Snake Q&A 020: Bianca Stilwell/Monte Visión
One of one Roman columns, the desert and Margiela, thrifting as an art practice; recommendations
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Today on Snake: Every other Friday or so an interview with a person in good standing of the newsletter whose taste in vintage, furniture, and adjacent is worth recording. Sellers, buyers, artists, adjacents, etc…
Bianca Stilwell / IG / The high desert outside of LA, currently sitting on couch in Buenos Aires tho /Curator of post-modern fantasy products and lifestyle accents
Bianca is a talented artistic next-level thrifter and seller who operates on a sort of different plane of buying and selling. Items may be… nothing, but then she finds them and they are not. That takes skill. The stories here in this Q&A are some of the best I have read; there are also just… like no brands or companies mentioned. It is really legit, and inspiring. And it shows how exciting the world can be when you get out there and get your hands dirty.
Q&A 020
Fav flea market?
It’s not in America! Lagunilla in Mexico City and Mercado De Pulgas in Buenos Aires…or the Palm Springs Vintage Market because there I can sit on my ass and try to convince people to buy my weird stuff.
Best flea market day ever—what did you get?
I saw this weird, artist-made white paper rose encased in lucite, and I passed on it initially but then got obsessed and decided I NEEDED it. So after making this decision, and having left the flea already, I set out on a remote mission. Acquiring it involved tears (someone else’s), a nervous breakdown (also someone else’s), a former Tinder date whose stories I was creepin’ on and I saw he was at the flea, multiple obsessive phone calls/texts/DM’s (mine)….but finally I got it. It was actually kind of insane now that I’m thinking about it.
Best eBay purchase?
I don’t hang out on the eBay. Although, once there was this one carved folk-art like mirror I was watching for like two years, the mirror itself was like 16” by 16”overall dims, but the mirror part was stupid small, like 2” by 2” or something—the proportions made no sense. It said “MOM” at the top and had these very ratchet carved roses. I loved it but couldn’t pull the trigger for some reason. When I finally decided to, it was gone. I still think about who might have bought this.
Best Craigslist find?
Former roommates, TBH—my Roomate Chris, a weird introverted dude who used to play hookie from his shitty programming job, and mope around all day wearing this ridiculous 4xl tie dyed bootleg “The Prodigy” T-shirt. He was the best.
Best LiveAuctioneers find?
I’ve only watched U.S.-based auctions to see what people are paying for stuff, honestly. Or what they’re passing on. There are a few international auctions I watch and have bought from. If you think hoarding vintage at your own place of residence is bad, try hoarding in another country!
IG seller account you hang out on/look at their stuff the most?
I don’t follow a ton of seller accounts. It’s not because I’m being a hater, it’s because I have ADHD and want very little furniture content in my feed. I should probably follow more seller accounts, I don’t know.
Thing you most regret passing on?
I have seen incredible things while out thrifting that at the time I didn’t realize were things I’d never see again. Nothing brand name; usually just weird stuff. In the beginning of me running this business I also just didn’t really have cash flow for certain things and I’d just walk. Hindsight being what it is, I realize now I should have scrambled to find a buyer. My second day doing this job though I found a beautiful pink marble table with all these beautiful crystal inclusions. I tried to call the singer of this popular girl band I had just met, whom I knew was furnishing a desert house, and I showed her the table—but she passed. So I just sat there on the table at this thrift, furiously cycling through my contacts. Until finally I remembered that I had just met this woman at a pool party who owned a fancy furniture store and maybe she’d want it…so I cold called her, showed her the photos, and she bought it immediately. Then she was like, “So, you’re a picker now?”. I had never heard of a picker.
Best thing you got for insanely cheap?
I have been very #blessed in this area. Probably that pink marble table, actually. Until recently, I have been very hesitant to fork over too much money for stuff. I run a very lean operation. I am still trying to learn about the balance of spending money to make money.
Best thing you overpaid for?
This BONKERS handmade wood and plaster display case I co-bought with my friends at this store called The Window I found the dang thing, randomly, but the price tag was cost prohibitive for me. I showed it to them and they were like, “My God, this thing is crazy, let’s do it.” I got so excited about getting it but had also then just purchased my house, so the amount of money I had to plunk down for my half was completely nerve-wracking for me, and borderline irresponsible at that juncture. We had no idea if it would sell quickly or sit there forever. In the end it did sit there for quite some time, though whenever either of us posted a picture of the case people got really hyped and really loved it. It was worth it in the end, but yeah… for a while I was like, “WELP! Can’t get new electrical done on my house, or a new septic tank, or fix my drywall because I BOUGHT A WACKY DISPLAY CASE….”
Favorite piece of furniture you own?
I love most of my treasures! My kitchen cabinet is a handmade signed former TV case from the early ‘90s that’s pretty great. I made my own bed frame during the pandemic (wood covered in like a million strips of leather) and it’s also pretty great. I found a maple console shaped like a cat that’s pretty great.
My favorite light is a sconce of a giant black fist holding a lightbulb, also pretty great. The best part of my job is that I can constantly tweak my wants/needs in my house based on whatever I found thrifting.
What’s one thing you own that you won’t ever sell?
