New Amsterdam Thrift Trip
Unless you were a hard core history buff or perhaps, aced your US history class back in high school, it’s hard to remember that before we became the multicultural melting pot of America, New York City was a Dutch-owned city named “New Amsterdam” after its parent city “Amsterdam” in the Netherlands.
The average New Yorker can’t escape our Dutch past. “Harlem” is a town in the Netherlands, The Hudson River was named after Henry Hudson, who led the first settlement of Dutchmen and women to the area in 1609, and even names like Wall Street, Long Island, Bowery, Brooklyn and more descend from Dutch words.
So when I headed on my second ever “Euro Thrift Trip” - a term I affectionately have given my personal holidays of non stop secondhand shopping and thrifting, with the intention of buying all the good stuff and selling back to my customers - I couldn’t help but feel the most comfortable in Amsterdam, which feels like a more condensed New York but with a whole lot more bicycles, boats and as I would come to learn, rich, packed, passionate secondhand shopping.
There’s not a whole lot of “underground” shopping destinations remaining in the continental US. The Goodwill Outlets have become an iconic (but crazy) shopping destination for cheap by-the-pound finds. Estatesales.net made buying from the closets of the recently deceased as easy as a weekly email delivering the addresses and times of previously word-by-mouth only sales. And we all know that buying secondhand just ain’t what it used to be price wise. The under-$5-dollars-finds are fewer-and-farther between and us secondhand shoppers are left buying at double, triple or quadruple the prices and unable to pass savings onto our customers.
Enter IJ Hallen. This is Europe’s largest flea market. With more than 750+ plus vendors setting up booths each and every month, I’m surprised that the world’s greatest secondhand shoppers aren’t flocking here every 30 days.
So when I stepped foot onto this insane shopping destination for the second time in my life (I had first attended in 2019, on my first Euro Thrift Trip) I knew that just about anything was possible.
There is nothing more magical to me than the unknown possibilities of a second hand shopping experience. My blood boils in anticipation - a unique blend of testosterone, ecstasy and anxiety mixed into one addicting emotion. IJ Hallen was no exception.
Meandering through the booths of day 1 (this is a 2 day shopping affair, kicking off in the early morning and breaking by 5pm each night), I wasn’t sure where to “start” shopping first. My shopping friends had run off in another direction, which commonly happens when you’re shopping with advanced thrifters who have an ADHD mind of their own.
Something told me to calmly pace the aisles before jumping into a booth. The market is set up in North Amsterdam in front of a Doubletree by Hilton hotel (where I was conveniently staying) in an open paved lot. Being the New Yorker I am, it surprised me that such a large lot size hadn’t been converted to something - at least a parking lot!!
But to the Dutch of Amsterdam, space isn’t as much of an issue as it would eventually become to the people of New Amsterdam / New York City in 2023. So this huge paved lot was lined and lined with vendors selling curated collections of trinkets, furniture, clothing, collectibles and simply random items from their homes that they no longer wanted. For many vendors, IJ Hallen is a community yard sale where they can “let go” for dirt cheap prices to an audience hungry to shop and haggle.
So here I was, keeping my shopping hands to myself before deciding “what to do first.” I walked without stopping and hit the back of the market on the right hand side (it was so large, there was definitely a right side and a left side). I noticed a few choice vintage pieces hanging above a table with a utility van parked behind it. To the right of the table - where dozens of vintage pieces were laid out, messy but organized - were two full racks of vintage pieces, too. One of the price tags said $50 Euros - but for a truly gorgeous piece. I had to stop. This wasn’t just any “neighborhood” vendor.
I began to explore the racks and to my amazement, almost every single garment was in near mint vintage condition. These were predominantly 1940s, 1950s and 1960s garments. Once you dip older than the 80s, quality vintage becomes harder and harder to find. My eyes began to bug out of their sockets. The “rush” of adrenaline and intensity trickled fiercely into my veins. “What kind of booth was this really?” I thought to myself. I had to meet the vendor and understand what exactly was going on here.
I walked away from the racks and stepped directly in front of the table, where an older man was standing next to a younger woman. The younger woman looked to be about 20, and I assumed she was a vintage seller and in charge of the booth. I introduced myself to her and asked if “this was her booth.” She bashfully replied yes, not seeming to want to make small talk or expand on her collection. Note: Most Dutch speak great English, and have no pretenses speaking it with you.
