Giselle From Glitters Thrift Loves Lizzie McGuire and Glam Telephones
Giselle Aguayo of Glitters Thrift and Very Famous kick off our phone convo talking about substitute teachers and our shared love of retro phones, from a classic motel-room situation to slumber party confections. They’re fitting topics for Giselle, a deep appreciator of pop culture from eras past, whether that’s Patrick Nagel’s nail salon women or mid-2000s Disney Channel shows.
Platforms like Depop have scores of sellers who deal in ’90s/Y2k era clothing, but Giselle’s shop immediately caught our eye as something different. Scrolling through her finds makes us feel like we’re with her in an intimate boutique in her hometown of Miami, poring through ’80s trading cards featuring California beach babes, Betty Boop necklaces, dark ‘n’ dreamy floral corsets, and handbags made of pink faux fur and denim. Plus, her photoshoots are always the hottest and most fun. Just look at this one with a Lizzie McGuire doll, an old issue of Playboy, and a ZZ Top album accompanying some witchy black heels.
Today, we enter the Very Famous World of Giselle. Calling 1-900-Glitters-Thrift…
Tell us the story of Glitters Thrift! How did you get inspired to start your own business?
Glitters Thrift happened abruptly, really just from one day to another. I was like, “Why am I not doing this?” I had been thrifting since I was 13. My aunt showed me what thrifting was. I didn’t know what the hell it was. She was the first one to take me to a Goodwill, and she was like, “This place is dumb cheap.” It was her friend who showed her the week before. She had just started thrifting and was super gassed up on the idea. She was already gassed up on Ross, which is pretty affordable, so when she found Goodwill, she was just like, whoa, this is revolutionary.
I started Glitters Thrift in 2014. It happened because I didn’t have an idea of what to do. I was always that kid in high school who didn’t know what they wanted to do. I was always really into fashion, clothing, interior decorating, stuff like that. I started working at American Apparel back when they were still open and it was really good, but I wasn’t getting anywhere. That’s when I found Depop. Depop was still new at this time. It was more of a cleaning-out-my-closet type of thing. It wasn’t like now where people make a whole career out of it.
I started selling some stuff on Depop. It was mostly just a hobby, but my hustler mindset has always been there. I remember in high school, I would sell stuff; I’d sell clothes, I’d sell candy, I’d even sell stuff I would be wearing. If somebody was interested, they would just buy it off me the next day. Going into adulthood, I knew I needed to be my own boss. I can’t keep making someone else richer, like what am I doing?
That was my mindset, and honestly it was a big push from my boyfriend. I’ve been with him pretty much as long as I’ve had Glitters Thrift, and he was a big part of it. He was like, you know, you have to do something that makes you happy and makes you feel good every day. You’re going to feel so much more motivated to do something when you love it. Last year, right before the pandemic happened, I decided to stop working for people and just strictly work from home and take Glitters Thrift on and nothing else.
It’s your full-time gig now! That’s an exciting jump to make.
Besides Glitters Thrift online, I also do Glitters Thrift in person here in Miami. I travel around Miami, sometimes Fort Lauderdale, which is about an hour away, for events. Because of the pandemic, I haven’t really been doing that, but I might do one coming up. I miss the atmosphere of going out. Shopping in real life is so much fun.
Besides that, I’ve been working on my own clothing. That was my main goal from the get-go is to repurpose clothes. Selling vintage and used clothes really took off, so I just kept going with that. At the end of last year, I started to bring out stuff I had been working on, which I felt really good about.
Tell me more about that! What kinds of pieces are you making?
It can really range. I’m trying hard to keep my fabrics vintage or old clothes big enough to make something else out of it. To give you an example, I found this grandma nightgown, and it was really cute but it was torn up. I made a skirt — I made it plus-size — and it’s got a nice waistband on it, and I made a purse to go with it.
It’s this really cute sunflower pattern that I found. I used that on another shirt I had remade — it was this shirt-dress, kind of. I made it a two-piece set, and it looked so much better; it needed some separation, some midriff.
Most things do!
My thing is just trying to work with leftover stuff. We live in a world where we don’t really recycle or reuse stuff enough, so that is my main purpose. Whenever I get bolts or scraps of fabric, I always try to make stuff with it. The other thing I made was this furry crossbody orange bag.
That was made out of scraps, and the same scraps that were leftover I used for something I haven’t released yet; it’s about to come out. This top is something else, it’s exclusive. It’s the same material as this orange fur material — very ‘90s, Y2K colors. It’s a halter top, and the top opens from the front. The clasp is from some ugly T-shirt, but the clasp is a butterfly with rhinestones on it. It’s the cutest freakin’ thing you’ll ever see.
The style can range anywhere from conservative to super rave. I definitely stay within the ‘90s/Y2K eras when it comes to making stuff.
Where did your taste for nostalgia come from?
Ooh honey, I’m not gonna lie to you, I just never grew up. Growing up, I was introverted — always in my room. I grew up with brothers, so there was nothing interesting about leaving my room. I spent a lot of time watching a lot of TV and having a lot of computer interaction. I was that AOL babe ruining my mom’s phone calls.
I always stayed with my grandparents on the weekends, and my grandma didn’t have cable at all. She was so old-school. She was like, “I don’t need cable, you’re only here once every other week.” When I was at home, I would record my favorite shows on blank tapes: Zoey 101, Lizzie McGuire, That’s So Raven, Ned’s DeClassified. Whatever it was, I would try to tape 30 minutes of it and fill up six hours’ worth of stuff. Half the time, I would just leave them there and rewatch a lot of the same episodes. I think I’ve programmed my brain to sit and watch the same episode 17 times, and it won’t bother me. I’ll just sit there and be like, “I can find something new in this scene.”
What’s your big vision for your business? I know you’re making your own stuff and styling, is it a combination of all those things?
I definitely want to see myself in a store, but I don’t want to be a big corporation. I still want to be local, I want to be small. I want people to see me in a store and be like, “Whoa, she made this.” I still want people to know Glitters Thrift, I want that atmosphere. I want people under my belt. I also offer alterations in Miami. I’m a hustler, this mind don’t stop!
How would you summarize your aesthetic and Glitters Thrift’s aesthetic in general?
I definitely would say I have big similarities to the Glitters Thrift aesthetic, but I don’t full-on have the aesthetic that’s perceived on the website. She has that very nostalgic appeal, and she’s definitely her own kind of woman. She knows what she likes, and she likes just that. But me, I could be Miss Cottagecore one day, and rave queen the next. My aesthetic changes a lot with my mood. The Y2K era is definitely my favorite because I was born in the ‘90s but raised in the 2000s, so that era will always have a big impact on me.
As vintage sellers, we should definitely be researching the eras we’re selling. That’s why I like the era I’m already familiar with. Since I was such an introvert, at first, I didn’t know much about certain things like going out or how people would dress at certain times. I really just based it off of what I watched and what I saw online.
What are three things that make you feel Very Famous?
I give my number-one props to my phone, not just for what she brings me but how she looks. I love to accessorize my phone. I’ve got about eight or nine different cases, and I change it at least once or twice a week. Number two, I would say my studio. It’s definitely my safe haven, my cave, my castle. It is the best place, and I feel unstoppable there. Number three —I feel like everything is so material, I’m such a material girl — I’d say just the Glitters Thrift fandom. If it weren’t for people loving Glitters Thrift, where would I really be?
All photos courtesy of Giselle / Glitters Thrift.
And now, channeling Twist’s 1999 interview with Britney Spears, Giselle took The Very Famous Quiz!!!
