By: Aina Jankunas...

My mom has always been my biggest style inspiration. She’s just that girl—and always has been. In 1997, at age 22, she and my dad immigrated to Chicago from Lithuania. It was her first time experiencing the magic of big American malls, and to her, it felt like how Disneyland feels to a child. Even though they couldn’t afford to shop often, the mall quickly became a go-to activity for my mom, especially to scope out the latest sales at stores like Bebe. In hindsight, she was living through what I’d argue was the golden era of mall culture.

She had impeccable taste in the late ’90s and early 2000s (and still does), which makes it all the more devastating that she didn’t keep any of the pieces I’d consider “grails” today. How do I know this? Well, I’ve been piecing together a photo album of her best looks from back then. Thankfully, my parents lived in an era where taking pictures of each other standing in front of random places was the norm. My dad owned a pawn shop in Cicero so he had access to the best cameras at the time (shout out Pentax), and was making biweekly trips to Walgreens to get film developed.

Sonata (mom) & I at the beach (note the Pentax camera around her neck) & that man walking towards us is my late great grandfather Alexander

Those photos sat in a bin in my basement for years—until I blossomed into a secondhand clothing landlord (kidding) and started asking my mom about all the brands she used to wear so I could source them to resell. That’s when my obsession began—with brands like Arden B., FANG, Bebe, Necessary Objects, Miss Sixty, Paris Blues, and so many more. It was her knowledge and taste that helped me develop my own eye for style, and gave me a sense of direction when I first started reselling vintage in 2019.

Now flash forward to 2025: I like to think I’ve gotten pretty good at sourcing hyper-specific vintage pieces online. But recently a thought crossed my mind… since my mom didn’t keep any of her clothes from that era (I’m still grieving what could’ve been)...what if I tried to track them down using her memory and my obsession? 

The very first one happened completely by accident—you’re not going to believe me, but I actually thrifted one of the dresses my mom wore on nye 2000. Seriously. Same brand, same cut, just in a different (and honestly, more wearable) color. But it still counts!

Finding this dress felt meaningful because my mom had told me the story behind it many times over. It goes a little like this: my parents go to Neiman Marcus (a boujee department store) to find my mom something to wear for New Year’s Eve, but money was tight. She finds this dress, they buy it, leave the tag on, and return it after the celebration at Great grandpa Alexander’s house in Florida. There was never a chance this dress would’ve been passed down to me—it simply didn’t exist in our home past that first week back in 2000. 

Little did we know, 24 years later, I’d be pulling the same dress off the rack at Salvation Army for a cute $8.99. Coincidence? Divine intervention? I don’t know, and I don’t care. All I know is I love this dress just as much as my mom did on the eve of the year 2000.

Here she is! (I’m wearing it without the slip underneath because I can) 

The brand is A.B.S. Allen Schwartz Collection. A brand that was sold at major U.S. department stores, including Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Bloomingdale’s. If you want to match me in this dress....here are several others I found online—in black, pink, orange & cream!

Okay, so the next one I had to put more effort into finding...I set out to track down her top first, since that felt specific enough to find online.

I started obsessively searching phrases like “peach glitter mandala tank top vintage” on Google and reverse image searching every photo I could find of it.

And lo and behold—

(Side note: If you're curious, this brand is called Fang & despite there being minimal information about it online, what we do know is that it was a mall brand in the 90s/2000s & they made really cute stuff- like this poncho or this top that's similar to the one above that are both available to purchase on Holy Thrift right now.)

I don’t think I’ve ever clicked purchase so fast, and just like that she became mine! (': New with tags & all, slinky & glittery. I also gathered the other supplies to finish the look: a pair of cunty capri’s, Aldo wedges & a thick chestnut leather belt.

That’s it, that’s the look! I’m now flipping through my “Sonata’s Best 90s/2000s Looks” dedicated photo album to pick the next one I want to source & recreate. So I’ll be back with more very soon…in the mean-time I’ll be badgering my mom to try to remember the specific brands of all these clothes & scrolling through the depths of every reselling app on planet earth….