The authentic and timeless world of Ralph Lauren
March 2025
RL/People

The RL Q&A: Chandler Guttersen

The fashion historian, archivist, and founder of Vintage Grace opens up her closet full of family history
In a loft apartment in Nolita’s historic Police Building, Chandler Guttersen—aka Vintage Grace—has lovingly curated one of New York’s best collections of designer vintage clothes. Since 2021, her mix of the timeless and trend-proof with the fun and fanciful has created a vintage business that’s been lauded by Vogue and noted as the place for those in the know to find rare pieces of fashion history. The Vintage Grace collection spans styles, decades, and designers, but Guttersen admits to having a soft spot for Ralph Lauren in particular. “Ralph Lauren is just one of those brands that resonates with everyone,” Guttersen says. “We wear it when we’re babies. We wear it throughout our childhood and into college. Every old photo I see of my mom and dad, they’ve got a Polo logo.” Good taste, it seems, runs in the family. The pieces that don’t make it into Vintage Grace but stay safely secured in Guttersen’s own personal wardrobe are some of the most meaningful, like the hand-me-down Ralph Lauren pieces from her mother seen in the photos below. “For one of the looks,” Guttersen says, “I wore a vintage Polo America’s Cup leather vest with my mom’s Ralph Lauren pinstripe suit pants. She bought that suit in the ’90s, when she was my age, and now I’m wearing it, and it’s still so relevant and classic and suited to modern living. It’s just so special.” Before she was a curator, stylist, businesswoman, and an encyclopedia of designer clothing history, though, Guttersen was just a girl from Colorado—on a cattle ranch, in fact. Here, she walks us through her Western roots, playful approach to personal style, and the space where it all comes together. —Andrew Craig
Vintage Navajo silver and turquoise belt, seen above and styled throughout this article.

Where was Vintage Grace born?

I grew up just north of Denver, on a cattle ranch, and then moved to Fort Worth when I was a teenager, so I have a lot of Western influences in my life. My dad’s a cattle rancher, and my mom and stepdad own a 100-year-old company making handmade boots and saddles in Texas. All my life, I was dreaming of leaving for something else but wasn’t ever able to grasp exactly what. But when I went to New York to intern for a fashion company in college, I knew. I just fell in love. So, I moved to New York, without a job, and just thought, ‘I’ll figure it out!’ Well, I was very wrong, and my life was not as glamorous as I thought it would be. Thankfully, I eventually got a temp job in fashion, which led to another, and another. I compare it to The Devil Wears Prada but in the nicest way possible. The work was intense, but I met amazing people; I traveled to Milan and learned so much. One of my bosses was incredible, too—she gave me a lot of tough love and became one of my mentors. But by 2021, during COVID, I was back in Colorado with my family and realized that I just really wasn’t very happy. So, I sat down with my old boss from New York, talked about what I loved about clothes, and she said, ‘You should get into the vintage space.’ I didn’t know how to do that, or whether I could do it by myself, but I just started buying. During the pandemic, everyone was selling, because none of us knew where the world was going and everyone was living in sweatpants, so I was able to collect a lot—and that was the start.

And the name?

My full name is Grace Chandler Guttersen. I go by my middle name, but my first one is the “Grace”—which was both my great grandmothers’ names—in Vintage Grace. I wanted a way to honor them.

Were you always interested in clothes? Was it a part of the family growing up?

My mom is such a style icon—she’s been collecting Ralph Lauren and so much more since she was in high school. A lot of the vintage Ralph pieces I have and treasure now came from her. She taught me how to invest in pieces that are classic, not trendy, and how when you do that, they’ll last and endure. Over the years, she would give me some of her pieces that she used to wear when she had been my age. I have a photo of us when I was just 2 years old, at a photo studio in the mall, where she’s holding me while wearing a Ralph Lauren sweater that I now have and wear to this day. She loved to look beautiful and even though she didn’t have a ton, she invested in the right pieces, and that was extremely influential for me. My grandmother, on the other hand, is so eccentric and was always a big shop-til-she-dropped kind of fashion lover. Leopard prints, jewelry, everything. And then there’s my dad, who is a bit of a cowboy but still has some flair—he’ll throw on a pink blazer for a cocktail party with his cowboy hat and boots. So, there were a lot of characters in the family growing up, but most important is how they all aligned on the fact that looking the part is important. It’s so much of your identity and how you show up in the world, and that was instilled in me from a young age.

How would you describe your personal style now?

I take a lot of Western influence from my childhood, but I always like to move fluidly between looks. I think it’s so fun to flow through different looks and genres and decades, too, mixing prints, patterns, decades, designers. Having fun, really, is my main goal, so long as I always look polished, even on a casual day. But I really didn’t come into my personal style until a few years ago, I think. Even though I lived and breathed fashion my whole life, there was always a feeling of adolescence, where you’re maybe a little afraid to be too different. The more comfortable I became with myself, and the more I grew personally, emotionally, professionally, the more fully I stepped into my own sense of style.

Do you feel like you have a specific point of view in your collection? Do you gravitate towards certain styles or eras, or certain details?

Not necessarily. I think the biggest thing is that I wholeheartedly stand behind every piece I have, where I would wear everything that I’m selling, without question. Vintage Grace is like an extension of my personal wardrobe, my taste, and my personality, and I think you can see within my archive that the clothes feel like an extension of me.

How do you go about collecting new pieces for yourself or for Vintage Grace? And how do you mix the new with the old?

When it comes to new clothes, I buy investment pieces—things that have walked on a runway. They’re expensive, but they’re documented, they have a history, they’ll carry me through the next four or five decades, and hopefully my children one day. For anything new, I always want to mix in vintage pieces to find my own unique style. A modern slip dress might look good and be trendy, but what if we put it with a cool vintage blazer and a vintage chain belt, to add some interest? You can make something look personal, rather than just wearing new designer clothes head to toe. Or taking an evening gown and mixing in boots and a vintage leather jacket just to go to dinner, instead of wearing it to a gala.

Your photo shoot was at your home/showroom, right? Can you tell me about the space?

When I was planning my move back to New York after COVID in Colorado, I was sitting in my bed with my laptop, defeated, because it’s so hard to find listings for an apartment with decent storage, and it was important that I have space for my archive. But the second I saw this one, I could immediately picture myself living here. Downstairs is home, and the upstairs is work, where I can when I bring clients and keep my archive in its own space—a separation of church and state, kind of. It has a history, too. Cindy Crawford lived here, in the same apartment, in the ’90s. There’s a magazine spread of it in Elle Decor in the late ’90s. I feel like it’s brought me success and good luck. But, if I live here with my future husband one day, he’s gonna have to get a storage unit. He’s not taking up any of my closet space.

What’s next for Vintage Grace?

Just to continue, honestly. I think that when I started Vintage Grace, I was a different person than I am today, and it’s been fun to have my business evolve alongside myself. I’ve moved apartments. I’ve changed relationships. All these things have happened in my life, and I’m excited to see how my business continues to evolve with me, and how I evolve with it, over the next few years. I also want to continue educating people on the importance of fashion history and celebrating the designs that have had such an impact on our world. Celebrating the original tastemakers, the original collections, the original moments in history. I’m taking it day by day—but hopefully there will be more exciting things to come.
ANDREW CRAIG is the former men’s content editor for Ralph Lauren.
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