A rare Raf Simons striped turtleneck from a 2001 runway collection peeks through Cade Thiel’s garment rack, brushed alongside Kanye’s original Pastelle varsity jacket and a freshly unpacked Issey Miyake runway tree embroidered blazer from the late 1990s.
These pieces make up the hundreds of used designer and vintage clothing items obtained and then sold by the 24-year-old at any given time to celebrities, fashion enthusiasts and stylists on his online clothing store called Faucet.
“Around 2018, I started to unravel a passion for finding unique clothing and sourcing them from international stores and bringing them to the US,” said Thiel. “Early on I developed a routine where I was thrifting every day and I would shop online at night, see what’s out there on the market, evaluate the rarity and authenticity of an item and acquire it.”
As Thiel’s love for buying rare fashion grew, his understanding of the market and building his own niche also flourished. After spending a few years learning the ins and outs of the luxury clothing world, the young entrepreneur soon started his own business.
Quickly, he was known for buying and selling some of the rarest vintage shirts and luxurious brands to fashion collectors all over the world, where he would even serve as a personal shopper for A-list celebrities and NBA players who are always looking for unique and fashionable items.
“Over time I developed a great relationship with my more well-known clients who treat me as their peer and are comfortable with me selling to them in person,” he said. “It shows that they trust my curation and my business, it’s a testament to the fact that I’m buying the right thing.”
After having grown up in Glastonbury and later earning a degree in finance and accounting from Fairfield University in 2021, Thiel left to live on his own in his family’s Cape Cod home where he began to fully invest his time in finding the most unique items and building his inventory. Within a few years he built a massive archive of roughly 200 to 500 pieces, he opened his online clothing store Faucet where he “supplies the drip” on Grailed, an online marketplace that allows people to sell authentic designer pieces.
“I always knew I wanted to do something bigger beyond a normal 9 to 5 job, as a kid I wanted to play in the NBA, I definitely didn’t think I’d be selling luxury clothes in person to NBA players. This journey that I’ve now been on building this business from scratch has been my passion and with hard work it’s been incredibly rewarding,” Thiel said.
Faucet sells noteworthy clothing and accessories from top designer brands such as Raf Simons, Gucci, Maison Margiela, Marni, Visvim and Undercover. There are two key parts to Thiel’s business: selling classic vintage graphic T-shirts and curating high end designer runway clothing. From 2018 and 2020, his vintage shirts were highly popular, selling thousands of shirts online. During the pandemic his collection and audience grew. Over the last five years, he said, he has also built a collection of designer wear from Raf Simons, which is a very highly desirable men’s runway clothing brand.
“Realistically, I have one of the largest Raf Simons collections in the world, which I’ve been told by a few Japanese museums and collectors,” Thiel said. “One of my celebrity clients paid over $16,000 for a runway Spring/Summer 2003 Raf Simons Virginia Creeper crewneck that says Nebraska across it.”
While Thiel was building his collection in the southeast of Massachusetts, he took trips to Los Angeles with clothes because it was “the perfect meeting place for high end buyers and clients,” he said. Within a few months he took a leap of faith and moved out to Los Angeles fulltime to be closer to clients and reap the benefits of the flourishing luxury clothing market, he said.
To some, a thrift store could look like a graveyard of clothes that are past their prime. But to Thiel’s eye, it’s a goldmine of potential just waiting to be highlighted, he said. With each piece, Thiel said he scans the fabric, stitching, graphics and fit to see if it speaks to him, his curation or his customers. A more recent transaction of Thiel’s was a Maison Margiela $11 wallet that he said sold for over $5,000.
“Fashion is a priority to a lot of my clients so I try to find the best of the best,” he said. “I’m working 24/7 because I have people all over the world in Singapore, Japan and Australia who either are selling clothes to me or trying to buy my clothes.”
Now, after being on the west coast for a little over a year, Faucet is closing in on $1 million in all time sales and nearly 3,000 transactions on Grailed.com since starting five years ago,he said. Currently, there are about 502 top-shelf garments awaiting to be sold or rented out for commercials and music videos for stylists, clients and celebrities on his site, he said. In early 2024, there will be a Faucet LA Showroom where clients and fashion enthusiasts alike will be able to shop Thiel’s collection in person for the first time.
“My favorite part about what I’m doing is seeing people wear the items I work so hard to find and collect, and appreciate the clothes,” he said. “There is this endless hunt to find the next rarest of the rare for people and I just love what I do and am blessed to be able to do what I do for a living.”
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