After taking a quick pause for the short month of February, MN Street Style is back and reporting from the recent Standard Vintage Market at Minneapolis's American Swedish Institute, hosted by Olio Vintage and Rosella Vintage.
Therese Little
How would you describe your personal style?
Maximalist. Eclectic. High-low. Collected and curated.
Where do you find style inspiration?
A lot of colorways and how textures and colors go together. I look at art all the time and I’m inspired by oil paintings and the shapes of things. I also look at a lot of magazines and fashion things I see online; I’ve done that forever. I have a lot of creative friends who have good style. I don’t ever want to look like other people. I like having a mix of high-low and weird things for a unique outfit. I think I’m inspired by what’s different.
How do you choose what to wear each day?
It depends on what I have to do, but I really challenge myself to wear everything in my closet. Sometimes I’ll be excited about a shape or I’ll want something very oversized or I’ll want to try dress-over-pants again. I’m on camera a lot for work so I choose things that are flattering for my face, but sometimes I’ll just wear sweatpants on the bottom. If I’m leaving the house, I’ll wear something I haven’t worn in a while and find a way to make it new and exciting to me.
Thoughts on accessories?
I love accessories. I’m always wearing a ton of rings and my nails have been a big accessory for me lately—which has made it hard to clasp all my necklaces and bracelets. I love hats. I’ve been super into pillbox hats and them coming back; I buy a bunch in church basements and on eBay. I think accessories are really important and I usually have too many on. I don’t really ascribe to that rule of taking something off before you leave the house. More is more.
Where do you like to shop?
I challenged myself in 2019 to not buy any new clothes for a year. It really changed my shopping habits. I could buy used clothes then so I shopped all consignment and all vintage. I moved here from New York in 2020, and I feel like Minneapolis has such a great consignment, thrift, and vintage scene where it’s not super tapped out like it is in New York where it’s so expensive and everyone shops there.
I love Fashion Avenue [Edina], thrift stores on Selby Ave., Olio Vintage, The Golden Pearl Vintage. I go to estate sales all the time and I go through dusty, old closets. I’m afraid to say this, but Opitz Outlets is a treasure here in Minnesota. I call it the stolen-off-the-truck warehouse but you can get amazing stuff for so cheap. I shop online like The RealReal and Noisaf [Bazaar], a great online reseller where the woman who started it is from Duluth.
You shop a lot of vintage. What tips do you have for others who want to start shopping for more vintage clothes?
Look for fabrics, like 100% silk, 100% cotton, things like that so it’s made better, structurally better. If you look online like Etsy or eBay, start your searches but then look at the recommended things. You’ll get into a wormhole and you’ll start to know what your favorite shapes and cuts and textures [are]. Don’t be afraid to wear [vintage clothes] just like your normal clothes. If you need an orange jacket, look for a vintage one and incorporate it. It’s interesting and it will last longer.
People sometimes just see a costume, but it’s just regular clothes. I would recommend putting [vintage] with modern pieces so it doesn’t look like a costume. Think of it like you need a cotton blouse, but you can probably find a vintage one that will last longer, that’s better quality than if you go to Old Navy.
Tell me about your outfit today.
My jeans are from Grethen House, another local place. This is a vintage Escada blouse I got on Etsy because I was obsessed with the pattern and military cut of it. This jacket I bought from someone in West Virginia for $100 and it’s real fur, vintage Neiman Marcus. The vintage pillbox hat is from Encore [Consignment Boutique] in St. Paul, a great consignment with a really great vintage place in the basement. I just wanted to wear something vintage-y but also practical so I have a tank top under the blouse and the pants so I can try on dresses and stuff.
What advice would you have for someone wanting to have more freedom with fashion?
I have a really specific piece of advice for right now, spring 2026: If you want to be more fun in your style—no matter man, woman, nonbinary—wear a brooch. They’re very trendy and fun. They can be silly, they can be opulent, anything. You can wear it on your shirt, jacket, your hat like I am.
I would say introduce one piece of whimsy, like a color you don’t normally wear or a shape that you’ve never tried before. Wear it somewhere and you’d be amazed at the reaction if you feel good in it. People notice that and will want to talk to you. I feel like clothes are a great conversation starter. Just try something small and soon you’ll be dressing crazy all the time.
Stephanie Delmore
How would you describe your personal style?
I just have fun. I like lots of different shapes and I’ve collected a lot over a long period of time. I like blues in certain colors. I think most every time I get dressed, I put my outfit together differently. You go into your own closet and explore it.
Where do you find style inspiration?
I suppose just in random things, or colors. My sister’s here, and she’s always had reddish-brown hair so she’s always worn the pinks. I’ve always worn the blues. Our mom used to sew for us and we helped pick out the fabrics when we were little; it was natural [to choose our colors].
We have a costume company back in Bismarck, North Dakota. We costume most of the high schools in the state and South Dakota. We’re creating [costumes] for the kids to find their characters, but we get to find ours at the same time.
Has your style changed over the years?
