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Doris Raymond finds that just like pork bellies, art and gasoline, vintage couture can be a volatile commodity.

As the owner of The Way We Wore, a three-month-old vintage clothing store, she frets about rising demand, which is driving up prices and drying up supply.

"I'm selling too much." said Raymond. who noted that the La Brea Avenue store is on track to do more than $1 million in sales in its first year. "I'm very concerned about being able to fill my racks."

Most merchants might be thrilled at that prospect, but the continued strong interest in vintage clothing and accessories--for which there is only a finite supply--has put added pressure on retailers. Dealers in vintage clothes draw a clear distinction between what they sell--typically high-quality designer or hand-tailored clothing that is more than 20 years old and can go for hundreds or even thousands of dollars--and inexpensive castoffs carried by thrift stores.

Los Angeles is one of the top markets in the U.S. for vintage clothing, with many designers choosing to visit local stores for inspiration as they develop new lines. The city's affluence has fed this, with a preponderance of celebrities who can't be seen in the same thing twice contributing to the stock.

"It trickles down 20 years later and it becomes fashion, which is why we have so many vintage stores," said Ilse Metchek, executive director of the California Fashion Association.

But all the attention has sent some scrambling.

"I have a quarter of the inventory I used to have," said Esther Ginsberg, owner of Golyester, a La Brea Avenue shop that focuses on clothing and textiles from the 1950s and earlier. Ginsberg lost much of her inventory as a result of water and smoke damage when the building next door was set ablaze two years ago. "'We have to pay higher to replace things because vintage has become so popular and prices escalated since the fire," said Ginsberg, who has been in business for 23 years and at her current 3,000 square foot location for eight.

Vintage location

More than a dozen vintage clothing stores dot Los Angeles, and a large portion are clustered amid the antique stores on La Brea and trendy boutiques on Melrose Avenue.

La Brea Avenue between Hancock Park and West Hollywood was a commercial core for nearby neighborhoods prior to the development of freeways. Since the 1980s, it has been attracting boutiques that were priced off Melrose.

Besides Golyester and The Way We Wore, La Brea shops include American Rag Compagnie, which offers a mix of new and vintage clothing; Jet Rag and Rockin' Rodeo, which specializes in vintage Western wear. Another, Vintage Eyewear, sells old sunglasses and eyeglass frames.

Melrose Avenue's vintage shops include Aardvark's Odd Ark, which has been in business for more than 20 years; Resurrection; Decades, which specializes in vintage couture; and Wasteland, which on July 15 opened a second store on Fourth Street in Santa Monica.

"It was a long trek for people in that area to travel to the Melrose store," said Wasteland store manager Grace Dulnuan.

Sprinkled throughout the rest of the area are Paper Bag Princess in West Hollywood, Lily et Cie in Beverly Hills and Squaresville in Los Feliz.

Being away from the crowds on Melrose has its advantages, said Ginsberg. "Melrose has more inexpensive contemporary shops that draw more foot traffic," she said. "A lot of tourists want something inexpensive to buy as a souvenir. They're not collectors. They're shopping for entertainment."

Jack Bemstein's Vintage Eyewear is located in a roughly 400-square-foot, second-floor studio on La Brea. He, too, chose to avoid Melrose. "The rent is too high and there are too many teen-avers rummaging through the stores," he said. "I've been on La Brea for a long time. It's a main street but it's not overly crowded."

Too much of a good thing?

While vintage has been popular among a select group for years, it has worked its way into the mainstream. Fashion magazines are rife with updated takes on the tweed suits, pencil skirts, circle skirts, fur collars and cardigans that debuted in the 1950s.

"It's safe to say every single (fashion) magazine is incorporating some sort of vintage piece in its editorial," said Rose Apodaca Jones, West Coast bureau chief for the trade publication Women's Wear Daily. "We're seeing more stores, we're seeing more celebrities and socialites wearing it to red carpet events and galas, and we're also seeing real vintage on a cheaper level being carried in chain stores and mall stores."

Retailers cull their inventory from dealers, trips to far-flung locations, estate sales and auctions.

Some items now cost retailers three to seven times as much as they did a year ago. Ginsberg said, citing examples like the 1950s circle skirts, which became popular after the style was shown in the remake of "The Stepford Wives" and redesigned by Prada. She used to be able to purchase them for $15 to $35 each, but the price tag now is upwards of $200.

Ginsberg said the danger in buying a skirt for $200 and selling it for $400 is that it begins to approach the price consumers could pay if they purchased a new designer item. Still, retailers are generally not concerned with the ability to attract customers amid increased competition from newcomers and expansion from existing stores.

"I deal in one-of-a-kind items--one size, one color, one item," claimed Raymond. "'It's the right item for the right person. We're all here to spread the gospel of vintage."

Apodaca Jones said there doesn't seem to be an end in sight for vintage.

"It seems to continue to increase," she said. "Just when I think it's starting to peak it just keeps going another new store opens, another resource arises, or another socialite or celebrity lays the claim of only liking to wear vintage."