On Instagram, Valencia posted a screenshot of a last-minute request, and the process of making a pull like that happen - which he does all the time with the help of his staff and Virgo moon. Oscars weekend was on the horizon, and Valencia would end up working with Adore the Couture to get a pair of vintage couture silk Chanel opera gloves to supermodel Irina Shayk for the Vanity Fair Oscars party. It was a particularly insane week at Pechuga. On Instagram, Valencia posted a screenshot of a last-minute request from Shayk’s team, and the process of making a pull like that happen - which he does all the time with the help of his staff and Virgo moon.

(Before starting his business, Valencia also dabbled in PR and event marketing.) “In Westwood’s designs, I found a lot of liberty because it was so well made,” Valencia says. While he was pursuing his diplomatic ambitions, Valencia took a role as an unpaid intern at Vivienne Westwood and switched his focus to fashion, working his way up to being a buyer. Read more: Your 12-year-old emo self stays winning. But in fashion - using Vivienne Westwood as his gateway drug - Valencia found it all: history, politics, nature, curiosity and, ultimately, freedom. He once harbored ambitions to become a vet, or, as his grandma would have hoped, the president of El Salvador, where his family immigrated to L.A. He would end up working for the Salvadoran Consulate. Rihanna recently was spotted with a Dior Hardcore fall/winter ’03 bag she purchased from the archive.īefore Valencia became the source for rare designer pieces, he studied animal sciences while living on a farm at UC Davis, and later studied international relations and economics, which led him to attending Sciences Po in France. On a red carpet recently, Katy Perry wore the Vivienne Westwood mock croc Super Elevated Court Pumps from his shop. Last year, Beyoncé purchased a pair of Vivienne Westwood fall/winter ’10 Red Label armor boots from Valencia. Stylists, hardcore collectors, It girls: They all flock to Johnny. Pechuga Vintage, Valencia’s vintage archive and business, has become a go-to for amateur fashion freaks and professionals alike. “Not only to pursue it, but to have it come to fruition and materialize.

“I look around me and I'm like, ‘Yeah, there has to be a touch of madness to pursue something you're so passionate about,” Valencia says. The collection that surrounds him is the result of his obsession with acquiring precious things, which may have started with butterflies but has grown to include rare vintage runway pieces from Comme des Garçons, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Alexander McQueen and Saint Laurent. Valencia, who was dubbed the King of Corsets by Vogue for his deep knowledge and archive of the signature Vivienne Westwood pieces, is also the king of his self-created universe, his Bichon Lucas lounging on a custom-made dog bed like one of Marie Antoinette’s pugs while classical music purrs softly in the background. Look #1 styled by Pechuga Vintage photographed at The Wiltern in Los Angeles on Wednesday, February 28, 2024. Vivienne wears Thierry Mugler AW90/91 dress, shorts and gloves, Vivienne Westwood AW93/94 pumps, Schiaparelli SS23 earrings. In this room you’ll find a Vivienne Westwood “SEX” choker, John Galliano-era Dior logo rings, a Gucci silver crystal mesh mask from fall/winter 2017, a pair of spring/summer 2017 Saint Laurent roller skate shoes, original Marc Jacobs Kiki boots from fall/winter 2016 and pieces from Jean Paul Gaultier’s cyberdot 1995 collection. It’s a totem that represents Valencia’s dedication to the rare, the special, the hard-to-get - and it’s found a home among the many other grails of the vintage collector. Today, the delicate creature sits in a frame hung on the wall behind the desk in his sun-drenched L.A. He thought about the butterfly for 10 years, until he eventually made it to Corsica while studying abroad and was able to acquire it for himself. “I've always loved the rarest of the rare.” “I love the rarest of the rare,” Valencia says.

When Johnny Valencia was 14, a kid growing up in Koreatown obsessed with biology and entomology, he learned about a rare butterfly, the Papilio hospiton, that was endemic to the French island of Corsica. Vivienne wears Gucci AW17 mask, Saint Laurent AW16 heart coat, Claude Montana X Byronesque tights, Vivienne Westwood AW93/94 pumps, Y/Project mini-shorts.

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