The Elite Fashion Detectives Who Can Find Anything—for a Luxury Price
High-end personal shoppers are seeing demand for their services rise, even as the possibility of a recession looms
By the time Monika Bolkun decided to splurge on the Bottega Veneta earrings, it was too late. The $1,200 teardrop-shaped baubles had completely sold out, and Bottega boutiques said it could be a while before they came back in stock.
“You call Gab for items that are nowhere to be found,” she said. “She has her ways.” Within days, the earrings were hers.
Ms. Waller, 28, is what you might call an elite fashion detective. She tracks down luxury goods that are nearly impossible to find—sunglasses from Balenciaga, sequin shoulder bags from
Fendi, rain boots from Chanel and sandals from
Hermès—for a finder’s fee of $200 per item. This year, she took out a billboard in West Hollywood that read: “Sold out? Just ask Gab.”
Personal shoppers like Ms. Waller—or “sourcers,” as they call themselves—have long been used in fashion. Some have even cultivated specialist appeal,
focusing on one marquee item such as Hermès Birkin bags. Now, shoppers say the need for sourcing services is greater than ever—and spans a wider breadth of labels than before. Sourcers now go far beyond luxury stalwarts Chanel and Hermès to include mid-market brands such as Ugg and Adidas.
When Hermès sandals and platform Uggs can’t be found in stores, high-end personal shoppers step in to track them down for customers.
Even with a possible recession looming, some customers are clamoring for luxury goods, which can cost several thousand dollars apiece, and that’s before personal-shopper rates that can run higher than sales tax. For the high-end consumer, it’s worth the price.
“I don’t have time to track something down and call all the stores,” said Griselda Kreitzman, a 43-year-old stay-at-home mother in Scottsdale, Ariz., who recently had Ms. Waller find a sold-out Valentino coat.
Luxury fashion has long relied on limited distribution to elevate and preserve its reputation, but already hard-to-get items are getting more difficult to procure. In 2021, Chanel began limiting customers in the U.S. to two “Timeless Classic” quilted leather bags a year, and this May it instituted a monthly limit of one bag per customer. A Chanel representative said in an email that the brand takes “appropriate measures” to keep up with demand in certain markets. At Hermès,
which sells the highly covetable Birkin and Kelly bags in limited quantities, some shoppers say they try to advance on wait lists for the handbags by purchasing other items from the brand. Jewelry, belts, blankets and scarves that some shoppers call “Birkin bait” may be held for VIPs, especially if they become popular.
“At Hermès, the new stuff doesn’t even hit the floor. It just sells out,” said Monique DeShields, a 35-year-old real-estate broker in Sunny Isles Beach, Fla. An Hermès representative said in an email that the company “is strictly against company policies to link sales of products. We prohibit and condemn the sale of certain products as a condition to the purchase of others.”
At luxury stores across the U.S., it’s become normal for long lines to form outside. Even when shoppers make it in, some say they can’t find what they’re looking for—or feel that they aren’t given luxury treatment.
Adabelle Buntrock, an influencer in Atlanta said she started buying Chanel through Ilana Roberts, a sourcer in Boca Raton, Fla., after disliking the customer experience at her local boutique. She recalled looking for Chanel earmuffs and said the sales associate laughed at her request. Ms. Roberts, who charges $100 per item, in addition to a 10% fee for more expensive items, eventually found the earmuffs at a different Chanel boutique. “The stores only go the extra mile for their top customers,” Ms. Buntrock said. Chanel declined to comment on its in-store customer experience.
A Chanel representative said in an email that the brand takes “appropriate measures” to keep up with demand for its items.
Fashion-industry analysts say luxury is tightening its grip in response to surging demand. Supply-chain
snarls and material constraints have made some items limited by nature, but more barriers are also being put up as a marketing technique.
“Once something gets very hot, you see it on the cool people, and then it’s on everyone else and then it’s on the really tacky people who don’t have any taste,” said Erin Mullaney, a luxury consultant who formerly worked as a buyer for Harrods and Browns in the U.K. “Supply and demand is a way for luxury to control its image.”
Luxury sourcers work directly with retail associates at brand boutiques and department stores who are eager to earn a commission. Ms. Waller, originally from Australia, started out as a stylist, and built connections with boutiques there before adding more associates from across the globe to her team. She moved from Sydney to L.A. last year.
“They see us as a moneymaking machine,” Ms. Waller said. “It’s 100% built on relationships.”
Merav Abeckaser, a Brooklyn-based sourcer who helps clients in remote locations find Chanel items, said she frequently travels to California to shop. She described the sales associates at a boutique in Costa Mesa as family.
Ms. Roberts built her connections as a shopper, buying handbags and shoes for herself and her loved ones before turning her access into a business.
“I can walk into a Chanel today and open their cabinets, and there are 30 classic flap bags that they say are sold out,” Ms. Roberts said. “They hide it and stash it.” Chanel declined to comment on this.
Younger shoppers say they are turning to luxury sourcers to shop online.
Ms. DeShields said she started using Ms. Roberts’s service after becoming frustrated with her retail browsing experience. At Chanel, clothing she has had her eyes on typically get reserved for bigger spenders.
Younger shoppers say they are turning to luxury sourcers to shop online, since brands like Chanel and Hermès don’t sell much of their goods digitally. Lillian Escava, a 28-year-old stay-at-home mother of two in Brooklyn, said she relies on luxury sourcer Jennifer Nisan, also based in Brooklyn, to learn what’s in stock at Chanel.
“I’m an online girl,” Ms. Escava said. “I just browse on my phone and follow what Jen finds.”
Some sourcers have ruffled feathers of the brands they buy from, which view personal shoppers as resellers—the ultimate luxury no-no. Ms. Nisan said she’s been banned from shopping at Chanel with her own credit card for about a year, after an employee called to warn her about posting its products online. (Chanel declined to comment on the incident.) Ms. Nisan still shops for her clients at Chanel but only under their accounts, she said.
Ms. Waller said she has built relationships with brands but that it took time for her to gain their trust. Ms. Roberts said she avoids conflicts by making “clean transactions,” as she put it, where she sets up store accounts for each client she sources for and uses their credit card to pay.
Ms. Nisan recently pulled an all-nighter searching for
Ugg’s Ultra Mini Platforms. She eventually found the boots at a footwear boutique in Italy, even though Ugg had marketed the boots as exclusive to its website and stores. Ugg did not respond to requests for comment.
Ms. Nisan said shopping has become more cutthroat in recent years. Back in 2019, she said she could call a boutique and talk with any sales associate, but said now no one picks up the phone. She believes fashion plates such as Hailey Bieber, Kylie and Kendall Jenner, and Gigi and Bella Hadid have a big impact on what people are buying, and said demand has exploded since Covid.
“Getting a Louis Vuitton bathing suit is like getting a Rolex,” Ms. Nisan said. “It has become such a nightmare to find.”
Write to Chavie Lieber at
[email protected]
Corrections & Amplifications
An earlier version of this article incorrectly gave Ilana Roberts’s surname as Rogers. (Corrected on Dec. 6)
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