Every week, I walk through the digital racks looking for pieces that stop me mid-scroll — the ones with a story, a construction detail worth slowing down for, or simply that unquantifiable thing that makes a garment feel like it matters. This week, New York delivered. From a Galliano-era Dior Saddle in the palest sage green to a 1960s albino crocodile bag that has no business being this affordable, here are ten things worth your attention.
1. Christian Dior — Christian Dior Goatskin Light Green Micro Saddle Bag
early 2000s (circa 2000–2004) · €1.999.00
The Saddle bag needs no introduction, but this particular one deserves a closer look. It's from the John Galliano years at Dior — roughly 2000 to 2004 — when the house was producing some of the most audacious accessory design in fashion history. What makes this one special is the colour: a pale sage green in goatskin, a leather that takes dye with a soft, almost velvety depth that calfskin can't match. The Micro size was rarer than the standard Saddle, and in this condition — with the matching shoulder strap intact and the gold-tone 'D' charm swinging freely — it's the kind of bag that appreciates the moment you pay for it. Galliano-era Dior accessories have been climbing steadily at auction for three years now, and the Saddle in particular shows no sign of cooling off.
2. Louis Vuitton — Louis Vuitton Damier Sauvage Calf Hair Slingback Heels
Y2K / early 2000s (circa 2003) · €425.00
Marc Jacobs' tenure at Louis Vuitton (1997–2013) was defined by a willingness to experiment with materials that the house hadn't touched since the trunk-making days. The Damier Sauvage pattern — an animal-print riff on the classic checkerboard — was produced for only a few seasons around 2003, making it one of the harder LV prints to track down. These slingbacks execute the pattern in genuine calf hair, which gives the check a tactile, almost three-dimensional quality. The slingback strap keeps the silhouette light — these aren't clunky statement heels, they're surprisingly wearable. Size 36.5, excellent used condition. A genuine rarity from a period when LV was taking real creative risks.
3. Louis Vuitton × Takashi Murakami — Louis Vuitton × Murakami Monogram Multicolore Kitten Heels
mid 2000s (circa 2004–2005) · €349.00
When Takashi Murakami recoloured the LV monogram in 33 shades for Spring 2003, it wasn't just a collaboration — it was a cultural reset. The Multicolore Monogram became the defining print of mid-2000s luxury, seen on bags carried by Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson one day, dissected in art criticism journals the next. These kitten heels capture the collaboration at its most refined: the playful palette applied with restraint to a classic pump silhouette, the monogram flowers rendered in pink, lime, and sky blue against white coated canvas. Size EU 38, authentic. The Murakami re-edition in 2025 sent archive prices up sharply — pieces like this, from the original 2004–2005 production run, are now firmly in collector territory.
4. Louis Vuitton — Vintage Louis Vuitton Black Silk Peep Toe Heel with Crystal Bow
mid 2000s (circa 2005–2006) · €325.00
There's a particular kind of evening shoe that doesn't announce itself with a platform or a spike heel — it simply arrives and people notice. These are that shoe. Black silk upper, a demure peep toe, and a crystal-encrusted bow that sits at the vamp like a piece of jewellery. The construction speaks to a specific moment in LV's ready-to-wear evolution — around 2005, when the accessories team was experimenting with soft, almost lingerie-inspired finishes on footwear. Size EU 34.5, which makes them petite, but the proportions are so deliberately delicate that they'd look wrong in a larger size. Chelsea gallery opening, dinner at The Waverly Inn, the kind of place where you want someone to ask where you found them.
5. Louis Vuitton — Vintage Louis Vuitton Suede Sandal Heels with Crystal Flower
mid 2000s (circa 2004–2005) · €350.00
If the black silk pair above is evening, these are garden party. Soft taupe suede with an oversized crystal flower embellishment perched on the open toe — the kind of ornamentation that could easily tip into costume territory but doesn't, because the rest of the shoe is so restrained. No visible logos, no monogram canvas, no 'LV' hardware. Just good materials and one dramatic gesture. This was the pre-Instagram era of luxury fashion, where a shoe made its case through silhouette and material rather than logo density. Size EU 34.5, meaning they've likely been worn once or twice and then stored. The suede looks clean, the crystals are all present, and the flower still sits at exactly the right angle.
