The first time I went to Los Angeles, a couple of years ago for work, I had one day to explore on my own. I planned my entire day around doing just one thing. It wasn’t a hike to see the Hollywood sign or a trip to Erewhon for an overpriced smoothie but to step foot into Aralda Vintage, a vintage shop I had become obsessed with online.
I became familiar with the store after watching season two of Euphoria, particularly the scene in which Maddy (Alexa Demie) discovers the walk-in closet of the mom she’s babysitting for. It’s filled with iconic designer pieces from Christian Lacroix to Valentino and Alexander McQueen, all of which came from Aralda Vintage. I instantly followed the store on Instagram and would basically haunt its online presence, refreshing day after day to see founder Brynn Jones’s incredible archival finds.
When I finally made my way out West, it was the only place I wanted to see. Stepping foot into the small shop tucked away in Beachwood Canyon felt transformative. The store is painted a deep orange, like the very best bit of a sunset before it fades away. And the racks are filled with items I’d only ever dreamed of touching, like the suede Prada corset from the F/W 99 collection that Kate Moss wore on the runway and Jennifer Aniston later worn on the cover of W.
Now, whenever I see a truly incredible and enviable archival look on the red carpet, I’ve started to assume it’s Aralda Vintage. Most of the time, it is. Jones’s shop has become a destination for celebrities looking to prove their fashion chops, and her selection can best be described as fashion heaven as far as I’m concerned.
Below, I sat down with the vintage shop owner and curator to discuss how she got started, what she thinks is the future of vintage fashion, and how she decides which pieces are special enough for the shop.
On how Aralda Vintage started:
Brynn Jones: Growing up in Portland, Oregon, I always dreamt of opening a vintage shop downtown. It was my little pipe dream that never really left me. While my classmates were applying to colleges, I had hopes and dreams to move to New York City to attend fashion school, but life took me in a different direction.
I moved to Hawaii right after I turned 18 and worked all kinds of jobs; some of them at the Ala Moana mall in Waikiki, which is full of high-end shops like Dior, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton. I worked the Lancôme counter at Macy’s, and during lunch breaks I’d find myself wandering the luxury stores—completely inspired and taking notes. I still vividly remember walking into the Dior boutique and seeing the fall 2004 show playing on a giant flatscreen. It was my first real introduction to Galliano’s work and it blew my mind. It was also when Marc Jacobs was at Vuitton and Lagerfeld at Chanel. Everything was so FUN.
Around that same time, I was also working “informal modeling” jobs for some of those brands. It was essentially walking around the store in the clothes, which I loved because I got to wear the garments and experience the craftsmanship up close. On my days off, I’d spend what little money I had on fashion magazines and then scour every thrift shop on the island to re-create the looks in my own way. I became obsessed with the thrill of the hunt. I’d come home from my day of thrifting and set up my apartment like a tiny boutique and daydream about what it would be like to have my own store.
(Image credit: Courtesy of Brynn Jones)
A few years later, I moved to Los Angeles, signed with an agency, and modeled off and on while working retail (shout-out to Fred Segal Santa Monica!). Eventually I was modeling full-time, and though I was always grateful for the work, it never felt natural to me. I loved working in fashion, but I wanted to be behind the scenes.
Over a decade later, I decided I was ready to leave modeling behind, so I started saving and slowly investing in pieces of vintage inventory. I found a tiny office space at Crossroads of the World in Hollywood and began converting it into my first brick–andmortar. During the process, I’d ask my agency for advance checks so I could finish building out the shop. My friends and I would spend days and nights there, painting the walls and trying to make it something special. That era holds some of my favorite memories.
Aralda started out with mostly unlabeled vintage, but the spirit has always been the same; playful maximalism with plenty of room for minimalists, too. Eventually I outgrew that first space and moved out. There was a gap where I didn’t have a physical store space, so I took advantage of not paying rent and began investing more into individual designer pieces instead of just focusing on quantity. With every step forward, I let the business evolve organically. Over time, I found myself curating the kind of archive I had always dreamed of.
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