My love for vintage started when I was just a teenager. My mom gave me her Ferragamo shoes, which she has kept for me for years. Since then I’ve been fascinated with vintage and when visiting fashionable cities like Paris and London I would go ‘treasure hunting’. And I guess unknown among most people: Japan is vintage heaven as well! I recently visited the country to see its fascinating culture and to get inspired for my own vintage webshop: Alma August.

To me, high end vintage is part of the slow fashion and sustainable fashion movement as high end vintage items were careful designed with a will to be long lasting (high quality) and timeless, putting craftsmanship and the people with the skills in the middle point. Moreover, by acquiring vintage items, one not only owns an item with a story to tell, limit the waste of existing products but also help to reduce the use of new materials in order to produce something new.

The last few years, the more I I learned about (un)sustainability in fashion, the more my interest in vintage grew. And during my recent trip to Japan, I was mind blown by the second hand market there. In Japan, the tradition of gifting high valued gifts and love for fashion consequently leads to huge amount of not desired and no longer wanted items. Therefore, even the small cities, have the most incredible second hand stores and it is impossible to enter one and not exit it with something exceptional. Due to the high punishments in case of fraud and high knowledge of sellers as they are familiar with all high end brands, Japan is the perfect place to find authentic and rare luxury items for an affordable price.

No surprise, I went on treasure hunting and found some amazing items.

Christian Dior Gold leaves earrings from the 80’s

“Japan is the perfect place to find authentic and rare luxury items for an affordable price”

A very rare Christian Dior double saddle handbag

A vintage Missoni handbag

If you’re in Japan and have weakness for vintage too, you may want to check out these shops in Japan’s sixth-largest city, Fukuoka:

• 2nd street
  〒810-0041 Fukuoka Prefecture, Fukuoka, Chuo, Daimyo, 1 Chome−12−番 ４９号
  https://www.2ndstreet.jp/shop/details?shopsId=30973

• Book off super bazaar
  Japan, 〒810-0001 Fukuoka Prefecture, Fukuoka, Chuo, Tenjin, 4 Chome−3−20
  https://www.bookoff.co.jp/inbound/chugoku.html

• Ragtag
  1F TenjinYoshida bldg, 2-1-53 Daimyou, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka
  https://www.bookoff.co.jp/inbound/chugoku.html

• Brandoff
  Fukuoka city Chuo-ku Shirokane 2-11-20 Paseo Hirao 1F Room 101 810-0012, Japan
  http://www.brandoff.co.jp/shop_list_en/japan/09_kyusyu/

This guest column was written by Elodie Radach. After her bachelor in management, she decided to do a masters in “Sustainability in fashion” at ESMOD (École Supérieure des Arts et techniques de la Mode) in Berlin. After, she started a PhD in the Environment, Development and Sustainability Program in the renowned Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. Currently she lives in Berlin and runs her own vintage webshop Alma August. Ask her anything about vintage: elodie@almaaugust.de