Scout Opens Vintage Library
Scout’s new vintage library may be lacking in square footage, but it has a well-edited selection of designer-vintage gems.
The artsy boutique in the flourishing West 3rd Street shopping area of Los Angeles, is known for carrying cutting-edge designers such as Society For Rational Dress, Brian Lichtenberg, Fillipa K, Clu and Jeremy Scott.
The vintage library section, which opened four months ago, is home to fragile high-end designer vintage pieces and serves as a fitting area for private customers and celebrities. Scout still offers vintage clothing integrated with the new merchandise.
“The emphasis was having pieces that were more select,” said Greg Armas, Scout’s co-owner. “We needed to separate them from the ready-to-wear.”
The cluttered room offers vintage clothing that is ahead of the trends, including a striped boxy Marimekko dress, voluminous Norma Kamali dresses, Comme des Garcon lace blouses, dangerously high platform shoes and assorted belts and scarves. For an ever-changing selection, co-owner and vintage buyer Joey Grana frequently replenishes the space with his new finds and clothing from an off-site storage location. Armas estimates the new space doubles the amount of vintage clothing in the store.
The deacute;cor of the vintage room has belts and scarves sharing shelf space with old books, in contrast to the minimalist concrete floor and clean white walls in the rest of the store.
“The store’s really boyish to me, the whole set up of it,” Armas said, “so that room was just kind of intended to be the antithesis of that.” He said the vintage room has “more of a knick-knack feel—very cozy and very not modern, a hint to a more traditional world.” —Rhea Cortado
