Why I started Into Archive
I began with my first-ever purchase on a Japanese auction site: a bundle of silver Christian Dior bracelets, three pieces for $150. I flipped them in 2019, bought a couple more, and rinsed and repeated. Now, in 2026, I have a collection of almost 3,000 unique pieces within a showroom in New York City.
But I wasn’t looking to start a business.
I remember standing at my kitchen counter, trying to think of what to call my Instagram page. Into Archive was a random string of words that popped into my head. I never intended it to last.
All I wanted was to buy a few old pieces and wear them to build my personal closet. I started posting how I styled them in 2021, and it slowly brought together an immense community of women. I was stunned by how many wanted to buy the pieces themselves — as I posted new ways to style a vintage scarf, or wear a shirt as a skirt with the arms tucked in. I taught myself to photograph my merchandise properly, then traced each item onto a white background in Photoshop by hand (this was before AI could help — it was brutal), just to make fun, polished edits for my feed.
I had no idea what was coming. One day, Cardi B’s stylist, Kollin, called me to arrange a fitting from the inventory I’d gathered.
I thought it was a scam.
I went to art school — how would I know anything about running a business, or even think to call this one?
Soon enough, I was on FaceTime with Kollin, and I shipped a box of merchandise to LA the next day. Out it went, and I hoped Cardi B would like what I’d curated.
She loved it. She bought a lot. Pieces for her Jimmy Fallon interview, pieces for her day-to-night looks. I was ecstatic. She’d stumbled onto Into Archive on Instagram and forwarded it to her stylist herself. That was the moment I knew I had to bring in more pieces. If someone like her believed in what I was building, I had to commit to growing it — at least a little more.
I loved the Dallas collection well before it quadrupled in price in 2026 — the graffiti Chanel pieces, the massive maxi bags, the fringe flaps — simply because I liked them, long before the secondary market caught on. The thrill of finding a piece and putting it out into the world was addictive. It felt like a small portfolio of stocks I could finally wrap my head around.
I hired my first employee a year into building the business on Squarespace, in 2021 — a part-time student helping list pieces and answer emails. I had no idea how to manage her well, but I knew what I was building needed to scale.
Everyone told me not to open a physical space. I had listened for years. And finally in 2024, I signed a lease I wasn’t even able to tour.
Fast forward five years in 2026: we now have a private, 1,800-square-foot showroom in Flatiron, New York, filled with original artwork and furniture, serving nearly every major female icon in the world. I brought on a full-time hire poached from Chanel, and built a strong, all-female team behind the entire operation.
So why keep going with Into Archive?
This stopped being just a company selling nice vintage pieces. Somewhere along the way, it became a vision — a voice, a stance, in a luxury vintage market growing at over an 11% CAGR. The taste, the physical space, the world we’ve built — all of it comes from every single SKU being intentionally sourced and listed by our team. It was never about money or fame. It’s about refining the future of trend-setting, and building a world where women can trust that what we’ve chosen speaks to their own feelings, thoughts, and perspectives, wherever they carry themselves. Into Archive is a weapon – for good, but very much for women and the fight to keep building ourselves up.