A Little About My Favorite Vintage Dealer
She opened up a store in Rome, but don't worry, her online sales are still drool-worthy.
We have a fun O. La Roche x Neverworns drop below, too!
Whenever Olivia La Roche1 of O. La Roche posts her most recent motherlode of lace-trimmed, fur-lined Italian vintage to her Instagram stories, I have to turn off my phone. The temptation to give her my PayPal details is too easy; too tantalizing. A belted leather jacket that launches a kidney into the throat when you cinch it, a quintessential pair of low-rise pinstriped trousers straight out of a Lindbergh photograph, a romantic silk blouse, fluttering with every step to reveal the navel. La Roche offers every iteration of clothing fantasy, which never feels constricting or too far-fetched. Her clothes are meant to be worn and lived in.
The vintage dealer moved to Rome in 20192, where she thought she’d stay for a month. But those plans changed: After six years of living in Rome, she soft-opened a brick-and-mortar store this past August in Rome’s Monteverde neighborhood, which she describes as “walkable from the city center but with more leafy green streets.” The O. La Roche space, a former architecture studio, is sparsely decorated. “We’re keeping everything kind of neutral because vintage is so colorful and crazy and always changing. I wanted a background that supported that and let the pieces pop.” In the window, sits a dress constructed out of hand-stitched shreds of silk attached to a corset with beads and semiprecious stones. Currently, it’s appointment only via DM or email.
La Roche’s offerings have flickers of uber luxe Tom Ford-era Gucci, and print-centric Roberto Cavalli3, but La Roche’s approach to sourcing and shopping isn’t designer name-minded. (No Label Dickmitization, here!) A lot of the clothes are by unknown or forgotten Italian designers4—and if she finds a designer piece, it’s because it “came to her” by way of her senses. “I mainly touch to find things. I find that if I can feel a quality textile, I’m probably going to pull a designer piece out of the pile,” she says. “The budget for these kinds of materials isn’t available as much or wasn't available in more contemporary pieces.”5
If you can’t make it to Rome anytime soon, you can always score her vintage fantasy from afar. La Roche, who once described herself to me as “rococo vamp meets Angelina Jolie in Hackers,” pumps her tastes into this fun Neverworns selection. Fabulous graphic Custo Barcelona tops, a belt with a hulking mink buckle, the ultimate trippy going-out dress for fall (three-quarter length, baby!), a liquid seamoss shearling, and more. If I could, I would buy everything.
Below the paywall, see the stellar pieces (and some major Custo I think needs appreciation!) for Neverworns subscribers. Buon divertimento, right?!