's a good garment. Certain names might create a more visceral experience, or reaction rather. But I always say if it makes someone's boobs and booty look good, the label becomes less important.

Dana Thomas: Are there any brands that aren't the usual suspects that you're seeing? Like, are we seeing a return of Lacroix 1980s and poufs?

Cameron Silver: Lacroix is very popular right now, especially Lacroix jackets are really good.

Dana Thomas: Because they're gorgeous!

Cameron Silver: Because they're a strong statement jacket. And they're really detailed. And to create those jackets today would be prohibitive. I just sent to a bride-to-be for her after-wedding look a Patou by Lacroix pouf dress.

Dana Thomas: Wow.

Cameron Silver: It works for her. I mean, it's a one-of-a-kind dress. She'd been looking, sending pictures of all of these dresses she'd been looking at, and we found this one. I think there are certain brands that have negligible resale value at a store like Decades. It just doesn't happen. But sometimes those are the brands that I have a soft spot for. Like the kids like St. John, right now. You put a navy St. John kind of gromit-y looking, glitzy sweater on a 17 year old, it looks great.

Dana Thomas: A Nancy Reagan sweater.

Cameron Silver: Yeah! You put it on someone young, it looks cool because it looks like what Balmain is doing today. So, you know, you kind of go to the source.

Dana Thomas: Well, Timothée Chalamet the other day was wearing a Celine jacket by Hedi [Slimane] that totally could have been a St. John from the Eighties.

Cameron Silver: When I go into the Webster, which is one of my favorite multi-brand retailers, I'm like, oh my God, half the brands look like they're doing Eighties St. John or Eighties Sonia Rykiel. It was really good. So I'm always curious what my friend's kids want to wear.

Cameron Silver: Let the 16 and 17 year olds who dictate where we're going because they know, and they're excited about things. All the young people are interested in this sort of early 2000s, and 2010s.

Dana Thomas: They so know.

Cameron Silver: Of fashion. So things that are five or six years old for a 15 year old seems really vintage. So it's all changing. Well, have the best time in Venice!

Dana Thomas: Thank you. And thank you so much for talking to me today! We're going to look for all this cool vintage coming up on the red carpets, it's going to be great. And we'll know now what to look for when we go shopping!

Cameron Silver: I hope so. Have a great afternoon. Take care.

Dana Thomas: New episodes of The Green Dream come out the first and third Tuesday of the month, so we’ll be back in two weeks with Lily Cole, the British model and environmentalist, to discuss her book Who Cares, Wins: How to Protect the Planet You Love, published by Penguin. She’ll explain how she merged her fashion career with eco-activism. I hope you’ll join us! Here's a preview.

Lily Cole: All of our issues are intertwined. I think that one of the many problems we face is the siloing of problems, you know, where we think about environmentalism as something separate to animal welfare, or poverty, or human issues, and actually, I would say that there are systemic drivers to all of these issues that intersect. It’s all a consequence of the systems we have, and the systems we have are interconnected and have multifaceted effects.

Dana Thomas: This episode of The Green Dream was written by Dana Thomas. From Talkbox Productions with executive producer Tavia Gilbert, with mix and master by Kayla Elrod. Music performed by Eric Brace of Red Beet Records in Nashville, Tennessee. I’m Dana Thomas, the European Sustainability Editor for British Vogue. You can read my monthly column in the magazine or online at Vogue.co.uk. You can follow me on Instagram and on Twitter where my handle for both is @DanaThomasParis. Thank you for listening.