Nicole Richie’s Love of Vintage Fashion Started with Her Mom: She ‘Never Closed Her Closet to Me’ (Exclusive)

• Nicole Richie is Fashionphile’s new 2025 brand ambassador
• The reality star and fashion designer curated a special collection of pre-owned, luxury accessories exclusively for Fashionphile
• Richie tells PEOPLE about her longtime love of vintage shopping and sharing her closet with her daughter

For Nicole Richie, vintage shopping is a passion project.

“Vintage shopping is so emotional,” she tells PEOPLE. “That hunt is something that I really enjoy. It’s not for everyone. Not all of my friends like to go vintage shopping because it’s more physical. You’re digging and you’re finding and you’re figuring out what feels right to you.”

Richie’s love for thrifting made way for a new partnership with Fashionphile. The reality star, fashion designer and certified handbag obsessive is a longtime customer of the secondhand luxury retailer.

As its 2025 brand ambassador, Richie curated a special collection of pre-owned, luxury accessories exclusively for Fashionphile, ranging from handbags by Chanel, Hermès, Balenciaga, Gucci, Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton to jewelry from Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Tiffany and Hermès watches.

Handbags, however, remain her favorite accessory. “I do love bags,” she admits. “I collect bags. I don’t get rid of any of my bags, and if I do want to get another bag, I’m always looking to Fashionphile to help me source those accessories.”

She continues, “I like partnering with people who do appreciate those moments of the past, knowing that they will come back around and in a way that I didn’t even think they were going to. I had no idea that all of those Balenciaga motorcycle bags were going to have a whole second wave, and I’m so happy that I didn’t get rid of any of mine.”

Richie also hung onto her Fendi Spy bags, a style that launched in 2005 and is poised for a resurgence. “I have always appreciated them and, strangely, because I do wear them a lot, they’re in very good shape,” she says. “I’m noticing this year more than ever that even my friends are appreciating when I wear my Spy bags more so than they ever have before.”

“It’s really about what I’m drawn to,” she explains. “I kind of think of myself as a jeans and T-shirt type of gal that really likes to play with accessories.”

Richie was encouraged to experiment with fashion from an early age.

“My mom never closed her closet to me,” she recalls. “Everything that was hers was always mine, and she keeps her pieces in mint condition and in a way that I truly could never. I still haven’t figured out how she does that.”

Her mom inspired Richie’s love of vintage Chanel bags, many of which have been handed down to her — and Richie plans to continue the tradition.

“That’s how I approach my closet with my daughter,” she says of her 17-year-old, Harlow. “We do not have the same style at all, but she loves the Balenciaga motorcycle bags. She loves vintage Goyard bags, so she’s definitely starting to get into the bag world and she’s giving me compliments on what I have, but I share everything with her.”

Shop Richie’s favorites at FASHIONPHILE.com.