secondhand sanctuary

Maurizio Donadi is cooking up fashion's future with preloved pieces

- BEN BOSKOVICH

MAURIZIO DONADI LOOKS THE part. White-haired, with a burly beard to match, he's pushed his wire-rim glasses up above his eyebrows so they're resting comfortably on his perfectly tanned forehead. Big, baggy camouflage pants and a white tee hang loose on his frame. If you sent a memo to the folks in central casting requesting "an Italian fashion-industry veteran who decamped to L. A. to focus on upcycled clothing," they couldn't do better than Donadi.

Good thing he's got the bona fides to back it up. Donadi, 66, is the founder of Transnomadica, a four-year-old company in Vernon, just outside L. A., that specializes in acquiring vintage and secondhand clothing-he defines vintage as pre1979; secondhand is any time after that-and passing it on, sometimes with a rework or redesign, to in-the-know shoppers.

Still, Transnomadica HQ isn't a shop or a showroom so much as it is an exhibit, a space for clients or designers looking for something that speaks to their imagination. "It's a business of inspiration," says Donadi, who before starting Transnomadica worked in retail and creative roles at Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Diesel, and Levi's. "I'm not a trader of one item. I found it for $50, I can sell it for $500. Jackpot. No. I need to build a story around it."