Every designer-fashion lover needs a friend like Lizzie Wheeler. She’s a former Maxxinista turned eBay sleuth and RealReal addict with a lifelong personal rule: Never pay full price. Three years ago, Wheeler was working as a wholesale manager at LaPointe and privately spamming her friends with resale links when one of those friends encouraged her to share her talent for finding bargains with the internet. In March 2022, the Instagram account @shit.u.should.buy was born.
Now, nearly every day, Wheeler sifts through the RealReal, Poshmark, and eBay and posts her filter of the internet’s best vintage and designer deals on her Instagram Stories. “I’m not the person to come to if you want me to help you find a Birkin,” she says. Instead, her taste runs the gamut from niche European brands like Paule Ka to designer heavyweights like Jean Paul Gaultier and forgotten labels like Brock Collection that Wheeler bets are on the cusp of a vintage revival. Her recent links include a $225 pair of denim Manolo Blahnik mules, a $177 14-karat-gold pendant necklace (which she recommended wearing “over a tank with no bra”), and an Alexander McQueen denim miniskirt for $135. “Definitely Lee era,” she wrote.
View this post on Instagram
On @shit.u.should.buy, Wheeler still has a small audience of about 1,300 users. But those followers, many of whom are fashion writers or editors, are clicking and buying whatever she sends their way — and submitting requests. When Wheeler posted an edit of vintage Escada from the RealReal last year, her recommendations sold out within an hour. Since then, she’s been tracking her sales more closely with affiliate links when possible. Now, Wheeler sells an average of $10,000 to $12,000 worth of products each month through the retailers, which she can track through the affiliate marketing platform ShopMy (which mostly reflects her sales through the RealReal). She also organizes closet sales for industry friends through her account and is hosting her first in-person sale at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on May 17.
For Wheeler, @shit.u.should.buy remains more of a hobby than a career, given almost everything she posts is less than $300 each. But it did help inspire her to start a vintage bridal-sourcing business, called Studio Dorothy, to help brides who came to her with requests for more elaborate gowns.
“My screen time is not considered healthy,” Wheeler says when I called her recently. She spoke to the Cut about the vintage trends that guide her online hunts and how she spots quality pieces online.
How often are you browsing the resale sites? How do you manage it for yourself? Do you have alerts?
I think it’s a compulsion — I just kind of wake up and do it. It feels more fruitful to go on the hunt than it does to scroll Instagram. And so a lot of the time, it was just me doing that on my commute. But then at a certain point, when you’ve been doing this for a few years, it gets easier and easier to find what you’re looking for. You save your settings, you have all of your searches, but at the same time, the algorithms learn you.
What are you usually looking for in terms of brands, aesthetics, and price points?
A Stavropoulos dress Wheeler sells through Studio Dorothy.
I don’t expect people to be dropping multiple thousands of dollars over an Instagram link. For the right thing, people will spend good money. I do closet sales for people — for myself, for my friends who work in the industry — who are drowning in designer clothes. And I have sold a Chanel suit for, I think it was $895 or $995. And that sold very quickly. But generally, I used to try to stay below $120. Now, it’s probably under $250, and then I’ll have a spendy day where I say, “I’m really sorry, guys, but all of this stuff is really good, even though it’s all $500.”
A lot of what I do is based on raw materials and a production standpoint. Because everyone knows that production quality has gone downhill across the board, including in designer clothes. I’ll get requests for very current seasonal trends. Last fall, someone asked me for barrel jeans. And I was like, “Honestly, guys, this trend is too hot for you to invest in very much, but here are some good options around $80.” Otherwise, I’ll take on omni-trends. For example, right now, I am seeing that people are wanting maximalism, femininity, maybe a little bit of twee — which is already evidenced by the number of cool girls wearing ties. I try to focus on trends before they peak, so you can buy when they’re cheap and get a lot of use out of your purchases.
Click here to preview your posts with PRO themes ››
And so with that, it’s just — what’s good quality? I post a lot of Christian Lacroix. The brand has been licensed so many times since he left the company, it’s a little hard to parse on the internet what was made under the original LVMH title and what was an offshoot. So I always know with Lacroix, if I find one that’s made in France, chances are it was from the right time period, and it’s going to be gorgeous quality.
In the fall, I did a runway breakdown of what walked the runways for Prada and Miu Miu, and those were particularly referential collections. And so then I just found the originals that they were referencing for really cheap.
A look from Vena Cava’s spring 2010 runway show.
The trend cycle is real. I think it used to be a 20-year trend cycle. Now it’s more of a 15-year cycle. And then there’s half of that for the really forward people. Right now, I’m trying to talk a little bit more about brands that were big in that 2007 through 2012 period. I call this Gossip Girl era. Miu Miu, Marc Jacobs, Marc for LV, Balenciaga, and the Chloé runways from that time period all feel important. I think that’s all already coming back in the visual references that we’re seeing, and it’s just absolutely going to trickle down. I just bought a Vena Cava dress. You know that Sophie Buhai was one of the founders of Vena Cava? Burberry Prorsum — that kind of British, a-little-bit-sexy party girl — is totally coming back.
All things Stella McCartney and Phoebe Philo at Chloé are really strong right now. And then, obviously, the Chemena Kamali Chloé is so aspirational, but that’s not going to be available at prices we can pay for a long time.
Are there brands that you think people overlook in vintage right now?
It’s been a while since at least a young consumer has been really enthusiastic about Armani. I’ve been buying Armani for Studio Dorothy, and those fits are absolutely incredible. There’s this brand called Paule Ka. It’s all over Yoox, and then it’ll show up on the RealReal for like $2, but any time I post it, people will buy it. Paule Ka and Escada are the two brands that people message me about the most, saying, Oh my God, I bought it, and I cannot get over the quality.
A look from Miu Miu’s spring 2025 runway show.
What about the opposite — brands that are overpriced right now?
In the fall, when I did my Miu Miu runway breakdown, and for the year prior, I was shopping Miu Miu constantly on retail sites. It was so cheap. Right now, it’s very hard to find Miu Miu at prices I’m willing to pay on resale sites. It really has to do with the demand for the product. They’re always those brands that, at resale, retain their value so much. And in general, I just don’t engage with those.
Do you have any advice for being a better online vintage shopper?
Part of the reason why I find so many good things is that I’m not explicitly shopping for myself. If you go in saying, “Does the RealReal have any brown flats under $200 from one of these five brands in my size?,” maybe they won’t. It’s not like going to the Gucci store and buying the Gucci loafer. It’s going into a free-for-all and seeing what you find. Even if you have all of the searches saved and everything, there’s no market certainty there. You kind of have to approach it with open arms. What does the RealReal have for me today?
What’s an example of a particularly special piece you’ve found?
Someone asked me to help her find a gown for a gala, and I found a Carolina Herrera that was really hard to judge from the photos. The picture was styled poorly, and it was probably $220. She got it and said, “This is literally a work of art.” She sent me a picture of her standing next to, I think it was Scarlett Johansson. And she looked worthy of being with that level of a celeb in that random-ass gown from the RealReal. Yes, everyone always loves a Carolina gown. But the thing that maybe takes a little bit of an extra eye to tell is good? That’s my happy moment.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
