Happy One Year Anniversary to Us; A Look Back at the Past Year on The Inside Source

By The Inside Source
November 2, 2010

Meredith Barnett They say time flies when you're having fun, which is why we did a double take when we realized that the first anniversary of The Inside Source was upon us this very week. We've had many major developments in the past year—chief among them, an exciting new Web site redesign. We can also boast 1,000 interior design and fashion articles under our belt (browse our extensive archive here). But the mission behind The Inside Source has never wavered: to provide compelling content on the latest in shopping for fashion, interior design and culture—and the people and style trends that drive them—through the lens of the 200 million plus products in the eBay online marketplace.

The past year spent producing The Inside Source has left us with two major takeaways regarding people and fashion and design trends. (Left: Meredith Barnett, Editorial Director)

First, the people: As it turns out, having a passion for eBay shopping designer is a common denominator among many of today's biggest talents and style trend-setters, all of whom have been happy to dish on their eBay shopping tips and scores. The 250+ people we've profiled in the past year have given us new, fascinatingly idiosyncratic categories of online shopping trends to obsess over and track on eBay.

From the fashion trendy crowd, we learned that fashion designer Zac Posen scours the site for vintage snake jewelry, and that Liz Lange has a similar penchant for hunting one-of-a-kind baubles ("All my favorite pieces of vintage costume jewelry are from eBay," Lange says.) Meanwhile, British handbag designer Anya Hindmarch talked to us about how she outfitted her new London handbag boutique with handsome Edwardian-era file drawers procured from eBay, as well as her love of butterfly boxes and vintage men's Rolexes. Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock, the duo behind Vena Cava, hopscotch around eBay, searching for inspiration when designing a new fashion collection (which, for the current Fall 2010 season, meant mining for anything to do with 70’s fiber art, and digging deep for old hardware to reference for button detailing).

And then there's Lynn Yaeger, fashion writer extraordinaire, who wrote a first-hand account of her love of goods from bygone eras—and how she starts every morning by typing "baby locket" into the keyword field on eBay, and then usually follows it up with "baby brooch" or “Becassine doll," to flush out her growing collection of rag dolls and Victorian children's jewelry.

Read more about the fashion folk we've profiled on The Inside Source by browsing through our "Shopping With," "Designer Download," "Stylist Secrets," "Blogger Babble," and "Green Scene" hotspots.

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"I have a sense of what women want; I'm not designing for the magazines," said designer Zac Posen, who counts portable record players, vintage records and China among his eBay scores.
Maternity fashion designer Liz Lange (right), who launched her own shop-hunting site with sister Jane (left), told us: "All my favorite pieces of vintage costume jewelry are from eBay. I have a large, white and gold statement necklace from the 1970s, a Weiss collar necklace, Trifari earrings, and tons of Kenneth Jay Lane."
"I was thrilled to discover some perfect bits and pieces on eBay," says Anya Hindmarch of the process of decorating her London boutique, "including beautiful Edwardian file drawers. I knew I had to have them; exciting discoveries like this make my heart flutter."
"My best eBay finds have come by checking out the other things a seller has, which might be totally unrelated to what I originally searched for," said Vena Cava's Sophia Buhai (right, pictured with business partner Lisa Mayock), which for her include everything from octopuses preserved in old mason jars to an Eames-era dining room table.
Fashion fixture Lynn Yager wrote about her personal eBay habit for us...
Then she spoke about the same with Paper magazine's Mickey Boardman, who collects royalty memorabilia (a bust of emperor Frederick III of Germany is among his favorites).
Yaeger also talked to Barneys' Simon Doonan and partner, Jonathan Adler, who obsess over Blenko glass and horological collages.
Finally, Yaeger spoke with up-and-coming fashion designer Erdem Moralioglu, who told her: "I'm not a collector; I'm more of a hoarder. I go on kicks. You want the complete set; it's an insatiable kind of thing."
"Gossip Girl" costume designer Eric Daman filled us in on the trends we can expect to come out of the current season on the show: "Over-the-top fun and fabulousness inspired by the girls' tenues de jour a Paris. Hats, jet beads, high heels and so much more!"
We spoke to dozens of influential bloggers over the past year. One of our all-time favorites: Judy Aldridge of wildly popular style blog Atlantis Home. "To find the good stuff, you have to put yourself in the mind of a seller and think about all the ways they might possibly list something," she advised.
Elizabeth Spiridakis, another widely read blogger, composed a piece for us about her unusual collections, and showed us pictures, to boot. Of her pin collection, she told us: "I would comb thrift stores, antique stores and eBay for enameled metal flower pins, monogrammed stickpins, 70's buttons, anything weird."
Celebrity stylist Jeanne Yang, who recently launched a fashion line with client, actress Katie Holmes, said: "eBay is a fantastic resource to research silhouettes. eBay is like a fashion library, from the patterns to vintage dresses and sketches."
"I was raised by an Indian immigrant," said designer Rachel Roy. "I have way too much guilt to throw things away. So when I'm ready to clean out the closets, I post pieces on eBay. I find I get better prices for them than on consignment."
Fashion designer John Patrick of sustainable label Organic told us his latest eBay purchase was 500 vintage clothespins. On the evolution of eco-friendly fashion design, he said: "Sourcing has become more diverse, and I have more options with recycled and up-cycled fabrics. We are in the infancy of the sustainable dialogue."

