Yahoo Lifestyle EXCLUSIVE: Moda Operandi Launches Trunk Show With Desert Vintage and Ténéré
Moda Operandi has launched a curated trunk show of rare archival fashions with Tucson and New York City-based vintage retailer Desert Vintage. The trunk show also features styles from Desert Vintage’s co-owners’ and cofounders’ Salima Boufelfel and Roberto Cowan’s in-house label, Ténéré’s, pre-fall 2025 collection.
Although Moda Operandi has previously held two vintage trunk shows in 2022 and 2023 with Tab Vintage, this shopping event marks the retailer’s first team-up (as the first global wholesale partner) with Desert Vintage and Ténéré.
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“I had been a longtime online customer of Desert Vintage, and since Salima Boufelfel and Roberto Cowan opened their (beautifully designed) New York City store, I’ve found myself on the Lower East Side more than ever before. They offer directional pieces from the last century from designers like Romeo Gigli, as well as an array of incredibly unique finds — and their styling gets me every time,” said Moda Operandi cofounder and chief brand officer Lauren Santo Domingo of Desert Vintage, which was founded in 1974 in Tucson, Arizona, and taken over by Boufelfel and Cowan in 2012. Since then, the duo has opened its second location in New York’s Lower East Side neighborhood.
“So many designers look to Desert Vintage for inspiration for their own collections. The store has been a fashion insider secret, until now: I always say, ‘nothing is good until it is shared,’ and I’m incredibly excited for Moda’s audience to discover one of my personal favorite sources for vintage, along with their impeccably chic in-house label, Ténéré,” Santo Domingo said.
The trunk show features an assortment of one-of-a-kind and rare fashions spanning from the 1920s to 1990s, including designs from the likes of Chanel, Alaïa, Paco Rabanne, Romeo Gigli, Halston and more, with prices ranging from $3,000 to $6,000.
Regarding the archival styles, Boufelfel and Cowan told WWD, “the Chanel Couture mohair cape featured in the trunk show is incredibly special — it’s the Chanel Creations label, from the 1970s, pre-Lagerfeld. Roberto sourced it from a Paris-based Chanel collector who has been developing her archive for over 25 years.”
The duo said they’ve also always been drawn to Romeo Gigli, “whose ethos feels very similar to our own,” they said. “His romanticism, poetic use of color — hues are always taken from the earth and natural elements, and never feel artificial. We love the deep brown velvet opera coat from the FW1989 collection that is featured in the trunk show. It’s rare to find a couture silhouette so well adapted into a RTW collection. The velvet is subtly embossed with a tonal starburst detail that can only be appreciated up close or by the person wearing it . . . a quiet, personal luxury.”
Other vintage fashion highlights within the curation include a Chloé by Karl Lagerfeld silk chiffon deco-print belted multicolor gown; a 1976 Paco Rabanne Couture flocked velvet and taffeta opera cape, and a 1920s Fortuny hand-pleated Delphos gown with Venetian bead detailing, to name a few.
In addition to archival fare, the Ténéré assortment features 20 of the brand’s pre-fall 2025 styles available for preorder in sizes S/M and L/XL, with prices ranging from $1,000 to $3,000.
Boufelfel, creative director of the brand, cofounded Ténéré in fall 2023 with the ethos of offering, “a blend of elegance, organic beauty and personal heritage,” through styles that intertwine traditional techniques and natural fabrications (pre-fall includes crinkled silk chiffons, silk georgettes, linens, cottons, linen-silk and cotton-silk tailoring) with “modern sensibilities,” that complement the vintage styles, Boufelfel said.
In addition, the brand serves as a way to, “create a complete, cohesive narrative that reflects our vision for the company. We wanted the selections to feel like a story that’s continuously unfolding, where each piece ties back to the essence of Desert Vintage, and who we are as a creative team,” she said.
Key pre-fall silhouettes include the Lounes caftan, a silk georgette number with godet detailing at the neck and hem with hand-embellished antique glass beads; the crinkled chiffon Petra gown with mother-of-pearl buttons; the bias Camille slipdress (which the cofounders noted is an entry price-point dress that comes in four colors), and an assortment of silk CDC and silk habotai matching sets.
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