By Daniil Gritsenko, as told to Jake Silbert.
If you think one of New York’s most interesting vintage fashion collection is tucked inside some pristine Manhattan boutique, you’d be very wrong.
Abe Lange, known online as @sumshitifound and cofounder of Distressed Fest, has amassed an impeccable archive regularly visited by stylists, musicians, athletes, and other A-list talent. Fashion designers are particularly easy to spot, he says, because of the way they look at things. “They’re really taking their time and will study a detail,” he says. “They’ll say, ‘This one’s not that great, but this pocket’s really interesting.’”
What are they searching for? Rare runway pieces or grail-worthy designer labels? No, they want stained shirts, shredded workwear, strange repairs, faded fabrics, or a single pocket on an otherwise unremarkable jacket.
Lange is not your average secondhand dealer. His collection spans everything from apparel to folk art and antiques; his eye is so honed that he also works as an antiques appraiser on Antiques Roadshow. This is not some fly-by-night operation: Lange is the real deal.
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What began as a side hustle for flipping designer clothing in college started to shift once ordinary markers of value became less appealing. Lange became increasingly attracted to things whose worth was harder to quantify, things steeped in what he calls “subjective value.”
To the untrained eye, Lange's finds may initially appear worthless. A jacket torn beyond repair and a shirt could be permanently stained. Something may have been altered so many times that it's barely recognizable. But these distinctions are exactly the qualities intrigue Lange. And, increasingly, fashion at large.
“I work with a lot of stylists who will rent stuff or buy stuff for editorial use,” Lange says. “Distressed stuff is really nice to juxtapose with really clean stuff.” And, right now, this stuff is big business.
Lange’s archive isn't only appealing to folks looking to shop — for many, it's a fashion resource. A century of wear produces things that are difficult to convincingly recreate. What was once mere damage becomes a design reference.
“I’ll be digging around in a barn or talking with a connection in France or somewhere in Asia, and I’ll be picturing which designer or house this might end up with,” Lange says. “Being that bridge is really fulfilling.”
Because Lange’s collection is a mix of reference points, saleable objects, collectibles, and random finds, it exists outside the conventional hierarchy of fashion collecting. The importance of an object doesn’t necessarily begin with the designer who made it, the celebrity who wore it, or the price it recently achieved at auction.
Value is entirely in the eye of the beholder. Sometimes, it's the age of an object, the simple fact that something survived long enough for Lange to find it. Sometimes, it's a distinct wear pattern unique to the garment. Sometimes, it's just a vibe.
Spend enough time digging through Lange's stash and “distressed” begins to feel like an inadequate word to describe what you find. "Distressing" is something fashion does to make new clothes appear old. Lange is an adherent of the real thing: clothes that have actually been used, worn, loved, damaged, darned, forgotten, found, and reborn. Clothes with soul.