Many people have come to me and asked me what the best way is to sell their vintage clothing. Do they sell it on eBay? Do they sell it to a vintage store, etc.? This prompted me to start writing a manual to answer these very questions. (Stay tuned as this step-by-step guide will be coming soon!) I began by interviewing many different dealers to get their perspective and in the process I met Jeanne Suica who has a very interesting niche. She not only does personal searches for individuals and museums to find specific designers garments. She also will do a valuation for you to determine if your items are best sold to a private collector, at auction or via a store. Either way, she will act as the liaison between you and the final deal. How great is that? You have someone else to do all the hard work! ---MSR

Learning curve…
I started in the consignment business in 1994 on a part time basis at Encore on Madison Avenue in New York. It was an eye opening experience in many ways. Their back room was a museum of contemporary items from every famous person you could imagine. Carol Selig, the owner at the time taught me the basics of the business; tracking, organizing and most importantly diplomacy. She was my mentor for years and I think that she would be proud if she could see me now.

Out on your own…
When I opened Brooklyn Sugar, we were different just by circumstance since we were the only consignment store in Park Slope at the time and on the border of an up and coming area. We offered a mix of vintage and contemporary items complemented by items from up and coming local designers. The timing was great. There was resurgence in the press about vintage fashion and we ended up getting a lot of press quickly.

In addition we did a lot of special events and fashion shows to get our name out. Suddenly everyone in Park Slope was emptying out their attics and bringing us great stock!

The business of collectable clothing…
While I had worked in retail on a part time basis for many years I never dreamt of how much work it would be to have a store. When I owned Brooklyn Sugar I also had another full time job that I really loved so I juggled and basically worked 7 days a week and 80 hours a week. I even snuck out of my office one day and jumped in a cab to Brooklyn to do a photo shoot for the store, luckily my boss didn't miss me for a few hours that day!

After relocating to Europe I decided that I still loved fashion but didn't want to have another store so through trial and error, lots of networking and research I decided to concentrate more on collectable clothing and building a business that would allow me to be more flexible in daily life. I have two small sons so I needed to create a work schedule that fit with my personal life.
 
I was buying and selling vintage in small bits and mainly concentrating on contemporary since that was the easiest to source. The light bulb went off when I returned from New York. I had purchased a Gaultier dress that I found at a thrift shop for $40, never ended up wearing for Halloween, and sold it at auction for the equivalent of $1,000!

Wearing different hats…
The main focus of my business now is finding the best venue to sell items for my clients which can be through auction, selling to collectors, other dealers, consignment stores or online auctions. I spend a good amount of my time rummaging through closets so it is a mixed bag of items and situations that I find. Are they moving and need to downsize immediately? Are they wondering what they can do with that 1920s Chanel dress they have inherited? Have they changed their lifestyle and realize that their wardrobe from the 1980s just doesn't fit their fashion style now? Have they just bought too many items and have no more space? It really is a mixed bag of clients and situations.
 
I collaborate with a major auction house in London so better pieces usually go there. A lot of my private clients just don't have the time or patience to deal with taking photographs, following the process and shipping their items so I take care of a lot of that for them. Less important vintage pieces may be sold to collectors or private clients and newer items usually end up in a consignment store, online auction or are donated to a local charity. I have a nice size network built up so generally I take care of deciding where their items end up.
 
In addition I represent dealers worldwide on my website, www.jeannesuica.com. The site was launched in March and to date I represent a wide range of dealers who specialize in higher end vintage and modern from Canada, the US and throughout Europe.

I have items ranging from a blue vintage Chanel dress, the same dress but in black is owned by the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, modern Azzedine Alaia pieces, a Balenicaga couture dress, many Hermes handbags and a nice collection of Chanel jewelry. The stock on my site represents a very small portion of what they have so this provides me with another source for my search service.
 
I do searches for collectors and museums who are looking for specialty pieces. For example, recently I found some designer items that were coming up on auction for a museum in New York.

Pond hopping…
Paris was always in the long term plans for me and my family. It was a mix of a personal and business decision to move here recently. I'm excited about the opportunities since the vintage market here is very different than in London and the US. I find that I have to educate a lot of private clients about what vintage clothing is and the market for resale, usually when I mention vintage they assume that I'm in the wine or champagne business.
 
Also unlike the US and London it is difficult to find a lot of vintage for sale here. There are only a few stores and not a lot of French dealers do business online so the challenge is not only networking but finding private clients and teaching them that their clothing has a true value in the marketplace.

The best part of what I do is meeting lots of interesting people, especially my clients. Clothing says a lot about a person and when someone invites you into their home, allow you to go through their closets and shares bits and pieces of their life with you it is a very personal experience. Putting buyers and sellers together and finding a great collectable piece with a nice personal story attached just completes the best part of my work.

Picking favorites…
New Yorkers are diverse so to keep up with what they are looking for can be a challenge but they are direct so it's usually a simple 'I want that' 'yes or no' response within the same day. In general, yes, the Americans are always looking for European designers but I don't really find the reverse as true. For example while there has been a lot of interest in Halston lately and collectors are now scrambling for his pieces he is almost unknown in Paris.

I've found that most of the French covet French designers; Chanel, Hermes and Leonard in particular, but haven't seen them focus on American or other European designers too much.

Virtual workplace…
Since I've lived in four countries and travel frequently to New York and London I'm constantly networking and building my client base. I do appointments on an individual basis and do valuations and advice via email. If an item is very interesting I coordinate with the auction house to do an in person valuation. My website, www.jeannesuica.com, is still quite new so I hope that will also bring a range of clients looking to buy, sell and auction their items.

Some valuations are easier than others. I get a lot of questions regarding new pieces which based on my experience are generally easy to give advice on. I focus on the newer end of the realm of vintage up to the year 2000, so my market is a lot different than most. In addition, I have a pretty solid base of knowledge on the 1980s and a good reference library of auction catalogs, high end vintage sites and general reference books. In addition I have a few sources that have been in the business a lot longer than me who can give me guidance on earlier pieces.
 
Women I admire Professionally…
Kerry Taylor who is a wonderful person, a successful business woman and makes the process of putting together thousands of items per year on auction look as easy as pie!

Valerie Steele for her volumes of knowledge, encouragement and interesting publications and innovative exhibitions.

By Malie Raef