California Apparel News

Building upon the success of its pop-up experience last month at Fred Segal Malibu Village, Cameron Silver's Decades collection of luxury and premium vintage will be hosted at the retailer's flagship on Sunset Boulevard through July 30 with a focus on sustainability in fashion. In addition to vintage pieces from fashion houses including Pucci and Missoni, caftans and Silver's signature Hawaiian-crafted aloha prints, the collection also features designers that rely on upcycling methods and sustainable practices for their brands such as Ananda Design, Girlboy, JungleGurl, Harago, Rhone, Stella and Bow and Tabacaru Swim.

"The store looks amazing. Bricks-and-mortar retail should not be negated. It should be promoted and celebrated," Silver explained. "As a very wise friend said to me recently, 'I don’t want to buy anything online. It just reminds me of being locked in the house for a year and a half.' I think there is going to be this great resurgence, but you’ve got to keep it hip and fresh. You go to Fred Segal and there are so many things that I haven't seen before. It’s nice that we are complementing that buy."

Through the pop-up experience with Fred Segal, Silver is promoting a mission of supporting a sustainable fashion industry. It is Silver's firm belief that consumption habits must change in order to protect the earth. By encouraging consumers to invest in an extraordinary, timeless investment piece that will remain part of their wardrobes for years to come—rather than buying multiple items that will be discarded in six months—Silver recognizes an opportunity to shift the model of wasteful fashion toward a cleaner industry.

"My mantra is it’s chic to repeat," Silver said. "The idea is that we need to consume in a more intelligent manner and dress the way and consume in the way our grandmothers did. They bought something and it gestated in their wardrobes. The whole thing about a shared economy and resale that is all fantastic, but it is still consuming and creating waste, so let’s create less waste by buying less and better and using less more. It was that Depression generation that really consumed sensitively and then they came out of World War II and there was such a boom in consuming but it wasn’t wasteful."

A native Angeleno, Silver grew up a fan of Fred Segal, at one time working for the retailer during high school.

Now enjoying his second pop-up experience with Fred Segal, Silver notes that momentum within sustainability has reached a mainstream level of popularity. Looking forward, Silver foresees additional partnerships, as customers value transparency and authenticity when shopping vintage. Through Decades, Silver is able to afford this peace of mind by performing all of the research for customers.

"There were moments when vintage was popular, but now it’s really how chic people dress," Silver said. "I must entertain a couple of calls a day from various retailers and resort properties saying 'Bring it to us,' and 'Can we have this?' For my business, I am looking at it almost as a pivot. Decades has always been about vintage and preloved, which is the cornerstone of sustainability. Maybe what Decades becomes is the go to for vetted sustainable and to reflect the way we shop."