It Doesn’t Matter What Side Your Buttons Are On

I took the bus into Squirrel Hill. I made a pit stop for some shitty coffee and greeted an older man on my way to Steal City Vintage as he complimented my jeans. I almost made a wrong turn, swimming in the length of my pant legs and carrying the weight of my presentation. Down the steps, through the tunnels of posters, and being lured by the boom of speakers, I made my way into the basement.

Zelda pulled me into a hug, introducing me to the owners, Rob and DJ. We went back and forth for a bit, talking plans for the holiday and the concept of time, or the lack thereof. In a place like this, time doesn’t need to exist. Steal City Vintage, as described, is a place for “the misfits.” Rob takes in everyone who enters the store as his “nieces and nephews;” he’s the cool uncle to brag to your friends about, saying, “Yeah, he knows who I am.” That’s how he started his own journey of self discovery, floating through vintage shops, raves, roller rinks, and connecting with the humanity in those spaces. “I want a place where my outcasts…all feel like they have a place, because that was something I was lucky enough to have. “They“ all come in different styles. They’re all looking for something…it’s just being acknowledged.” With a lack of third spaces, there needs to be a place to “kick it,” and therefore discover your identity. Modern culture prioritizes style, and sometimes at the expense of self actualization.

Post covid fashion has sent an influx of microtrends, “nanotrends,” even. And all of these items are more accessible than ever. Fast fashion is a hot topic, pun intended, but Steal City Vintage is where it “comes to die.” It’s easy in the age of social media to see a pair of jeans and be wearing them within a week, but having cheap renditions of intelligent pieces so handy can dissolve authenticity. This can also be somewhat of a paradox, in which the content being pushed online centers around character customization, but in a way that is excessively replicable. Emultation, though, is not inherently negative, but should be used “your way.” Comfort comes from “finding that originality…why we emulated other people is because we thought they were cool.”

And fashion rarely exists without inspiration. Steal City Vintage wouldn’t exist without influence. Rob and DJ found their niche in the niches themselves. “We’re both very much into the culture of a lot of the pieces. The music pieces, the art pieces, the graffiti, the pop culture pieces. There are so many different subcultures within vintage that we already were obsessed with.” Pittsburgh, as a city, is full of that sense of community. Within the drag scene, many artists present alternative, but being alternative today is “nonspecific.” In his personal taste, Rob defines himself as a “hodge podge,” and the storefront represents that.

There’s something for everyone because everyone has their own path and their own obsessions. Steal City Vintage was formed by two addictive personalities, “I was able to find a new outlet to channel my compulsive behavior into a positive thing.” And while the world’s interest changes with the same swiftness of our vices, it’s more important than ever to curate an aesthetic that stays personal. “That’s how we’re alive, it’s because of people that are thinking outside of Shein and cheaper options…What’s that brand?”

The push and pull when popularizing branding is nothing new, but can that iconic tag really create a closet staple? Does it say who you are, or does it just what you’re buying, when style is taking on a persona? “You are your character…and eventually, you aspire to be this person, you start acting like them, and before you know it, the character has taken over. That’s how I feel it is with the fashion, you are building this character.” Designing anything from the ground up inherently preaches authenticity. Especially outside of logo revival, decade fusion has been fronting self expression. “It’s like with the music, if you took music back, and said ‘listen to this,’ their brains would fall out of their ears.” History is always in your pocket. One search online leads to an endless scroll of imagery that shapes your personal influence. In the modern age, style transcends time.

In this basement, you can lose yourself in the endless televisions screens. You can lose all of your time fishing through the culture of clothing racks, but you will never lose yourself. Rob’s piece of advice is, “Experiment,” a theme that follows through growing up and crosses the streams into queer culture. Introspection allows for an identity that is as unlabeled as the sections throughout the store, to DJ’s point of, “Who’s to say I can’t wear this because the buttons are on this side?” The beauty in fashion doesn’t come from doing what’s expected of you. It’s in the joy that surrounds your skin, not the heat of a plastic wrapped and mass produced sweater. At Steal City Vintage, Rob and DJ carry in the boxes that allow you to step outside of them.

EDGEWOOD MAG VOL. 2 IS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT STEAL CITY VINTAGE: 1918 MURRAY AVE PA 15217