Cashing in on Vintage - With demand and prices up for secondhand designer clothes, people are cleaning out their closets and selling their castoffs.
     When Marlene Selsman walked out of Decades, a Melrose designer vintage store, she wasn't carrying shopping bags full of purchases. The West Hollywood entertainment writer left with a check for $200.
     "I was shocked," she said, when Decades owner Cameron Silver shelled out the money for old treasures from her closet: a brown glitter harem pants set, a wrap dress that Stevie Nicks could have worn and a sequined jacket from L.A.'s defunuct Pleasure Dome that originally cost $450.
     "She'd maybe get $20 for those at a garage sale," said Silver, as he paid $55 for another acquisition - a gold mesh Whiting & Davis purse from a dealer who bought it for $2. "Now I think people are getting hip to the fact that there is money to be made from the clothing,"Silver said. He stands to make money himself with a new boutique opening later this month inside the Manhattan flagship of Barney's New York.

     The word is out about designer vintage clothing - garments from 1930 forward: It's not just what passionate collectors and discerning fashionists love to buy and wear. Now savvy sellers are cashing in on their fashion castoffs.

     "People know that vintage piece could be as valuable as that dining room table they've lugged around for three generations," said Elizabeth Mason, owner of the Paper bag Princess in West Hollywood, who is finding more competition for good finds.

     "People are burnt out on giving away stuff," Silver explained. "Consequently, the market has gotten much more expensive."

     A Gucci bag he sold recently for $650 to a Tokyo tourist might have commanded $450 in a top shop three years ago, he said. And five years ago, before logos hit the runways again, the purse might have been considered gauche and undesirable.

     Just as TV shows such as "Antiques Roadshow" have helped America learn about treasures in the attic, sophisticated vintage stores, along with the Internet, are helping educate buyers and sellers alike about the value of vintage.
     Before, old clothing didn't have the same kind of cachet as furniture or pottery or glass," said Katie Rodriguez, owner of Resurrection, who is opening a Melrose Avenue branch of her
New York shop in May. "I think that's changed. It's becoming more a part of people's consciousness that it's OK and it's not that you are wearing an old rag."