A Vogue Editor's Guide to Sourcing Heirlooms with Lilah Ramzi

Welcome to the VB Guest Edit, where each month, we tap the most inspiring friends, experts and muses in our orbit to share their own need-to-knows. This April, we’re passing the mic to Lilah Ramzi, the longtime Vogue editor, co-founder of vintage platform The SIL and author of “Per Lilah” on Substack. Lilah curated a special edit of vintage jewelry for Veronica Beard, which is dropping exclusively in our Substack chat later this week. Find more details on that, plus her best sourcing tips, below…

My closet is rich with heirlooms—and yet only a handful have been passed down to me. That’s because heirlooms, unlike an inheritance, can be collected yourself.

But what makes an item an heirloom? To me, it’s a piece with a story to tell. (And it goes without saying that craft and artistry matter here—fast fashion, almost by design, resists this kind of staying power.) Like my first-ever designer bag: the Saint Laurent Y-mail I pleaded my mother buy me when we happened to be in Paris the week the designer passed away in 2008—I insisted it was my way of paying respects. Or a no-label 1960s red jacket with jeweled buttons I found in a Brooklyn thrift shop, which years later appeared in the pages of Vogue when I was included in a spread recreating editors’ personal style.

To me, fashion (like any art) needs context to be fully appreciated. As an editor at Vogue, and through my Substack, Per Lilah, I often find myself waxing poetic on such backstories. At The SIL, the vintage platform I co-launched earlier this year, we’re intent on ensuring these histories don’t get lost.

So when Veronica Beard enlisted me with the joyful task of curating a capsule of vintage jewelry pieces to style with their Spring collection, I knew I wanted to pull pieces that (like Veronica Beard’s forever wardrobe staples) could be worn now and passed on later. Pieces with provenance: Clip-on earrings stamped with revered makers or brooches (like the vintage Dior pin I unearthed, more on that below…) imbued with sartorial symbolism.

Not everything vintage is an heirloom. Vintage is about age; an heirloom is about staying power. When I source, I’m looking for the latter—pieces with enough character and craft to last.

I look everywhere—eBay, Etsy, small dealers, consignment shops—but there’s no single source. It’s less about where you shop and more about how you look. Often, the best pieces are hiding in plain sight—or buried beneath a terrible listing photo.

Some sourcing tips:

• Use the Vintage Fashion Guild: Their label archive is indispensable for dating pieces.

• Reverse image search everything: Google Image Search is a godsend for tracking references and comparable pieces.

• Inspect the jewelry stamp: Look for maker’s marks, copyright symbols, and location stamps (“Paris,” “New York”).

• Pay attention to plating and weight: Good vintage costume jewelry has heft—often 18k gold over brass.

• Look beyond the label: Some of the best pieces are unsigned.

For my vintage jewelry edit for Veronica Beard, I focused on pieces that would slip easily into the brand’s world—strong, polished, and a little unexpected. VB’s tailoring sets the foundation; these pieces add the finishing touch.

Take the Dior gold-plated brooch from the 1980s, which feels entirely of the moment. Its oval form draws on Dior’s iconic medallion motif—borrowed from the oval-backed, Louis XVI–style chairs that lined Monsieur Dior’s original salon presentations—and recently revived by Jonathan Anderson in belt buckles and hardware. A reminder that what feels new rarely is.

I selected a Givenchy brooch from the same era because its Sputnik-like form immediately recalled the Lobmeyr-designed chandeliers at Lincoln Center—a place I return to again and again. That sense of structure aligns with Givenchy’s late ’70s and ’80s costume jewelry, executed in richly plated metal with real weight and precision, often finished with enamel or cabochon stones.

There’s also a Hattie Carnegie pendant from the 1960s, which I chose as a nod to one of American fashion’s early empresses—whose name, somehow, isn’t invoked nearly enough today. A large, faceted amber-toned stone sits at the center, framed in textured gold and suspended from a double chain with delicate tassels. It has that distinctly mid-century flair—expressive, slightly theatrical, and entirely self-assured.

And then there’s Monet, a reminder that just because a piece doesn’t carry a marquee designer name doesn’t mean it lacks quality. Monet built its reputation on thick, often triple-plated 18k gold over a brass base, with a level of construction that has allowed these pieces to endure for decades. That technical rigor is what led Yves Saint Laurent to license Monet to produce its costume jewelry for the American market in the 1980s—no small endorsement. It’s that precision that gives them their staying power—and, ultimately, their heirloom potential.

All these one-of-one pieces (plus, a handful more!) will be available to shop on April 9th at 12pm via “A Need to Know Basis’s” Substack chat. Make sure you’re subscribed for exclusive first access.

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Plus, subscribe to Lilah’s Substack below…

Per Lilah