Can We Suggest A Little Something For The Weekend?

Nuli Goods Curates Vintage Finds To Elevate Your Weekend Fit

It’s 12:30 on a Monday, you’ve just spent hours analyzing excel spreadsheets, responding back and forth to emails and sifting through your day with only one cup of coffee in your system because you’ve decided to “cleanse”…whatever that means. You think to yourself “Do I really need this job?” as you answer yet another email from Karen, who has just asked for the same document 3 times. “Hi Karen. Per my last email, I’ve reattached the document you requested.” You end your response with an overenthusiastic "Cheers!” even though all you want to be doing is downing a glass of wine while watching Criminal Minds in your underwear. All hope seems lost until you get that one notification on your phone. “Your package has been delivered” Hell yes. Ugh, don’t you just love sending little gifts to yourself?

And while there is no better feeling than the rush you get from online shopping, we’re here to tell you it’s time to think secondhand first. In a world where we are so excited by consumption, it’s time to refocus on what has already been produced. Lucky for us, the beautiful world of thrifting is now made accessible online with the help of thousands of vintage shops that allow you to feel the rush of online shopping while making your wardrobe unique and conscious. It’s a win win. To learn more about what it takes to curate a digital collection of pre-loved pieces, we sat down with Leah, founder of Nuli Goods, an awe-inspiring online shop featuring a selection of absolutely to die for vintage pieces that can spice up your wardrobe in the best way possible. Oh, and the most amazing part? Leah has created a personalized sourcing service called Sourced for You which allows you to specify what kind of vintage piece you’re looking for and she finds a piece just for you! Talk about innovative.

We want to get to know you. Could you tell us more about how Nuli Goods started and your mission behind it?

Vintage and secondhand shopping is something I've been doing my whole life. My mom would take me thrifting with her since before I can remember and, full disclosure, I used to really hate it. When I was a kid I'd rather be playing than any kind of shopping, and when I was a teen I thought it was really embarrassing to be shopping secondhand. But then I fell in love. I think it happened somewhere between a cool girl at my school telling me she liked my shirt (vintage slip from Value Village!) and finding the perfect pair of velour Juicy sweats (it was early 2000s these were the dream!) that I wouldn't have been able to afford brand new. Being super environmentally conscious is another habit my mom taught me since I was young and it's really stuck with me in how I live my life now.  Between these two early experiences it was probably only a matter of time until I got really into sustainable shopping!

If I had to quickly summarize my mission for Nuli Goods I'd say "planet, people, fashion". As we're all becoming painfully aware, the fast fashion industry and production cycle is so bad for the Earth and a lot of the people on it thanks to pollution and horrible labor practices. That being said, I still wholeheartedly understand the appeal of it; there's nothing wrong with wanting to explore different trends and participate in fashion at a price point that works for you. There are so many vintage/preloved pieces out there that easily fit current trends! It's just a matter of collecting them and making it easy for people to buy them instead. I want this shop to give people an alternative to fast fashion by selling the same type of styles but using only what already exists.

Can you tell us more about your personalized sourcing service, Sourced for You?

The idea started forming when I would stumble across the most amazing piece for occasions that didn't exist. I would find the sweetest floral wrap dress and think "wow this would be perfect for a daytime garden wedding" or a pair of practically unworn hiking boots and tell myself "if I ever go camping these would be awesome". The thing with secondhand shopping is that you never know what you'll find; it's the ultimate right place right time thing. The flipside of that is that you can't always count on it if you're after something particular. I used to tell people that I love thrifting but if I needed something specific I'd have to turn to regular shopping, especially if I didn't have a dozen hours to spare going to different thrift stores and vintage sales! It got me thinking, what if someone who is already spending a ton of time scouring the secondhand racks was able to look for specific things for a bunch of people at once? With Sourced For You you simply tell us what you're looking for and we find you preloved options. Usually the less specific you are the better — if someone comes to me and says I want this particular blue coat in a size 6 I probably won't find it, but if you tell me that you are looking for neutral tone shirts for the office, I can present you with a few pieces to choose from. If you love it, buy it. Personally, I'm really excited about this venture because it gives someone a really easy way to start finding secondhand pieces and shopping more sustainably. The easier something is the more likely people are to do it, and that is going to be good for mama Earth.

What’s the most challenging thing about running a vintage / second-hand business?

I really want to keep everything for myself! On a more serious note though, I struggle with time management between the shop and my day job. Being able to offer quality preloved pieces does take a lot of hours spent thrifting, cleaning, repairing, styling, photographing, and then there is trying to share them online and find new customers, it can definitely be a challenge to find time well also working. The other big challenge for me is getting over my insecurities in reaching out to people and promoting the shop! I'm naturally a shy person so it was hard at first putting content and photos out there (Nuli Goods is a one-woman operation so I model all the pieces myself).

What inspired Nuli Goods?

I feel like two things happened at the end of last year. First, my closet reached its breaking point and I realized I had collected way too many vintage pieces that didn't really fit my personal style. I just could. not. resist. buying them because they were gorgeous but now they were collecting dust. I needed a way to share them with people who would actually use and appreciate them! Secondly, I was trying to find a dress for a birthday party but I didn't have the time to hit the thrift stores so I decided to give online secondhand shopping a try. I almost feel weird saying this within vintage fashion circles but my go to style has always leaned towards that whatever's trendy, Pinterest-inspired, Instagram girl fashion kind of vibe, and I didn't come across any shops that really catered to that. I created Nuli Goods in hopes of being an intersection between that style and vintage/preloved pieces.

Can you tell us more about where you source your vintage pieces?

Everything we sell has been sourced from local thrift stores or consignment pieces from women in Vancouver!

 What inspired your most recent curation of vintage pieces?

When I started this shop in January I was one hundred percent expecting to focus on dressier "going out" pieces but then the rest of 2020 happened. Now we're looking for quality basics and everyday pieces you can dress up or down. Our upcoming collection (launching early October!) is all about rainy days and cozy nights — there will be a lot of practical things meant to be worn outside and warm stuff to lounge around inside.

Do you plan to extend your shop to ecommerce?

Yes! We recently launched our first Fall collection on nuligoods.com and will be releasing future pieces through the site.

 What are your goals for Nuli Goods?  

To be able to provide even more super easy for people to shop via sustainable fashion over fast fashion. We are in the early stages of doing consignment pieces and I want to grow that, plus we have a few gorgeous dresses set aside that we will offer as rentals in the future. I know this will have to wait until it's safe for bigger events to be happening, but formalwear rentals is definitely something we want to explore  —  I don't agree with buying a new dress for every occasion, but I totally get wanting to wear something special for one night only! And then there is our Sourced For You service, which is basically our version of personal shopping but with vintage and preloved pieces.

How do you keep your packaging sustainable?

Right now our packaging is either thrifted or recycled from other online shopping — a huge thank you to friends and family who have been saving envelopes and boxes for us! By using only secondhand packaging we are not adding to the environmental impact of producing any packaging. Anything that we do need to buy new, like tape or mailing labels, are plastic free and easy to recycle.

All photos were styled with Luxe Puka Shell jewels by our incredible model / creative, Perri and shot on polaroid and 35mm film.

Words: Kiana Kanoa

Model: @pukaperri

Photos: Kiana kanoa