Not to be outdone, the interior design community was equally insightful. Interior design maven Kelly Wearstler chatted with us about her great admiration for a relatively obscure Italian architect and designer named Ettore Sottass, and revealed that one of her all-time favorite color palette combinations is acid green and postal blue. "Top Design's" India Hicks, a Bahamian resident, former fashion model and formidable interior designer in her own right, talked about how eBay is "the perfect solution to remote island living" when she’s itchy for high design (she’s also a collector of Anish Kapoor paintings, chagrin boxes, and Smythson scrapbooks). New York-based designer Miles Redd reinforced how handy eBay can be as a decorating tool, having sourced "loads of textiles," antique suzanis, slipper chairs, and even vintage National Geographics to use as wallpaper for her interior design clients. Christiane Lemieux, of bedding and home accessories purveyor Dwell Studio, shared her belief that “things were generally made better in the olden days,” and tipped us off to the ultimate keywords for scoring sleek, modern, signature housewares.

Check out the following hotpots for more of our interviews with interior design style makers: "Shopping With," "Decorator Download," "Blogger Babble," and "Green Scene."

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Kelly Wearstler's motto is "more is more." From the objets d'art, Abstract Expressionist oil paintings, fantastical sculptures, and a bevy of intricately detailed boxes to bursts of Sputnik chandeliers, arrangements of Deco seating, oversized patterns covering walls and ceilings, and swathes of saturated color, her rooms are electric.
"Everywhere I tur,n there is a David Hicks influence: antique chairs painted white and upholstered in shocking pink...old mixed with new and the strong belief that good taste and design are by no means dependent upon money," says interior designer India Hicks of how her father, legendary designer David Hicks, has influenced her work.
The favorite thing I ever bought [on eBay] was a beautiful bleached pine desk, for $125, that I used in a child's room," designer Miles Redd said. "It was lovely, made by Baker in the twenties. I also found a beautiful Louis XVI child's chair that I love."
Christine Lemieux of Dwell Studio filled us in on her eBay search strategy: "My process is all about the keywords. You can really drill down to what you want if you put in the right series of search terms. I usually put in at least four words for every search. One definitely isn't enough."
"Marketplaces like eBay are the greatest places to shop," green expert Danny Seo told us. "You never get the same mix of merchandise, and I love the great design ideas you can find. If you want a tarnished silver tray for your coffee table, you can find it used and pay much less."
Grace Bonney of can't-miss interior design blog Design Sponge, came up with five ideas to breathe new life into tired vintage pieces, and used eBay as the resource for her makeover contenders and supplies.
Blogger, interior designer and TV host Brian Patrick Flynn shared his favorite thing about shopping on eBay: "What's most stellar... to me. is that although I head to eBay for furniture, art and accessories, I often forget I can find amazing steals on brand new stuff I dread going to big box or home improvement stores for."
Shopping expert and writer Rima Suqi shared her insights on major interior design trends: "Well, the whole Adirondack/lodge trend is still going strong: antlers, plaids, hunting themes, the works," she said. Then she helped us catch the look on eBay.
Architect David Rockwell shared the following when we asked him what he searches for on eBay: LEGOS for his kids, airplane paraphernalia from the 1960s and '70s, lanterns from the 1800s, spirographs and vintage playground toys."
Padma Lakshmi of TV's "Top Chef" shared her favorite fashion trends and said the following about eBay: "eBay is almost like a market of the world, where you can find many one-of-a-kind pieces that are otherwise very difficult to track down. Browsing antique jewelry, art, and stones can certainly be very inspiring, not to mention fun."

