Every morning, before coffee or working out, the New York-based photographer and content creator Tanya Ravichandran starts her day by scrolling through a bevy of resale sites. “I wake up, go on my phone, and immediately check every single secondhand app’s listings,” she says. It may sound like a shopping compulsion, but Ravichandran has a crystal-clear focus: She is always on the hunt for vintage items from Alexander McQueen and Ann Demeulemeester. “I have a bot that scours the entire internet twenty-four seven. I don’t miss a single thing.”
Ravichandran—who is based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn—has gained an online following for her impressive (and growing) collection of pieces from these two avant-garde labels. On TikTok, where she has over a million followers, Ravichandran will often reveal a glimpse inside her one-of-a-kind wardrobe, which currently holds over 200 Demeulemeester pieces and over 400 from McQueen. She began seriously stockpiling the designers about three years ago. “I’ve been collecting for the past decade, but not at the level at which I am looking on the internet nonstop now,” says Ravichandran. “It’s become quite an obsession, and I’ve really refined how to collect; It’s easier to collect when you’re hyper-focused.”
While her (mostly black-and-white) closet is filled with other labels such as Margiela and Tom Ford-era Gucci, Ravichandran’s focus on Demeulemeester and McQueen has made her collection extremely unique. So, why the fascination around those two designers in particular?
With McQueen, Ravichandran says she has been drawn to the late designer’s romantic storytelling. (He passed in 2010.) “Every McQueen show had its own little world, and each of his models were characters with stories,” says Ravichandran, who can relate this approach to her own personal style. “I love dressing like a character in my own story. Oftentimes, when I wear McQueen, I like wearing the whole look, because I want to be an extension of that story.”
Some of her prized McQueen possessions (and best finds) thus far include one of the most famous items in her closet: A leather bondage-style jacket from his spring 2003 collection. “It’s fully leather, has a corseted waist, and has little silver D-rings all over it,” she says. “Every time I wear it, a really fab older woman will be like, ‘Are you wearing 2000s McQueen?’ They somehow always know.”
Another recent favorite is a corset from the designer’s famed fall 2002 “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” collection, which drew heavy inspiration from Tim Burton. “It's the only [McQueen] runway that Adriana Lima ever walked, and I got my hands on the corset she wore,” says Ravichandran. “Britney Spears wore it too. I won’t rest until I find the matching skirt.” As for accessories, Ravichandran’s collection would not be complete without a pair of his spring 2003 pirate boots. “I bought them on eBay, and I wanted to know what fab lady I bought it from,” she says. “I looked up her name after the package arrived, and she was the wife of one of The Rolling Stones!”
For Demeleumeester, meanwhile, Ravichandran has been drawn to the work of the Belgian designer—one of the Antwerp Six—for an entirely different reason. When it comes to wearing Ann D, Ravichandran says that is when she feels her most sexy. “When she was designing the brand, she was making women’s clothes for women,” she says. “Things were never meant to be sexual or sensual, but when a woman wears the clothing, you feel sensual and sexual—but a man would never read it like that. I feel so empowered in her pieces.”
In her Ann D archive, Ravichandran holds an edgy vest covered in silver dog tags, from Demeulemeester’s spring 1991 collection—her first solo runway show ever. She found it on eBay. “What’s really cool about the piece is that, if you got invited to the show, a dog tag was on everyone’s seat,” says Ravichandran. “I think there’s one or two in the world, and mine has writing on the tag, so I think it’s the sample. It’s literally constructed with pipe cleaners.”
Finding such rare and highly-coveted pieces is certainly an art, and one that Ravichandran has down to a science. For any newbies wanting to get into the collecting game, Ravichandran offers three simple tips to refine their shopping skills. “Step number one is having so much knowledge that you can out-knowledge another collector,” she says. “It’s so important to have knowledge of specific collections and specific histories—because that helps you identify a piece even if it’s photographed on a Nintendo 3DS.”
For step two, the collector recommends hyper-focusing on a designer or two, so that you can refine your search on a variety of resale sites. As for step three, she says to “be so freaking crazy and check the internet as soon as you wake up,” says Ravichandran. “Check every single app—eBay, Grailed, Depop, Vinted. Another slept-on trick is befriending other people in the vintage community: You can be like, ‘Hey, have you seen this piece before? I've been looking for it.’”
Ravichandran’s personal archive has become so robust that she recently hosted a special exhibition of her collection at the 313 New York in the Lower East Side, as well as in a special print magazine called Archive 001. “I’ve always wanted to make a book or a magazine—I love physical print media, and have been collecting them forever,” says Ravichandran. At the event held back in June, she allowed fellow Ann D and McQueen lovers to get up close and personal with some of her favorite pieces.
Her intention, after all, is to treat her archive with love: She likes to wear and share pieces, not keep them hidden in a dusty garment bag. “We should democratize clothing, and people should be allowed to see and wear vintage clothing,” she says. “There are a lot of vintage stores that just buy things, put them in an archive, and no one ever sees them. Are we really preserving the legacy and the history of a brand if just someone is holding it in their archive?”
For Ravichandran, then, it’s not about rare finds or how big her collection is, but keeping historic fashion moments alive. “I always make a joke that I like the hunt more than the actual pieces of clothing,” says Ravichandran. As she continues collecting, the fashion lover does have plans to evolve her assortment—by going into even more high-fashion territory, for starters. “For the past decade, I’ve been collecting highly-wearable pieces, but now I’m able to venture into buying the unwearable pieces,” says Ravichandran. “I’m probably not going to wear my Margiela glove top in my day-to-day life.”
As for a holy-grail piece that she has yet to find? Well, she has her sights set on one of those incredibly rare 1990s McQueen pieces featuring real locks of hair sewn into the labels. Fun fact: She once got close to owning one. “I found this private seller in Strasbourg, France—kind of in the middle of nowhere,” says Ravichandran. “She had a jacket. I offered her 4,000 euros, but when I PayPaled her, she cancelled the order and blocked me everywhere. She ended up selling it to someone else.” Call it the one that got away.