“It Feels Like Matchmaking”—Vintage Dealer Tami Kern Says There’s a Chanel Jacket for Everyone

Early last year, Tami Kern started thinking about her future. She’d just moved to Tel Aviv “for love,” as she says, and in the process shuttered her thriving vintage shop in Amsterdam. Kern settled on the idea of selling not a large and varied collection of precious heirloom fashion but instead becoming a destination for one single, collectible item. “I didn’t want to just open another vintage store,” she says. “I wanted to create a different kind of experience for my customer.”

Kern moved back to Amsterdam from Tel Aviv and launched her e-commerce site Kern1 in late 2018, a shopping platform for vintage Chanel jackets. While she does stock some coats and suit sets, the vast majority of her offerings is jackets. In addition to the website, Kern also partners with independent galleries and shops on pop-up spaces around Europe. Kern’s collection is comprised of pieces that are around 30 years old, like a pastel pink tweed from the spring 1994 Chanel collection and another in beige, black, and white from spring 1993. She just sourced a little black bow-and-pearl–embellished Chanel jacket from the Karl Lagerfeld–designed fall 1983 collection too.

Kern says the most special piece she discovered was a “cream-colored haute couture coat from the 1960s, when Coco Chanel was still head of the fashion house.” Kern does not do consignment and she personally vets each Chanel jacket that she acquires, whether she’s discovered it in a vintage store or it’s one that came to her through a private client.

“What I do enjoy about them,” Kern says, “is that each jacket has its own character while also being so recognizable. Because I only have single pieces, it feels like matchmaking to me. I am searching for the right person to match with a jacket.” Most of her customers come to her through Instagram, and she takes time to get to know them personally so she can offer a jacket that will fit their personality and style. “Finding the right jacket is a delicate process and I truly want to sell only what will stay in the buyer’s wardrobe for a lifetime.”

Photo: Courtesy of Kern1