Resellers say there's something special about Etcetera Vintage Market

They say what goes around, comes around, and that is particularly true for clothing and fashion.

According to Trey Wilhite, a Tucson reseller, the hottest fashion trend is shopping vintage.

Wilhite works full-time selling vintage clothing, secondhand clothing and sustainable fashion on Depop and other online platforms.

He is also one of the organizers and the host behind Etcetera Vintage Market. The seasonal, curated market returns to the 4th Ave Coalition Space, 311 E. Seventh St., on Saturday, Sept. 13, from 12-6 p.m., catering to a growing niche of Tucson vintage lovers.

“This is, I believe, the fifth or maybe sixth one that we’ve done,” Wilhite said. “Our main client base is mostly college students, so it kind of runs parallel with the semesters, so we pick it up in August, and we go through May.”

The market will host a dozen or so vintage sellers, stocking everything from graphic tees to ‘90s and Y2K fashion and secondhand accessories.

“We curate playlists that suit the vibe of the vintage aesthetic and whatnot. We have mocktail vendors who do drinks,” Wilhite said. For this month’s event, DrinkParch will be on site offering non-alcoholic agave drinks for purchase.

Some of the notable returning clothing vendors include Diego Rodriguez, owner of Classic Threads of Amelia, and Yulisa Olvera, owner of Bintage Wear.

To Olvera, who has been reselling secondhand and vintage items in Tucson for several years, there is just something special about Etcetera Vintage Market.

“Etcetera Market is one of my favorite markets. It’s so fun. Everyone, all the vendors who are there, it’s a community,” Olvera said. “You get to hang out with your favorite people, and you get to sell. There’s always people from the community, and we have a lot of customers that are the same people.”

Olvera said she initially got into selling vintage clothes because of her love for fashion.

“I didn’t want to be in an office for eight hours,” she said. “I have to do something with my life, and something I love. And I love fashion, I love clothes, so I started selling shirts.”

At first, she was selling only menswear and T-shirts, but Olvera quickly expanded to women’s clothing.

“I started selling a lot of clothes, and seeing all these girls wearing my clothes, going to my markets with my clothes like ‘oh, I got this from you, and I’m going on this trip,’ and I pull them up on social media, and I see them wearing these pieces while she’s in like Italy. And I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’”

Like Olvera, Diego Rodriguez said his journey into vintage fashion started with wanting unique, stylish pieces for his own closet.

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Rodriguez moved to Tucson nearly two years ago, and quickly took in the Tucson vintage scene.

“Tucson has so much history that you never know what you can find,” he said. “I have found a lot of stuff, maybe from like the 1960s or ‘70s,” he said. “There’s just a lot of things you can find in Tucson, since it has so much history. So I think that brings a lot of these people to the idea of starting reselling clothes.”

What he loves the most, though, is the community that has been cultivated around vintage shopping, and participating in events like Etcetera Vintage Market.

“It’s amazing. People are so friendly, even the vendors,” Rodriguez said. “It’s a great community.”

Something Rodriguez, Olvera and Wilhite have all noticed as sellers is the rising popularity of vintage and secondhand fashion among younger generations.

“I do think the demographic right now has certainly shifted to a more youthful sort of resurgence. You could say it’s definitely very trendy,” Wilhite said. “Nowadays, with the rise of social media and stuff, it’s really kind of been taken up by a lot of high schoolers, and even middle schoolers are getting into reselling.”

One of the reasons for the renewed interest in vintage items, Olvera theorized, is the desire for quality clothing and materials.

“You can keep them for such a long time, and it’s so cool to see that a lot of items are like, 100% cotton, and are very comfortable for your skin, instead of all these new materials they’re making the clothes with. They’re not as good as the quality they used to be. So I feel like people are kind of noticing that stuff,” she said.

Rodriguez also noted the influence of economic pressures and the rising cost of everyday clothing.

“It used to be, maybe a year ago, it would be cheaper to find clothes at the thrift store than at the stores, certainly brand new. But now, even thrift stores have raised prices,” Rodriguez said.

Instead of paying the same money for fast fashion, and lower-quality items, young people are instead choosing to purchase vintage clothing products that are made to last.

And, of course, there is always the fashion statement that vintage pieces make.

“That’s how I started. Just having unique things to wear every day, and knowing what we wear is not going to be the same thing other people wear,” Rodriguez said. “People still prefer the unique aspect of it, and it’s better for the environment at the end of the day.”

“I think people are finding a lot of fun out of shopping sustainably and going thrifting,” Wilhite said.

For Wilhite, that is what Etcetera Vintage is all about, and he hopes to continue the markets far into the future.

“This is something that we want to put on monthly for our local community and rotate vendors and stuff,” he said.

If you can’t get enough of vintage finds, next month’s market is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 11, and Wilhite said the November and December dates have already been booked as well.