I was in fashion school at Stephens [College] in Missouri so we had to get on the modeling squad. We’d do things from very short skirts to long maxi skirts and they’d teach you how to move gracefully in a skirt that barely covered you. You learned how to handle your legs very nicely, and everything. I think all the styles I learned how to play with, I got more tools. You can incorporate that 1950s piece with an '80s piece or more modern. You don’t want to get stuck in one era. If someone sees you coming and you look like 1980, you might get pulled aside.
Tell me about your outfit today.
I have an aqua base outfit. I’ve worn the velvet [vest] with pants before and it’s cold so my friend gave me a lovely shawl. I thought, "Why not wear it all?" I have a big bin of tights. I gave up heels and I’ve been wearing clogs more. Clogs are comfortable, and that makes it nice… I wanted something practical but also not something I’d wear to the grocery store.
How do you choose what to wear each day?
What doesn’t get out of your closet? I try to be fair to my closet and give my clothes a chance to get out and play. They’re a component of your personality.
I think every day should have its own feel. If you feel dreary when you get up and pull on the same thing, oh my, it’s terrible. If you’re a little enthused and kind of like a bird, you pick this item and that item and go, "Huh I’ve never tried that!" Life should have surprises. Usually it’s the bad things that surprise us, so create the fun… You should never feel drab. That’s not fair to yourself. It should be fun!
What advice would you give to someone wanting to find their personal style?
Well, just start by playing with it. Don’t wait til you’re against the gun. Even with budgets, or if you’re young, get some shawls and you can easily change an outfit. Start building by getting different pieces.
On a day off, an afternoon, say, start picking out your favorites that show who you are and who you want the world to see. You should have fun and people will say, "Gosh, she’s interesting!" You become a magnet for people if you’ve got something to say—so, say it!
Jr. Nguyen
How would you describe your personal style?
Masculine-feminine. I kind of divert things so I’ll pick something very masculine-esque but I’ll try and match it in a way that’s feminine, like a skirt or a handbag. Right now, it’s based on my income level so I wear a lot of vintage. I’m influenced by high fashion but I’m wearing a lot of American-made, vintage clothing that’s masculine and feminine pushed together.
Where do you find style inspiration?
Books, magazines, things like that. Princess Diana. I would say my style is very influenced by her and just '90s celebrity fashion. A lot of people in the past dressed really well. They’d put things on in a weird way and you’re like, "Why did they do that?" It’s because of necessity. People [wore] suits but then have rain boots tucked into their pants and it looks really good! They wore clothing based on their lifestyle. They’d be out and about in a nice place but the terrain is really bad so they’d be like, "I don’t care, I’m tucking my shit into my boots."
I’m trying to divert myself away from fashion and try to [look] at my current lifestyle, away from photo albums and looking at what I want to wear.
Where do you like to shop?
I shop locally a lot in the area but usually I’ll just go online and whatever I’m feeling, I will look into things. It’s whatever catches my eye. It has to be somewhat eclectic and has to fit. This [outfit] is kind of boring, to be honest, but yeah.
If you don’t know what to wear one day, do you have an outfit you know you can put and feel good in?
I do. The outfits I know I look the best in are the ones I wear the least often. They look great, but what happens is that I’ll just save them for special occasions, which isn’t very good. When I don’t know what to wear is when I dress the worst. Absolutely horrendous.
I’m neurologically weird and I have a spreadsheet of my closet and I just slam random things I have and that’s what I wear sometimes. It’s awful, just awful! I love clothes so much and I have so many aesthetics I want to do but I’m like, so overwhelmed today so I just put on an outfit and go. Ninety-percent of the time it’s horrible.
A lot of my closet right now is like Americana—so traditional, work-wear. Denim on denim is always going to be an easy combo to pull off.
How do you approach an event like this to find vintage items for your closet?
It’s really hard for me, so I just try and find things that interest me, that look cool like this Harris tweed bag. It’s feminine; I like this. I’ll pick out this one thing and stay in the booth for a while but I can’t really tell what it is I’m picking out unless I visually see it out.
As spring slowly approaches, how does your wardrobe change?
Literally just graphic tees and jeans. That will be my spring outfit. Less layers and more simplicity. Maybe spring and summer is when I look the least worst because I’m not trying to do anything too much. Well, it’s nice out so I don’t know if I want to wear anything besides a shirt and shorts.
What advice do you have for someone wanting to tap into their personal style beyond the mainstream trends?
It’s an interesting question because I think today there is a huge expectation to dress well. You see a lot of [fashion] forums, like for menswear, but then womenswear is totally different. Women dress however the fuck they want—and it looks good! But for me it’s pulling from different subcultures of my life. What music do you listen to? What’s your political identity? Where do you belong in the world and how do you want to show the world this is who you are? You’re pushing the world your image of who you want to be.
I think it’s hard to express yourself [through fashion] if you don’t really give a shit about clothing. But what do you care about? You like this band’s music, then wear a band T-shirt. You want to be comfortable, so wear some jeans that actually fit you better. You work a lot in construction, then wear some nice boots. That’s it. Practicality is by far the easiest way [to find your style] because it’s how you live your life. You’ll find clothing that will stay in your wardrobe for a long time. Fashion sustains your lifestyle when you’re not chasing an image that isn’t authentic to you.