6. Issey Miyake Pleats Please — Pleats Please Issey Miyake Vintage Pink Pleated Dress
1990s (circa 1995–1999) · €243.43
Pleats Please launched in 1993 as a diffusion line and within two years had become the main event — a completely new category of garment that treated fabric as architecture. Miyake's heat-pressed polyester pleating technique is the secret: the garment is cut and sewn first at two to three times its final size, then sandwiched between sheets of paper and fed through a heat press that permanently sets the accordion folds. The result is a dress that holds its shape forever, packs flat without wrinkling, and moves on the body like nothing else in your wardrobe. This one is pink, size 3 (roughly a modern S–M), made in Japan sometime in the late 1990s. It's machine washable, which still feels like a magic trick twenty-five years later.
7. Louis Vuitton — Louis Vuitton Vintage Tape Mule Sandals in Canvas
Y2K / early 2000s (circa 2002–2003) · €270.00
The LV tape-webbing motif — those narrow horizontal bands with the house name woven through — was originally an industrial detailing borrowed from luggage straps. In the early 2000s it migrated onto ready-to-wear and accessories as part of Marc Jacobs' ongoing project to make the house codes feel less precious and more utilitarian. These slide mules are the logical endpoint of that experiment: a casual, slip-on summer shoe dressed up with just enough house DNA to make it interesting. Canvas upper, slight heel, open toe. They'd work beautifully with raw-hem denim and a white shirt, or with a linen suit when you want to signal that you didn't try too hard. Size EU 39.
8. Louis Vuitton — Louis Vuitton Medallion Black Patent Leather 5-Inch Heels
mid 2000s (circa 2006) · €200.00
A full five-inch stiletto in glossy black patent, with a gold-tone LV medallion suspended at the ankle like a piece of jewellery. These are not walking shoes — nobody is pretending otherwise. These are car-to-table shoes, dinner-at-the-Four-Seasons shoes, the kind of heels you wear when the only distance you're covering is from the banquette to the bar and back. The medallion detail was a recurring motif in LV's mid-2000s footwear collections, usually reserved for runway samples and limited production runs. Patent leather in this condition — no cracking at the flex points, no yellowing — suggests they were worn once or twice and then properly stored. Size 37.5. For €200, you're buying a piece of LV's more theatrical era.
9. Unbranded — American Leathercraft — 1960s Albino Crocodile Crossbody Saddle-Front Case Bag
1960s (circa 1965) · €122.00
This is the kind of piece that makes vintage hunting worth the effort. An unbranded, American-made crossbody bag from the mid-1960s in genuine albino crocodile — an exotic leather so rare that most people have never seen it in person. The skin is nearly white, with faint grey undertones and the characteristic irregular scale pattern that distinguishes crocodile from alligator. The construction is saddle-front case style — a rigid frame with a hinged opening — suspended from a narrow leather strap. No designer name, no logo, no provenance beyond the obvious quality of the materials and the hand-stitching. At €122, it's the most undervalued piece in this week's selection by a wide margin. Someone who knows what they're looking at is going to get a bargain.
10. Louis Vuitton — Louis Vuitton Y2K Brown Patent Leather Mary Jane Pointed Pumps
Y2K (circa 2001–2002) · €173.88
The Mary Jane pump had a moment at the turn of the millennium that fashion historians are still unpacking. What was previously a schoolgirl silhouette got stretched into a pointed toe, raised onto a slim heel, and rendered in high-gloss patent leather — and suddenly it was the shoe of the moment. This pair, in rich brown patent with an adjustable ankle strap and a moderate heel height, is pure distilled Y2K. The proportions are what make it work: the elongated toe keeps it from reading juvenile, while the patent finish catches the light in a way that matte leather never does. Size 36.5, excellent condition considering they're over twenty years old. Wear them with a slip dress, wear them with wide-leg trousers, wear them with anything that needs a little turn-of-the-millennium edge.
Curator's Picks is a weekly series from The Vintage Guide. Each week we spotlight one city and the pieces that caught our eye — no algorithms, no trend reports, just a human being looking at clothes and telling you what's good. Every item links through to our deal pages where you can find the original eBay listing. We earn a small commission if you buy, at no extra cost to you.
Next week: another city, another set of finds. Until then — buy less, buy better.
