8 Women On That One Thing They Sleuth the Internet For

Sometimes I lay restless in the night, wondering about other peoples' hyper-specific search terms, guarded like sapphires at the Smithsonian. And so, at this time when seemingly all social conventions have flown out the window, I figured I could ask some cool, creative people with good taste about what items they follow to the ends of the Internet. We published these stories as a series this week and now I'm sharing the full collection with you like a boxed set. So, join me in jumping down these rabbit holes, starting with Ruby Redstone and her years-long search for Acne Studios' glitter boots. From there we have: Tatiana Hambro and her ongoing quest for a Boyy Wonton bag, Lea Carey who keeps an eye on the flight attendant uniforms designed by Emilio Pucci, Lauren Chan and her stroke of luck with a shearling jacket, and Canada Choate who has a weakness for vintage band tees. And while we're on the subject of years-long searches, let me know if you ever come across a Pylones jelly watch. –Edith Ruby Redstone on Finding the World's Best Glitter Boots After Years of Googling Your shopping rabbit hole: A pair of Acne Studios shoes with chunky glitter soles from S/S 2013. Can you walk me through what going down this rabbit hole entails? Okay, this sounds really lame, but the search for these shoes has somehow been a running theme throughout the entirety of my young adulthood. I tried them on in the Acne store in 2013 and fell head-over-jelly-heels in love with them, but sadly couldn't afford them because I was in high school at the time and had probably a total of $30 to my name. A few days later, Emily Weiss posted some photos of herself wearing them on Into The Gloss (ah, 2013, I miss you), and I was thrown into a panicked cold sweat trying to think of ways to get my hands on them. After a summer of working and squirreling away birthday cash, I was ready to purchase the shoes, but they were nowhere to be found—they had sold out in every store. I possess what I think philosophy would describe as a "mind-to-world" outlook toward clothing in which I try to think what I want into existence and then become frustrated when I can't find it. For years, when I sat myself down to think about what shoes I would like to purchase to replace a worn-out pair, I would start constructing something in my brain only to realize that I was actually recreating the Acne shoes. They had become my Platonic ideal of what a shoe should look like: clunky-yet-girly with their glittering lug soles, fun-and-neutral in their mix of nude and pink, and fashion-y without being ubiquitous. And this Platonic ideal existed–I just had to track it down! I did my research and learned the name of every style ("Taurus" for the loafers, "Mia" for the low boots, and "Lila" for the high), so that I could obsessively trawl every online resale site on the internet once or so a season to see if they would ever resurface–The RealReal, eBay, Etsy, Tradesy, Vestiaire, you name it, I checked it. Obviously not every seller knows the name or make of a shoe that they're selling, so I also tried any and all combinations of the words "Acne" and "glitter," which definitely did weird things to my suggested skincare ads for awhile. I think the number-one key to finding something like this is simply persistence. Of course, you also have to gauge how much of your precious life you're willing to waste in pursuit of an outdated material good. I'd say I plugged away for about half a day every season, meaning that in my quest for these I wasted about 14 days before I found sweet success on Gen Z-favorite resale app Depop. (Yikes?) The pair I found (my size! hardly worn! in their original box!) were from a seller who could only ship within the UK, and I was so determined to have them that I had the box delivered to my best friend's house in London, and she later brought them over the Atlantic for me in her suitcase. (I've done the same for her too, okay! This is probably one of the only benefits of long-distance best-friendship). Click or tap here to keep reading! Moda Operandi's Tatiana Hambro Arader Is Still Dreaming About This *One* Bag Pucci, Baby "Vintage Pucci airline uniforms are so good (the bubble helmets!) and brought me down a deep internet rabbit hole of vintage airline uniforms—but the Pucci textiles are hard to beat. Would I have the courage to wear? TBD." — Lea Carey Wooden Puzzles? Flight Attendant Uniforms by Pucci? An Illustrator Shares Her Favorite Search Terms Lauren Chan Found the Best Shearling Jacket But WHERE Is the Perfect Makeup Bag? 3 Vintage Sleuths on How to Find Band Tees, Fringe Jackets, and Wacky Wall Art Fringe Benefits "I start my search with something like 'suede fringe jacket' and narrow by color and size, and get to scrolling. I save to wishlist/'likes' lists like a maniac so I can review my picks after I'm done browsing. I know the fit will be key, so I make sure to gather/request any measurements from sellers that may be missing some garment specs for items I'm seriously considering." — Hannah Mosman You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive newsletters from ManRepeller.com Man Repeller editors endorse products we genuinely love. If you end up buying something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more here. Update Profile | Unsubscribe | Forward Man Repeller LLC 632 Broadway #602 New York, NY 10012 Add us to your address book