Just after midnight, a collection of chairs lined the perimeter of Fadebox Barbershop, marking the spots of dedicated thrifters. Braving the cold morning, the crowd anticipated a hunt for unique items with small pieces of Longhorn history.
This past Saturday, vintage shop Keep It Classic drew a crowd of over 1,000 shoppers, marking the fifth Vintage Longhorn Pop-Up. Created in 2021 by Riley White, Keep It Classic engages the Austin community in vintage shopping, hosting themed pop-ups and selling clothes online. White broke into the market after wanting a change of pace from selling shoes.
“When I discovered vintage clothes, I really fell in love with the craft, realizing that every piece of clothing had its history,” White said.
After spending the next few years studying thrift markets in Austin, White said he recognized the negative stigma around buying secondhand clothing and sought to improve the vintage shopping experience. Spending 80 hours a week sifting through rag houses and Goodwills, White creates his collections.
“The only way to get people to buy more used clothing is to make it cool,” White said, “You have to meet people where they’re at, and people are used to buying clothing a certain way. There’s a treasure hunter in all of us, but when you’re in a rush and you just want something cool to wear, you’re not trying to dig through a rack.”
Biology freshman Illeana Chavez said Keep It Classic provides an easy way for her to find specific types of vintage pieces, as the store sorts pieces into different categories, unlike traditional clothing stores.
“It’s good to see a variety of things in one category that you are looking for,” Chavez said, “In other thrift stores you have to go searching for everything, but there you’re going to find something.”
White, who is originally from New York, said he didn’t expect so many vintage UT pieces to go overlooked.
“Once I moved down here I realized how much of a cult following UT has,” White said. “We don’t have an NBA team. We don’t have an NFL team. We have the Longhorns.”
After connecting with the owners of Fadebox Barbershop, White set up a small collection of Vintage UT pieces. An automatic success, the event kickstarted a new Keep It Classic tradition.
“We sold most of (the collection) that (first) day,” White said. “So I (was) like, let’s try it again next semester. Now we’re on the sixth semester.”
Neuroscience sophomore Sofia Campisi said that the collection draws a large crowd thanks to the amount of unique, high-quality pieces available.
“It’s stuff that you can’t really find at the Co-op,” Campisi said.“Some of my friends that I went (to the event) with want to pass these things on to their kids.”
White said he hopes more people will choose to buy from secondhand stores.
“The more we choose to support fast fashion brands that don’t align with our values, the more we’re going to perpetuate those systems,” White said. “I propose to people reading this to buy more vintage. Austin is one of the biggest vintage hubs in America. There is vintage around every corner.”