While the people we profiled on The Inside Source gave us a lot to consider (and shop for!), we were also amazed by the design trends we've tracked, often by using the buying and selling patterns on eBay as a barometer to measure them by.

This year, we’ve seen a surge in all things brass (which, back in January, blogger Heather Clawson of Habitually Chic called out as one of the top design trends of 2010—a sentiment reinforced by everyone from interior designer Ryan Korban (he designed Alexander Wang's apartment, among others) to jeweler Waris Ahluwalia. Chinoiserie has been a favorite trend of many designers we spoke to as well, from Joe Nye to Lars Bolander to Mary McDonald. We've also examined design trends including plaid, bird and fox motifs, art pottery, the color turquoise and Danish Modern design, and watched how the eBay online community loved them as much as we did.

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After hearing so many designers obsess over brass, we took to eBay, where listings of items in the Home & Garden category with the term "brass" were up 32 percent, as savvy sellers sought to capitalize on this emerging trend.
The eBay community is all over chinoiserie, too: Listings for the term were up 32 percent and sales were up 11 percent in the 30 days before we published our article vs. a 30 day period approximately one year prior.
It turns out that this fall, you're just as likely to spread the vintage plaid print around your home as you are to wear it. And on eBay, listings for items with the term "plaid" in the Home & Garden category were up 21 percent and sales were up 45 percent in the 30 days before we published our story compared with a 30 day period approximately one year prior.
It's practically a parrot party. Interior designers are infatuated with the colorful creatures, and eBay shoppers love them, too: Sales of items in the Home & Garden category with the term "parrot" were up 24 percent in the two weeks before our article was published vs. a two week period approximately one year prior.
Art pottery, a ceramics style featuring pieces that are more decorative than utilitarian, is enjoying a resurgence. Listings were up 12 percent and sales were up 10 percent in the week before we published our article vs. a week-long period approximately a year prior.

On the fashion front, 2010 brought with it a spike in neon, fringe, and feathers (as seen all over fall runway fashion shows and which, according to Katie Holmes' stylist and collaborator Jeanne Yang, should be applied in moderation to avoid looking like "a plucked chicken"). We saw surprising trends like sci-fi-influenced steampunk, along with more expected ones like tribal prints, ladylike accessories, faux fur, and watercolor floral prints.

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One trend we quickly warmed up to this past spring was splashes of neon, from sunglasses to nail polish, to rev things up
If you prefer to go faux for your fur boots this fall, join the club: on eBay, listings for "faux fur" boots were up 26 percent and sales were up 36 percent in the week before we published our article vs. a week-long period approximately one year prior.
On eBay, listings with the term "fringe" were up 25 percent and sales were up 22 percent in the month before we published our story vs. a month-long period approximately one year prior.
The fashion trend in painterly florals is clearly catching on. On eBay, listings for the term "watercolor florals" in the Clothing, Shoes and Accessories category were up 71 percent in the 30 days before we published our story vs. approximately one year prior, and sales had doubled.
In current climate, lavish travel to distant locations isn't always fiscally feasible, which is why the tribal trend was so welcome for spring.

Pop culture figures and moments, from actors to TV to movies to festivals and more, also continued to drive fashion trends and shopping behavior.

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In anticipation of the movie "Secretariat," in the week leading up to the movie release, listings had doubled for memorabilia from the famous racehorse, sales had increased six-fold, and the average item price had risen from $27.41 to $63.41 compared to a week-long period approximately a year prior.
We ranked goods from celebrity designers according to their sales on eBay. Lines by Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen topped our charts.
There is so much "Friday Night Lights" merchandise to find on eBay: the FNL book, the film, the TV series, the soundtrack. Plus, you can get East Dillon Lions and Dillon Panthers merchandise. In the 15 days leading up to the season premiere of the show, sales on eBay had almost quadrupled and listings were up 41 percent compared to a 15-day period six months prior.
When planning our Halloween costumes for 2010, we took to the big screen. "Alice in Wonderland," "Sex and The City 2," "Wall Street 2" and "The Twilight Saga" were among the movies that inspired us.
The LEGO Fest Tour is sweeping the country, causing a sensation among kids (and parents too). There are currently over 116,000 listings with the term "LEGO" on eBay. Listings with the term "LEGO" are were up 34 percent and sales were up 11 percent the week before we published our story compared to a week-long period approximately one year prior.