What makes a purchase “worth it”? The answer is different for everybody, so we’re asking some of the coolest, most shopping-savvy people we know—from small-business owners to designers, artists, and actors—to tell us the story behind one of their most prized possessions.

Who?

Carly Knight’s entire brand is old school. Think quintessential 1930s vintage and Golden Age Hollywood; the type of person who can actually pull off that ’60s-style dress. In fact, the content creator has built a whole presence of over 200,000 followers on Instagram and over 600,000 on TikTok off of her affinity to vintage fashion and adornments. “I love grandma chic—like, grandma Victorian is the vibe,” she explains. “I’m obsessed with the aesthetics of the ’30s and the ’20s. Anything that looks like it would be haunted is right up my alley.” Carly considers herself a vintage lifestyle influencer and, as a Los Angeles transplant, she specifically gravitates towards the Old Hollywood aesthetic—something she’s tried to emulate in her fashion and home decor. But that hadn’t always been the case.

After trying to sell name-brand clothes from retailers like Free People on Instagram, Carly noticed many of her followers were interested in the vintage and antique items she had in her staged sets. In response, she began collecting vintage pieces—like those really popular pink slip dresses—and showcasing them in her posts. 

“I was like ‘Okay, well, these are my personal favorites, but I didn’t think there was a market for stuff that wasn’t name-brand and was just old,” Carly says. Growing up with an antique-loving father who frequented flea markets, her perception was that vintage wasn’t a mainstream movement. “I was like, ‘Well, this is kind of for old men.’ But then if you can style it right, people just fall in love with it.”

What and when?

Over the years, Carly has found many different old advertising signs at antique markets and often uses them as decor in her home. They come in all shapes, sizes, and types—whether it’s toiletries or oil signs. Carly says you can easily find one for any setting and they immediately elevate a space. But aesthetics aside, one of the main reasons for Carly’s fondness over these signs is what they represent.

“My favorite [era] is the 1930s—the Great Depression era—because that’s the time when people had it the hardest in history, arguably, for the US, and they showed so much resilience and strength,” Carly explains. “If you look at these different colorful signs, and you look at the designs and the art—people would make them so intricate. Even at a time when everyone was struggling, they still found ways to keep their spirits high.”