Where Madison Avenue Spy Finds American Royalty Hand-Me-Downs

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

New York City has more stores than anyone could physically tackle, but somehow we always keep returning to the usual suspects. To break out of the rut, we've asked some of the city's shopping and fashion gurus to provide their hidden retail gems—those unique stores around our fantastic island (and beyond) that we might not all know about. Cue The Beatles: We're about to get a little help from our friends.

Today's subject is Lila Delilah, the voice behind one of our favorite blogs, Madison Avenue Spy. She's a fashion/business-journalist-turned-blogger who made pit stops at New York magazine, ABC News, and The Wall Street Journal before starting her blog based on what she knows best: Shopping. And today sharing the secret on where she finds her second-hand Sonia Rykiel sweaters—that may or may not have been previously owned by royalty.

"This isn't an easy question but I think I will have to choose a small, Madison Avenue, second floor consignment store called Encore Resale. The store has been in the same location since the 1950's and has some of the most divine clothing and accessories, which are usually marked at quite reasonable prices. There is always a full selection of Hermes, Chanel, Valentino and YSL, including bags and accessories."

"Cool story: As with most consignment stores, the consignor is usually anonymous. During the '80s, I used to come across an abundance of brand new merchandise (with tags) that had the initials J.O. Turns out that when Aristotle Onassis stopped giving Jackie Kennedy spending money, she would go to local department and use his charge account to buy clothing. Whatever she didn't wear would get sent to Encore. Jackie got extra spending cash and I got a lot of heavily discounted Sonia Rykiel sweaters."—Yale Breslin
· Encore Resale [Official Site]
· Madison Avenue Spy [Official Site]