Then I noticed the older man looking my way and I looked up at him. He began to speak to me, explaining that this was a collection of vintage pieces from the archives of his fashion house.
“Wait a second,” I thought to myself. “I have stumbled onto an archive sale of a DUTCH fashion house?”
Instantly, my main character's energy was turned on. I felt like the star of an unscripted movie about secondhand shopping, where there is a happy ending and where dreams do come true.
With more conversation and questions, I learned that the design house was a vintage style brand. In other words, they based their prints off the vintage designs which “inspired” them. They kept a collection of the vintage for inspiration as well as inclusion in shoots. Because of a decision to move showrooms, they decided to downsize their collection and “sell it off” at the IJ Hallen market. “Because why not?” the owner said, laughing. “I thought it would be something fun to do with my daughter.” I realized quickly who the younger woman was - his daughter, simply hanging out with her Dad helping him at the market for the day.
And here’s where it got interesting - for me, as a vintage seller of nearly 15 years. That garment I saw marked 50 euros? Well, that was the original price of the dress. Because these were vintage “inspiration” pieces, many of the garments had original price tags from their past vintage sellers still on them. The real asking price of each garment at the IJ Hallen market?
$5 euros each. On that particular day with the conversion rate, that translated into $5.50 per piece.
Ah!!
My beloved city New York is home to an array of fashion markets both indoors and outdoors. Some have been around for decades and carry the prestige of “been here, done that” history. Others are fly-by-the-night pop ups, representative of right-now-trends and the zeitgeist of NYs up and coming style.
But at no flea market in my nearly 16 years of being a New Yorker had I ever come across such a deal of quality vintage as this.
The events that followed are quite literally a haze of emotions and excitement. The quality, the price, the setting! I was high off the opportunity and ready to buy as much as I possibly could.
I proceeded to load up a box full of vintage. That first box was approximately 30 pieces and packed so high, I struggled to carry it across the market.
I dropped it off at my hotel room (the Doubletree by Hilton hotel, conveniently located in front of the market).
I returned and brought my shopping friends, who I had managed to find by then. While my intention was to “only buy the first 30 pieces,” I asked the owner if it was OK “to buy more.” I asked because I didn’t want to seem like a rude and greedy American! He had no objection. And so I bought another 30 pieces, and loaded up another box.
At this point, I was a VIP at the booth and began sharing that I was a vintage curator visiting from New York City. The owner of the design company even let me into his van … where he had even more vintage that wasn’t on display and for sale yet.
I would end up with nearly 100 pieces from the IJ Hallen market across 2 days of shopping. I managed to get them back to the US by processing a “Send My Bag” order, which is a service of shipping an entire suitcase versus paying for extra luggage on the flight.
As soon as I began packing these pieces into their boxes, I knew that I had something so special I needed to honor it and put it on display as if it was an artist's exhibition.
Enter Art to Ware, whom I’ve worked with as their vintage curator since November 2021. Owner Lesley and I began brainstorming photoshoots and the plan to make some of these pieces accessible to New Yorkers and beyond on their e-commerce platform via Arttoware.com.
The collection I’ve chosen for the New Amsterdam Thrift Babes collection represents the unpredictable magic of that weekend shopping at the IJ Hallen market. Its conversational patterns are the prints that caught my eye first - cherries and strawberries; nautical anchors and sailboats; ethereal butterflies and flowers.
I love vintage because there’s hardly a modern design that doesn’t take some cue from the past to create its present day styles. The fact that I was able to source these one of a kind pieces from a Dutch design house continues to amaze me.
Not only are these pieces from Europe, but they are from other sellers that this design house connected with to make their original purchase. The places these pieces will go! I love imagining the life cycle of a garment and forecasting where it might end up next.
Perhaps a piece or two will end up with you! Each piece has been chosen for right-now trends and wearability. Check out the collection - which I consider a mini museum of history, travel, thrift joy and more - by clicking here to visit the New Amsterdam Euro Thrift Trip collection.
Thank you to Art to Ware for this opportunity to showcase this “From Amsterdam to New Amsterdam” collection. It is my pleasure to shop the planet and curate these finds for you!