Emma Chamberlain attends the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar Party on March 15 in Los Angeles.
Credit: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
NEED TO KNOW
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Emma Chamberlain is an expert on the cyclical nature of fashion
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While chatting with PEOPLE in partnership with eBay at the Vogue Vintage Market on March 28, the content creator dished on where she first fell in love with secondhand fashion
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She also opened up about her early era of YouTube, and teased the one style trend she had a hand in popularizing that she would love to have a comeback sometime soon
Emma Chamberlain has always been a trendsetter.
Viewers first got to know Chamberlain via her popular YouTube channel, which she started nearly 10 years ago at the age of 16. At the time, Chamberlain, now 24, grew popular for posting vlogs to her YouTube channel, where viewers became enamored with her distinct, upbeat, but also characteristically dry, teenage girl-ish humor.
Chamberlain was particularly known for her distinct clothing style, which is now a unique symbol of that specific era of YouTube.
Among items of clothing popular during Chamberlain’s YouTube heyday were her signature furry brown teddy bear coat, high-waisted mom jeans, Doc Martens and Air Force 1 shoes, though Chamberlain’s style was aspirational as a result of its hard-to-come-by nature.
Emma Chamberlain on Oct. 15, 2025 in Los Angeles.
Credit: Emma McIntyre/Oscars/Getty for Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
Chamberlain was also known online for her thrifting prowess and the Bay Area-native frequently documented her trips to the Goodwill bins or other local thrifting spots on her YouTube.
“My mom’s always been somebody who loves antiquing, thrifting, things like that,” the content creator tells PEOPLE of her first foray into thrifting.
The style icon, who is partnering with eBay — where she often scores some of her most daring and unique clothing pieces (including a Met Gala look last year) — is the queen of unearthing gems in secondhand stores, and online secondhand platforms like the e-commerce site.
“On a personal level, I really got into [secondhand shopping] at 15 or 16,” she tells PEOPLE while attending the Vogue Vintage Market in New York City on March 28.
“I really started to want to experiment with fashion, but I was like, ‘I can’t experiment at Urban Outfitters. I don’t make my own money like that.’ So I started thrifting at my local thrift stores in my town and I would just go in and I would dig.”
Emma Chamberlain on Sept. 5, 2019 at the Target 20th Anniversary Collection red carpet in New York City.
Credit: Gary Gershoff/Getty
In the years since those early days, the YouTuber has almost entirely ascended her influencer status, appearing on runway-side for some of the most famous fashion houses in the world. She’s now a fashion It-girl in her own right, and her style has seen many eras over the last nine or so years.
However, Chamberlain knows better than anyone that trends are cyclical, and she also opens up about the one style trend from that era of her life that she’d like to make a comeback.
“I wore a lot of plaid pants, and plaid pants were really in,” the influencer tells PEOPLE.
Emma Chamberlain in 2018.
Credit: Emma Chamberlain/Instagram
While she wouldn’t say that she’s necessarily rocking a plaid pant “right now in my life,” it’s next on her list to bring back. And, if the reaches of Chamberlain’s influence are to be trusted, it’s likely we will see a plaid pant or two show up on runways in the next few seasons.
Chamberlain calls the experience of thrifting and secondhand shopping a “more soulful” experience.
“What I love about eBay in particular is that I can do a clothing swap,” the influencer, who often trades clothing pieces with her friends to create more unique looks, says.
“I can sell my pieces on eBay. Someone new, honestly, even cooler that I don’t even know, can then purchase this piece, enjoy it, give it a brand new life.”
For Chamberlain, eBay offers a digital version of what she often does IRL — swap clothes with her fashionista friends. eBay’s new The NYC Edit also offers an inside look into what the “fashion people” of the Big Apple are selling right now, and gives a real-time look into how style is moving from peer-to-peer.
Since Chamberlain’s days are so busy as of late, she loves to let the platform’s algorithm do the “heavy lifting” for her and suggest fun items to purchase.
“You’re giving a piece of clothing another life, but then what you’re wearing has the wear and tear and the heart and the soul of whoever wore it before, and has a story and it’s interesting,” she adds of why she loves spending time hunting down new pieces.
Read the original article on People