Obsessed With Vintage Cavalli? This Paris Shop Is a Must-Visit

When you think of a shopping trip in Paris, you likely think of luxurious French fashions—Chanel! Dior! Hermès!—and the city’s exquisite array of vintage stores. But there is one buzzy store in the trendy Le Marais district that is fast becoming a destination for all things, well, la dolce vita.

Dolce Vita Hub, which opened its doors three years back, is the brainchild of co-founders Sacha Than Trong and Charles Passaga, who met as buyers working at the sneaker resale site Wethenew. Deciding to enter business together, their retail space now specializes in archival designer fashions from Italian labels like Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, and Prada (though they do carry French brands such as Margiela and Balmain, too). But it’s the shop’s impressive assortment of vintage Roberto Cavalli pieces that are fast stealing the show.

Peruse the shop today and you’ll find a wide (and wildly fun) array of men’s and women’s Cavalli pieces including animal-print trousers, zebra-striped tops, and the label’s signature python or cowhide jackets—all sourced from the early 2000s and beyond. “We understood that there was a demand for this kind of product,” says Passaga, who has been noticing an uptick in Cavalli fandom. “What’s cool about Cavalli pieces is that you don’t get bored with it: It’s always really impressive to see all the details—especially the prints and textures—all combined into one piece.”

Passaga—who has been collecting and re-selling designer since he was 14—and his team source Cavalli pieces from all across Europe, and are always on the hunt for new pieces to buy and re-sell. “Lots of women who are now 40, 50, or 60-years-old still have their old Cavalli pants, and we purchase lots of them from Italy,” says Passaga, “as well as a lot of other collectors from around Europe.”

Call it a result of the recent Y2K revival, but the demand for vintage Cavalli—a label associated with the fun, raucous fashions of the aughts—has certainly never been hotter. Everyone from Kim Kardashian to Cardi B has been spotted wearing the brand’s throwback pieces, and fashion lovers alike are on the hunt for those party-ready pieces. (Stealth wealth, who?). When we recently asked local vintage shops in New York what was currently trending, Cavalli came up more than once. “Five years ago or so, no one was giving interest to Cavalli,” says Passaga. “Then it started to be really booming again, when Kylie Jenner was wearing some of the dresses. Now, the demand is insane.”

Highlights in Dolce Vita Hub’s current assortment include gems like a brown suede Cavalli jacket with detachable sleeves (from fall 2005), a leopard-and-floral dress from spring 2002, or even a rare runway jacket from the recent fall 2023 collection. “It was one of eight jackets, and it’s so unique,” says Passaga, “and so heavy!” Whatever Cavalli treasures one may find in the shop (or online), the co-founders want to ensure that there is a piece for anyone—and for all budgets. “You can purchase something at 80 euros, or something at 3,000 euros,” says Passaga.

But it’s not just the archival Cavalli that make Dolce Vita Hub a must-visit in Paris. Dig through the racks, and you’ll find many other designer finds as well. They add new stock daily, and lately, the shop has been seeing growing interest in both Tom Ford- and Frida Giannini-era Gucci pieces. Their latest acquisition? A vintage fur men’s jacket from Giannini’s fall 2007 line for Gucci. “This piece was really hard to find, but we managed to find it,” says Passaga. “We don’t want our customers to be on the hunt for one specific piece when they come to Dolce Vita—we just want them to discover what we’ve curated for them.”

As the store continues to grow in popularity (you can now spot Dolce Vita Hub in many fashion TikToks), the co-founders have plans to continue expanding its presence: Next year, they even have their sights set on doing their very own runway show, featuring a curated selection of their best vintage acquisitions. “I feel like it’s never been done, to recreate all the past collections inside one runway,” says Passaga. Their focus on the Cavalli craze will not be stopping anytime soon, either. “We want to build the biggest Roberto Cavalli collection in the whole world,” he says.