That’s a tough one. Because I am finally at the point in my life where I get to create my space by harnessing my art practice, which I now realize is thrifting. It sounds weird to say, but I really think “thrifting” is my art practice. I am immensely filled by finding objects that, standalone, are mediocre but then, layers in, create something special. The rabbit holes I go down when researching things I’ve found, the way it’s allowed me to play with color and texture, and how much everything I buy is based on a feeling or a nostalgic notion that I have somewhere buried deep inside me… so I feel very attached to my things at the moment because they feel like an extension of my self-expression.
Piece you have now that you despise and want to replace?
The busted chenille on my couches. I don’t think there is anything worse feeling on the skin than flattened, gross, old chenille. I tried having nicer couches and my dogs’ two-inch long hair that traps desert dust promptly ruined those nice couches. So it’s disgusting chenille for me until I find something to replace them with.
Who do you think sold more records: Nelly Furtado or Three 6 Mafia?
Unless this is a trick question somehow, the answer seems pretty clear to me: Nelly Furtado! She had that single “Like a Bird” that was ginormous in multiple countries and stayed on the top 40 charts for a very long time. I am sure she is still just living off royalties from that song alone.
Secret spot that you love but won’t tell anyone about? (please describe as judiciously as possible while omitting any identifiable characteristics)
Nothing is secret anymore. Not in my zone, at least. My secret weapon is that I’m fluent in Spanish, which in my area means I can befriend my fellow Hispanic thrift store employees/pickers and ask specific questions.
Rarest/most canon vintage thing you have but never wear?
I have a bunch of vintage Dries Van Noten, Margiela, Ann Demeulemeester, early Rick Owens/Michele Lamy, Jean Paul Gaultier, Mugler, none of which I can wear anymore because of the dustiest combo of desert + furniture slanging + dog with two-inch long hair.
Most jealousy-inducing thing you’ve seen?
There are a few things singed into the back of my eyeballs which I will never recover from, but If I have to think of one right off the bat: I walked into my favorite thrift once and there was a PAIR of 5’ tall by 5’ wide fiberglass faux Roman column tops that were hollow on top; they were planters. They had “SOLD” tags on them and I sheepishly looked at the price—$100 each—which included when they had sold, and the receipt said it was like 45 minutes earlier. I took pictures of them and filed the pics somewhere away deep into my phone and now I can’t even find them! I was so worried I’d accidentally scroll past them and be bummed when I saw that, that I hid them from myself!
The name and telephone number of the person who bought them was on the receipt but at the time I was so sad that I didn’t even think to try to call the person to try to offer them a bribe, or beg them, to sell them to me. Instead I sorta drove around for the rest of day regretting the fact that I had left the house 15 minutes late that day and that I chatted too long with the woman in the coffee shop. I just kept going over in my head how I could have done things differently that day to get there 45 minutes earlier. :(
Favorite Russian novelist?
Don’t have one!
Is there a field of collecting are you looking to get into in the near future?
Not really, no. I’m just flowin’
What’s the item that’s been on your watchlist the longest without you having pulled the trigger?
That stupid MOM mirror on eBay!
Is the best vintage/furniture online or in the wild?
Prob a combo of both, but it literally hurts my eyes to be scrolling online all day, so I choose to search in the wild.
Has all the cool shit been discovered? (Yes or no answer only)
Nah
Any vintage accounts you want to rep or boost? Furniture? (feel free to include local spots)
@suuupersaturday is one of my favs. I’d let her decorate my crib.
Not furniture related, but I want all the vintage jewelry from @eriebasin.
@bakerferguson is a chicago based online reseller who’s edit I really appreciate
My girl Jess moved to a remote part of Germany near the Polish border during the pandemic and was picking up things at the local fleas there. I bought one of my favorite candelabras from her before she launched her online reseller account. It’s like these three super brutal entwined snakes (circling back to an answer from a previous question: this is prob something I’ll never sell). She has found some beautiful little gems and is @huerto.shop.
Not vintage exactly, but sooooorta, because he’s doing a re-imagining over previously used items, is @theperfectnothingcatalog who’s taking everyday items and stoning them. Some of the pieces are so beautiful. Maybe I strayed off the question, but maybe not. Anyways, we’re doing a tradesies for a gnarly burl wood box I found, and I’m so excited for my piece from him.
<3
Follow Bianca on IG | Read previous Snake Q&As
Auctions ending this weekend:
Fratelli Saporiti lacquered bedroom set, Mich, $1,200 ends Sun… (insane and gutter)
Kita for Cassina Wink lounger, Mich., $750 (THE best deal this month on LA)
Mateo Grassi three leather barstools, Mich., $600 (three stools for three asses)
Reverse housekeeping:
Living and working and working out in Los Angeles this month; get in touch or say hi at the Rose Bowl this weekend. I will be wearing grey New Balance 993s.
Every snack in the Korean store on Vermont by the bowling place in K-Town has four kinds of vegetable oil in it. Even the individually-wrapped Hello Kitty marshmallows (Japanese) which, for a couple weeks during the pandemic, were my favorite. Disappointing. There is really only fresh fruit and Reese’s Cups and gentrified chocolate bars. We might as well be living in an oblast.
Does Armenian coffee have sugar in it?
Guenther Steiner to Ferrari?
Post Q&A god-tier aesthetic video of the week:
that kitchen cabinet is what dreams are made of .. ok AND the cat console
I deeply, deeply enjoyed this....thank you! Both!