A little friendly competition is welcomed in the Big Easy, however. Other vintage shops pepper the edges of the Quarter and on Magazine Street. Local heartįlush with gift shops and boutiques that play to New Orleans’ charms (though not as many as prior to the pandemic), Swamp Rags Vintage offers a fresh fashion experience in the French Quarter. “Those more decorated styles have been really popular,” he said. Then there’s the “crossover stuff” like Iceberg pieces with The Looney Tunes licensing, he added. The store also recently nabbed a collection of deadstock Wrangler bell-bottom jeans and Olsen said he’s closely watching JNCO jeans as the next big revival in denim. Think Mom jeans, jeans with cinched waists or elastic waistbands, cutoff shorts, and loose-fitting shorts à la Princess Diana in the ’90s. While Levi’s Orange Tab is the “gold standard” for Olsen’s Vice & Graft clientele, it’s all about ’80s and ’90s novelty fits from Levi’s, Lee and Guess for his new venture. The T-shirt category, like denim, has its own group of diehard collectors, Olsen said, noting that a Disney “Aladdin” T-shirt from 1992 recently sold for $6,000 during a livestream auction.īut as the ideal companion piece to tees, denim makes up approximately 20 percent of the Swamp Rags assortment. Shoppers will find jean jackets with Chicago Bulls patches, a selection of men’s and women’s jeans and gems like a “Titanic” T-shirt probably originally sold at Spencer’s in 1997 and now going for $300.

“With everything closed, when things re-opened, we could do anything.” After working together on and off for months-and running into one another at estate sales in the area-they decided to join forces. Graziani began sourcing and selling vintage T-shirts, and Olsen formed Vice & Graft, a vintage clothing and furniture business within the antique warehouse Merchant House co-op.

Like many people, Olsen and Graziani turned to their passions to make ends meet. Olsen, a partner at a creative agency whose New Orleans clients were primarily bars and restaurants, felt a similar shift. As a tour manager for international bands, Graziani saw his industry grind to a halt overnight. Located in the heart of the French Quarter in New Orleans, in a storefront dating back to the 1800s, the 1,500-square-foot shop pays homage to ’80s and ’90s denim, graphic tees, jackets and other pop-culture collectibles.Ī pandemic-born business, Swamp Rags Vintage was created by co-founders Chris Olsen and Dante Graziani when their love of vintage became a solution to the disruption caused by shutdowns. Swamp Rags Vintage brings near nostalgia to one of the oldest neighborhoods in the U.S.

Nostalgia clothing company