Meet the Founder

Elizabeth Barber

GLAYUM is the work of one collector's eye, trained under masters of the craft. It is a private sourcing practice for vintage, antique & rare clothing, objects, art, decor & books, gathered by hand from nearly 40 countries. Every piece, from a 200 year old Japanese art book to a Parisian coat, has passed through Elizabeth's hands & met her standard for what belongs in a considered life.

Founded in 2019 & grounded in NYC, GLAYUM began with vintage clothing & grew into a wider cabinet of curiosities, sourcing directly for private clients & collectors. The premise is simple: the best things have already lived a life. We find them, tell their story & pass them on to people who'd rather own one object with history than ten without.

The work has since gone beyond private collections. GLAYUM has sourced & consulted for photo shoots, screen & stage productions, & hospitality venues. A handful of pieces are under review for acquisition by an established New York museum.

That standard is inherited rather than learned. Elizabeth's family arrived in the United States from Switzerland in the mid 1800s & opened a department store, the kind of place where the shelves held everything a town needed & the owner knew the story behind each item. Almost two centuries later, GLAYUM works from the same instinct: find the rare, well made thing & put it in the hands of someone who will cherish it.

The eye runs in the family. Her grandmother was an interior decorator who perfected homes with a magazine like, southern charm. Her mother built a career in national advertising, translating taste into stories. Between the two of them, Elizabeth grew up believing that taste isn't decoration: it's what makes a life feel like your own.

GLAYUM is now expanding this practice into a curated online shop, bringing the same eye for rarity & provenance to a wider audience of collectors. It stays small on purpose. What's here is here because she couldn't leave it behind.

Everything is waiting for the person it belongs to.