Amsterdam is slowly but surely growing into an international hotspot for luxury vintage fashion. Last year, the Italian collective Millesime settled there, which will soon open a second boutique thanks to its success. Those who want to ‘test’ the capital first should opt for the pop-up: a temporary store in a detached building. This summer, dozens of boutiques took over the city, including Vintage by Uma and Pepper Luxury Vintage. Until Sunday it is Los Feliz from Barcelona, at Kloveniersburgwal 95, on the floor of Mano Jewelery. FashionUnited visited and spoke to owner Nadia Benedicte Pape about the strategic marketing of second-hand fashion and the importance of the right pop-up place as an entry into a new fashion city.
Collector as a profession
Pape was into vintage for most of her adult life. As a young adult she started collecting special pieces, and collecting slowly grew into a profession. “Professional vintage boutiques started popping up around me and one day I realized all the stuff and knowledge I had at home. Vintage became a serious market.”
She started with small-scale sales in Barcelona and opened a permanent shop on Carrer de Cervantes in 2022, while participating sideways in the clothing rental market. Costume designer Alex Bovaird also stopped by, looking for a wardrobe for characters in the satirical series The White Lotus (TWL). On the big screen, Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) wore a ‘sculpted coconut bra’ — a nice find, viewers on Reddit thought. Vogue US found out where the thing came from: Los Feliz, Barcelona. The pink Lolita Lempicka dress that Harper (Aubrey Plaza) wears in the final episode of season 2 is also a discovery of Pape.
“I also did those kinds of assignments for television and music videos, but I never published the results,” says Pape from her temporary luxury home, a radiant mansion on the third floor near the Nieuwmarkt. Behind her hang four centerpieces, transparent summer dresses with thin straps. Pape himself comes from an island, Mallorca, and specializes in the ‘vacation wardrobes’ that as a viewer of the series (TWL) are thrown to death. ‘Designer vintage’ was the innovation among all that luxury on the big screen. The Vogue story therefore generated a lot of media value. Pape: “I gained a whole new audience — especially from America, who walked into the store with purpose, saying: this is the White Lotus store.”
She’s learned that such “fashion moments” make people take her vintage seriously. Now she posts extensively when celebs like Charli xcx and Rosalía come shopping, and she notices the effect at the checkout. “Not your expertise, but visibility gives you legitimacy and credibility as a reseller. That’s just how it works. Even if you’ve been running a solid, hard-working business for years — it’s that celebrity endorsement that ultimately keeps people coming.”
Amsterdam, luxury fashion city
It is then important to capitalize on the fame you have gained online as a vintage boutique with live events, Pape explains. “I would never just give up the business in Barcelona, that place shows what Los Feliz as a brand is about.” She now wants to strategically spread that summery, luxurious, Spanish flavor to other fashion cities with a similar shopping audience. Now that is Amsterdam. The inside of the chosen mansion is light and sleek. Just like in Barcelona, the clothes hang together like a small art exhibition, on racks with curly bars and in high chests of drawers. Scattered throughout the room are antique finds: booklets with velvet covers, a silver oyster knife with a bottle opener for wine next to it, made of bronze, Art Nouveau, in the shape of a naked woman. The clothing brands are Moschino, La Perla, Chanel, and it is chock full of special archival pieces, of which Pape likes to tell the origin story.
She found the location of the pop-up through Sonny Rodriguez, fellow vintage entrepreneur with a jewelry collection, Mano Jewelery. It settled there two years ago. Pape came by and liked not only the property but also the city so much that she found herself thinking she would like to live there, or at least come back for a few months for this business experiment.
“I personally love Amsterdam,” says Pape, mentioning the memories from her childhood, the nice energy of the city. She had also had customers from the city for some time, from all over the world – after all, the city has not been distinctly Dutch for years. New cafés sell hojicha and matcha, and a new fusion kitchen or a well-known food concept regularly opens, such as Ottolenghi’s last spring, in the Conservatory.
She calls the capital a good breeding ground for vintage: second-hand shopping is already very common, but at the same time the market is not yet saturated. “The city already has established vintage shops, but with a different emphasis: basics, workwear, many pieces for everyday use.” Los Feliz has more unusual items to offer for special events — of which the city has plenty — and for traveling, which can also be purchased at Los Feliz in winter. Customers who visit her pop-ups in Amsterdam respond enthusiastically. “I’m fortunate that that niche hasn’t been filled here yet.”
‘Vacation wardrobes’
Anyone who wants to sell vintage almost has to choose a niche, says Pape. The selection on Vinted is enormous; According to the entrepreneur, anyone who knows how to pick the best out of the pie and create a unique style image is appreciated. Then you can do good business. For Pape, this specialization is holiday clothing, or ‘vacation wardrobes’. Pape herself grew up among holidaymakers, and that fashion has shaped her look. “My eye goes out to other items, because I naturally focus on that holiday feeling.”
She also sees that segment growing outside of vintage fashion, and attributes this partly to social media. On Instagram the performative aspect is added: the timeline is like a shared photo album. You can make a statement with your personal style regardless of the weather outside — the season matters less in the digital world. Pape: “Where a holiday outfit used to be mainly something for yourself, your partner or family, and the photos were shared afterwards in small groups, our summer experiences are now open to the street. This has opened up a whole new market.”
