GOLD THREADS

A veteran vintage dealer tries on Manhattan

- CHARLES W. MCFARLANE

"The New York eye is the best," said Tommy Dorr, the owner of Mothfood, a vintage clothing business that this month opened a showroom in Lower Manhattan. "I mean, people here have the best taste in clothes.

Dorr, 43, is originally from Michigan, where he got his start as a vintage seller working at a bowling alley turned flea market in the late 1990s. Since then, he has started a few of his own ventures, including Lost and Found Vintage, a shop he has kept open just outside Detroit since 2003.

Mothfood is probably the project for which New Yorkers know him best, largely because of the Instagram account Dorr used to establish the brand more than a decade ago under the same name.

"I don't even remember why I picked it, but it's just a great tongue-in-cheek kind of name," said Dorr, who considers it a good litmus test for customers. Are you in on the joke, or do you find the notion of moth-eaten clothing kind of, well, gross?

He likes garments that are well worn sun-bleached jackets, paint-splattered denim and holey T-shirts. They're not everyone's thing. But over the years, Dorr has found a devoted following that counts celebrities, stylists, designers and everyday vintage hunters among its ranks. They are accustomed to ordering from his e-shop or visiting him in Los Angeles, where he opened the first Mothfood showroom in 2015.

"I've been wanting him to come to New York," said Emily Adams Bode Aujla, a New York designer and a friend of Dorr's who has been buying vintage pieces from him both for personal use and for her brand, Bode, for longer than either of them can remember. "I think that I always have thought his business would do so well here, but I'm selfish," she added with a laugh.