Rare Vintage Has Never Been a Bigger Flex—But Tariffs Are Making Pulls Harder

Alexis Novak has been on the hunt for her next great fashion find for as long as she can remember.

The founder of Tab Vintage, an archival vintage studio based in Los Angeles, grew up flipping through fashion magazines and frequenting flea markets. “I’ve always loved thrifting, digging, finding,” Novak tells Marie Claire. “I used to go to Goodwill out of need—and that was not as cool as it is now.”

Despite her interest in vintage fashion early on, she never envisioned making a business out of it. Instead, she became a preschool and yoga teacher. “I was like, okay, I’m going to make a difference in this way,” she recalls.

That all changed in 2019 after a profound conversation with her late father, who inspired her to pursue her passion unapologetically. “And now I have a full showroom, which is crazy,” she says.

Vintage fashion has arguably never been more in-demand than it is in 2026. As exclusivity and sustainability become more top-of-mind for many consumers, the market for rare, one-of-a-kind finds—like Kylie Jenner's Versace gown from the 2026 Critics Choice Awards, which was sourced from Tab Vintage—is booming.

According to an October 2025 study conducted by Boston Consulting Group and Vestiaire Collective, today’s secondhand fashion and luxury market is “expanding three times faster than the firsthand market,” totaling an estimated $210 billion to $220 billion. By 2030, that figure is expected to hit at least $320 billion.

Showrooms and individual resellers alike are building dedicated followings online, while heritage labels such as Oscar de la Renta and Ralph Lauren are launching their own resale arms. Meanwhile, celebrities are increasingly photographed in archival pieces at awards shows, premieres, and red carpets; oftentimes, their looks are sourced by dealers like Novak.

But where is all this vintage coming from? Given the globalized nature of luxury and rare fashion, it’s coming from, well, everywhere. Since the beginning of President Trump’s second term, his administration has increased tariffs on U.S. imports from all global partners, a move that’s left some sellers scrambling to retool their business model.

“It has changed so much, so quickly, in such a short amount of time,” Novak says. “Of course there’s inflation, but things I bought last February are now triple the cost. Thank goodness all my stuff doesn’t come from [Europe] because if I had no other choice to get my inventory into the U.S., it basically increases business owners’ costs by 30%. That’s our margin. We can’t—we’d be losing money.”

Tighter margins mean less inventory, even as demand for rare vintage fashion is at an all-time high. “Because there’s just so many events, the stylists go, ‘What do you have now? What else do you have? You don’t have anything new this week,’” she shares. “I just have to be okay with saying, ‘Unfortunately this is our offering at the moment.’”

Novak estimates the volume of her inventory has been cut by approximately 60% over the last year. In addition to European countries like France, Italy, and the United Kingdom, she scours just about every continent (except Antarctica) for her archival treasures. “I source globally, really everywhere,” she says. “All those places and beyond.”

But with British imports carrying a 10% tariff and French and Italian imports ringing in at an extra 15%, choosing to source from Europe now requires more careful consideration and frank fiscal responsibility.

Keesean Moore, founder of Moore Vintage Archive in Philadelphia, has also seen his sourcing in Europe become compromised, with pieces by French designers being the most affected. “I specifically like to collect a lot of ‘80s Alaïa leather pieces,” he says. “When they’re in Europe and you factor in the tariffs, sometimes they’re adding a whole other $300 to the price of it. Then it becomes a little bit more difficult to command those prices in the U.S.”

Still, he’s been “pretty nimble overall,” shifting his sourcing away from across the pond. Strengthening his social and online presence has helped diversify the possible avenues available to him.

“It’s kind of broadened the pool of people I can source from,” Moore says. “As much as I would love to go back to Europe and source there, I’ve shifted to more domestic sourcing and knock on wood, I haven’t really had too much strain and difficulty navigating around the task. It’s just like, ‘Oh well, I can’t afford to flip this. Let me try to find another angle.’”

As tariffs and residual expenses mount, dealers are having to reconsider how they allocate their already-slim margins in an increasingly competitive landscape.

“A tariff is just like a tax,” says Sheng Lu, a professor of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware. His research focuses on the economic and business aspects of the global textile and apparel industry, including international trade and trade policy.

Typically, Lu explains, tariffs have two purposes. An impoverished country might use them so the government can create revenue through imports. But for most advanced economies, tariffs are generally used to protect domestic industry, the idea being that domestic-made products will be more desirable for consumers because imported goods will have this additional tax.

“Trump is using tariffs not even to serve economic purposes,” Lu says. “For example, linking tariffs with national security [and] using them as bargaining leverage to achieve some specific goal he’s seeking. Even when we’re talking about Greenland, President Trump used tariffs as a tool to bring countries to the negotiation table.”

While Trump has since paused Greenland-related tariffs on eight European countries (which were set to go into effect Feb. 1), existing tariffs anywhere from 10%-41%, by country of origin on most goods (with exceptions), remain. Additionally, last August the White House ended the tax exemption on all packages under $800 being shipped to the U.S.

These changes have complicated what Kyla Embrey, co-founder of Lost Girls Vintage in Chicago, is able to offer in her shop. She and her business partner, Sarah Azzouzi, source all their vintage domestically in the U.S., so those items have been spared from the brunt of the ongoing tariff turmoil.

But back in 2019, after six years in the vintage business, the duo realized they needed to diversify their product mix to sustain their shop and attract more clientele. So they started carrying small brands and artisans that fit its brand and aesthetic—perfumes from France, robes from India, ceramics from the Netherlands.

Those new imports indeed expanded the business and got folks in the door. But fast-forward to today and with those fan-favorite Indian robes coming in at a 50% tariff, the math simply no longer adds up. (The U.S. and India recently agreed to a deal lowering the tariff rate to 18%, in line with other Asian countries such as Bangladesh and Vietnam.)

“We have brands our customers love that we just aren’t carrying at the moment because we can't afford to,” Embrey says. “We also have made the conscious decision not to expand international shipping, so we can avoid any pitfalls that may come with reciprocal tariffs that other countries would place on the items we ship there.”

Clear communication with customers has never been more critical. “When the tariffs first went haywire, we had a massive issue,” says Kaelen Haworth, owner of Absolutely Fabrics in Toronto. “People weren’t realizing when they were purchasing from us that they would be incurring these crazy costs when the items actually arrived.”

Now, Haworth uses Global-e, an e-comm platform that calculates all duties, tariffs, and shipping costs at the point of purchase.

“You know exactly what you’ve paid for, entirely upfront, and there’s no cost on delivery,” Haworth explains. “I think it helped us because when you have a return, you incur a cost as a business. If they’re not following through with the sale, obviously that’s not good, but it’s better than following through and returning when they realize they’re going to have to pay these costs.”

In 2025, fashion brands largely tried to avoid handing tariff fees to their customers. Now, they know these tariffs are here to stay and soon will start to “strategically pass” extra costs to consumers.

“Of course, this will have a ripple effect on the vintage clothing market,” Lu says. “More consumers may try to get a better deal from the vintage store, but the reality is the supply will become even more limited and higher demand will also drive the price up. Then eventually, consumers may find even the vintage clothing market is not what they expect.”

Back in LA, Novak’s business is riding the waves of volatility with as much panache and pragmatism as possible.

“I just want to keep the people that work for me taken care of and keep our clients taken care of to the best of my abilities,” Novak said. “The show must go on.”