James Veloria Is a Vintage Treasure Trove Inside a Chinatown Mall

James Veloria Vintage
Photo: Courtesy of James Veloria

75 East Broadway is becoming the hottest address in fashion. Earlier this month, Raf Simons held his Spring 2018 men’s show in a Chinatown mall courtyard, drawing the fashion set to the base of the Manhattan Bridge for a Blade Runner–inspired parade of replicants in rain gear. This week, vintage collectors Collin James Weber and Brandon Veloria Giordano opened their first permanent store inside it. Called James Veloria—a combination of their middle names—it is located on the second floor, just past the gold jewelry displays and racks of children’s shoes. Put simply, it’s a treasure trove of vintage Moschino, Versace, Comme des Garçons, and Junya Watanabe.

“We’ve both been collecting for our whole lives, I think,” says Giordano, leaning across the register, which is actually an antique bar. “When we moved in together we just realized: We have a store.” The unlikely pair (Weber is a librarian; Giordano works for a designer) first met in Oakland, California, and moved in together into a small railroad apartment in New York’s Chinatown. Quickly, it was stuffed to the brim with their vintage collection, sourced from eBay, private closets, and secondhand stores. “Every kitchen cupboard was overflowing with clothes,” Weber says. Giordano explains that, “We just love dressing our friends and stylists would request from us already, so we thought, ‘We can turn this into a business and do what we love and share it with people.’”

Collin James Weber and Brandon Veloria GiordanoPhoto: Courtesy of James Veloria

They started posting and selling items on eBay and Instagram, which quickly led to them attending vintage shows like A Current Affair and opening a temporary shop in May. “We did some of the big vintage shows and those were great, connecting with designers and stylists and everyone in the fashion industry,” says Weber. “That’s really what’s made our business something we could do full-time.” What has made their store a favorite among those in the know is its singular aesthetic within the world of vintage. “What we buy needs to be fun, avant-garde, well-made, have sense of humor, and be historically relevant, but in a way that it was punk or subversive in its time,” Giordano says.

Weber cuts in: “We don’t have anything plain.”

“Or the minimal things that we have are Yohji or Comme that have been cut in a really interesting way,” Giordano explains. “But yes, we definitely err on the side of kooky.”

It means that housed within their tinsel-lined walls is a whole host of Fran Drescher–worthy numbers. A vintage Moschino suit hangs at the end of one rack, printed with an idyllic landscape, while comic book–like Versace jeans lie beside vintage Junya Watanabe. On the plainer side of the spectrum is an elegant, three-layer, ivory Comme des Garçons dress that can be reworked as a maxi, midi, or mini. Best of all, everything in the store is reasonably priced with most items hitting the mid-hundreds.

“We know what we have, but we want it to be accessible,” says Giordano. “It makes me so happy when someone finds something, and they’re like, I’m going to save up my next paycheck and I can get this.’” He pauses. “I used to do that.”

James Veloria is open at 75 East Broadway, #203A.