SHOP The Yippie Tank , SHOP The 10-4 Hat

WRITTEN BY Catie Ryan // INTERVIEW BY Amaka Onuegbu

Rima shares her best thrifting tips, favorite local sources, and how to style pieces from our LOST & FOUND capsule.

The Toronto-born stylist, model, and blogger has established herself as a fashion treasure trove in the city of angels. Rima’s signature style can be described as an eclectic mix of vintage, new, handmade, and locally sourced garments — all coming together to form unique, colorful, and seemingly effortless fits. In the Q&A below, Rima takes us on a vintage Tour de L.A., parsing out her favorite places to find one-of-a-kind recycled pieces, as well as her tried-and-true strategies for quick and easy shopping. Thanks to Rima, you’ll never get lost in the pants aisle at Goodwill again.

SHOP The Hustler Roller Bona Fide Heel Jean , SHOP The Short Sleeve Footballer Shirt

What advice would you give to someone that is just starting to thrift and get into fashion? 

  • My favorite things to craft personal style I would say are magazines, movies, and old movies. Look at everything, and instead of just looking at specific influencers' outfits on Pinterest, see what you really like and then go from there. If you're starting out thrifting for the first time, it's very easy to get overwhelmed. I like to start smaller and have a game plan of very specific pieces I’m looking for. I feel that it makes it a lot easier to tackle a massive store and not get overwhelmed by so many different things, especially if you're just starting and don't really have a great sense of your own personal style and what you like yet.

Now for some humor – fuck, marry, kill, and the options are Melrose Trading Post, Silver Lake Flea, and Rose Bowl Flea Market.

  • Okay. Rose Bowl, marry. Fuck Melrose and kill Silver Lake.

I am crying for Silver Lake Flea. What are your favorite things about thrifting and why?

  • I love finding unique stuff that no one else has and isn't trending or something you see all over TikTok. That's very fun for me. I love bright colors and I feel like a lot of brands currently don’t make that kind of stuff, so it's very fun to find vintage. Also, I love to try to find stuff from my childhood too, like random brands or pieces that I grew up loving, especially those that were on Britney or Paris.  I just love things that are very nostalgic for me.

Who would you say your style inspiration is?

  • I love men's style in general as inspiration for myself. I feel like I wear a lot of trucker hats, weird vintage pieces mixed in, and button-downs and that kind of stuff, which usually ends up being menswear. So a lot of my favorite inspo is men's stuff. I also really love this IG account that also has a podcast: Throwing Fits. They are these two guys in New York that have a really eclectic personal style. So I look at them also as well as random menswear editorials, '90s menswear – really, menswear anything.

SHOP The High Waisted Spinner Prep Skimp in Flashback Jean, SHOP The Dugout Scoop Crop Shirt

SHOP The Hustler Roller Bona Fide Heel Jean , SHOP The Yippie Tank

What is one of your favorite vintage pieces you've ever found? Honestly, that may be an impossible question.

  • Actually, it is not an impossible question because it is a 1992 Grateful Dead Lithuania basketball team T-shirt that they did. I'm Lithuanian and when I grew up, basically everyone around me had that T-shirt. And I actually found it five years ago with my friend who was just showing me a bunch of random stuff that he had before he put it into his shop. And I was like, "I need this. Are you kidding me?" I've never been able to find one, especially an original. There are tons of reprints online, but it was an original one and I wear it all the time. It's my favorite thing ever and it's very loud.

I really am dying to know what got you into styling. Was thrifting an inspiration? How'd you start and what are some of the favorite shoots you've ever styled?

  • Oh wow. So I grew up in Florida so fashion wasn't really on my radar. My mom's a dentist and my dad worked in finance. So having a job in the fashion industry wasn't even a thing. My mom was like, "What?" So I went to a nerd school for high school and got my associate with my high school diploma. My mom was like, "Sure, you move to LA for a year, try it out, and then come back and finish school." And I was like, "All right, peace." And I started out modeling and then got blogging in 2012 before it was a thing. 

SHOP (LOWER LEFT) The Maven Heel Jean, SHOP (LOWER LEFT) The Itty Bitty Scoop Neck Tee, SHOP (RIGHT) The Hustler Roller Bona Fide Heel Jean, SHOP (RIGHT) The Yippie Tank

SHOP The High Waisted Spinner Prep Skimp in Flashback Jean, SHOP The Dugout Scoop Crop Shirt

What are key pieces you think everyone should have in their closet?

  • I would say denim, first and foremost. That's the biggest thing for me. And then T-shirts. I don't think that everyone needs to have the same closet because it definitely should be tailored to you. What do you wear every day? Or if you're working a corporate job, you're obviously not going to have the same closet as someone who works a creative job and vice versa. When I'm working, I'm wearing jeans and a T-shirt pretty much every day on set so the majority of my closet are those pieces. I will say I do love having a go-to special events dress or just something that I know looks great so I don't have to scramble and try to find a dress last minute for a wedding or an event or anything like that. And you don't need to shop for every single event. I don't really believe in that. I think you can just have some great options in your closet already ready to go. But denim, I would say, is the most important because it's the hardest thing for you to find. I recommend investing in tailoring, especially if you're thrifting. Even if something doesn't fit perfectly, if you think you could tailor it, you probably can and then you have the perfect fit.

LOL, the first Tumblr girl.

  • Basically. Oh my god, Tumblr, I miss it so much. So through blogging and stuff, I just had great connections and brands started asking me to do collabs for edits or whatever. Then I got into styling just through photographers and people that I knew. I also liked being in front of the camera, but being behind the camera was much more fun for me because you have more of a creative say.

And you get to see your creative vision come to life.

  • Definitely, and I also love working with so many cool people. Everyone has their own aesthetic and ideas and it's really fun to work together to build a cohesive story.

SHOP The Maven Heel Jean, SHOP The Itty Bitty Scoop Neck Tee, SHOP The 10-4 Hat

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