What's in Store, Volume 5, EL SOURCE

Welcome to shopping (and more) like you've never shopped before.

At some point, most of us here have expressed some kind of shopping disappointment. Online shopping feels anonymous and overwhelming. A brand-based store doesn’t often reflect the way we really dress, deploying a mix of brands and prices — and also, at least for me, always with secondhand mixed in. Many of you ask for help secondhand shopping; it can feel overwhelming. (Guidance: here + here.) On top of that, even the most “elevated” in store shopping experience can feel intimidating and pressuring. And time consuming and exhausting versus a treat.

It’s what brought me to Saks Fifth Avenue Club, which addresses many of the problems. Private shopping, across brands/floors, where someone lovely helps you. And it’s a great time saving measure; if you love fashion but also work, you can go with a mission from “the perfect pair of jeans” to “an entire spring wardrobe” to “evolve my style” and arrive to a pretty room full of pre-pulled pieces and an expert to walk you through it, which can be a long term relationship.

Alexa and I at El Source

Alexa is a friend and a stylist I work with and first met in the Saks Fifth Avenue Club with the mutual friend who introduced us. I was instantly drawn to her cool, mannish vs. bodycon style (so unusual in MIA) and personality for days. She has an insane understanding of every aspect of fashion and style from brands (mainstream and more obscure) to fabrics and how they drape, to sourcing hard-to-find pieces and so much more. Plus she always tells you the truth. I was so amazed when, after meeting me just once, I arrived to an appointment in a room filled with things that appealed to me, pushed me, excited me and just … worked. There’s a saying I stole from a friend of a friend: “It’s either a hit or it’s shit.” Alexa knows the hits. I thought we were just getting started!

It’s why when she announced a second act, called EL SOURCE (good name, right?) I couldn’t wait to go see what it was about.

I arrived at a very cool, two-story space in Miami, between Midtown and Wynwood, in building of lofts, many seemingly style startup related.

If you’d told me it was a luxury suite at One hotel in Brooklyn, it would fit the bill. And I was offered champs … but chose an Americano.

Alexa looks over a gently used piece from recent past season Miu Miu

Alexa’s vision? Redefining luxury shopping.

You can check out her site here, bearing in mind it’s limited and still very new.

Here’s an overview of what you can do at EL SOURCE:

• Shop new items Alexa brings in for the shop, brands she loves that include small independents like Miami based Thea Studio.

• Shop curated gently used pieces (I saw Chanel bags and shoes, a Loewe puzzle and more on my visit)

• Shop pieces Alexa will source for you, whether new or used (hard-to-find sneakers, a Kelly… whatever!)

• Get styled by Alexa for a specific event (a recent client wanted options for an Art Basel panel she was speaking on), or get more general styling help, e.g. “I want to evolve my style.”

• Host a shopping event with friends

• Create content (there’s a white background and amazing lighting; check Alexa’s social; she knows what she’s doing!)

• Host a sale of your own used pieces

Alexa in her space with some Chanel booty

So what do you have to pay to play? At the moment, it costs $250 to use the space. (A really great value if you share I with a few friends, as I intend to.) But Alexa can help with pricing and more details if you DM her @imalexastyle.

A view of the space from the second floor.

a few pre-owned selections

BO is a perfume line I first tried in Alexa’s Saks Salon, and she carries it at EL SOURCE.

a dress from Saint Laurent waiting for its debut

How do you EL SOURCE?

If you live in Miami, EL SOURCE is a no-brainer. I can imagine inviting my friend group here for an evening of shopping together, asking Alexa to pull game changing third pieces for the upcoming season and maybe vintage jeans and maybe the used Hermes Bolide bag that’s been haunting my dreams. Instead of feeling like a consumer event, I imagine it more like girlfriends getting together for drinks — only instead of drinks, followed by a migraine, we’d be enjoying each other in an environment where we can do what we love and actually hear each other talk.

If you just pass through, I could see weaving EL SOURCE into the fabric of your Miami experience. Maybe you have lunch in Wynwood and then head over, while your co-travelers do Wynwood Walls. You could do a facetime with Alexa in advance, and instead of buying new things “for a trip” — you could sell some items, buy a mix of used and new, and get Alexa’s thoughts on evolving your style. Someone here recently asked me about pulling together a capsule seasonal wardrobe for a season they don’t normally deal with; that’s something Alexa could totally handle.

This is exciting.

I am starting to have the feeling I did in Mexico City, where so many hopeful people are starting original fashion businesses with an element of sustainability, pushing against the way it’s always been done. In Miami we have Victoria at Capsool, and now we have Alexa at EL SOURCE, and it feels like something is happening. For those of us who wrestle with the angels and devils of style joy and shopping guilt, shopping thoughtfully and supporting independent female and LGBTQIA businesses feels like a way we can vote with our feet—for different, for exploration, for acceptance, and for each other.