Vintage Clothing

Aloha,

Greetings to all. I haven't posted on TC for many moons, and I hope that I am welcome to post something that is a tad self serving.

What I need is some advice (actually, what I really need is psychiatric care, but that will have to wait for another topic :wink: ). I have been looking to lease some space for my business, and have found a location close to my home in Orange. It is a basement area in Old Towne Orange where there are plenty of coffee houses, restaurants and, of course, antique stores. The entire floor space is approximately 2400 sf, and is more space than I currently need. A former co-worker of mine suggested opening a clothing store as she had owned a clothing store once upon a time in Seal Beach. She offered to help set up and run the business in return for an ownership stake. I am all in favor of it, but as I have never been in the clothing business, I had to do a little thinking. Here is what I've come up with this far...

I believe the best use for this space would be as a vintage clothing store; however, I have no experience in this area, and, although my friend has considerable experience and a good sense of style and fashion (other areas in which I am weak!) I am concerned that our combined lack of knowledge of vintage might doom this effort from the beginning. A major difficulty with this space is that access is not from the street side, but rather the alley side of the building, so that "walk-in" traffic will be almost non existant. The only way to make it work is to promote it through off site activities, such as attending flea markets and swap meets; doing special events at local colleges, and holding on site events at various times.

If you are still reading, thank you for taking the time. I know that a majority of TC'ers are into vintage, so this is why I am posting here. I would like advice, suggestions, thoughts, or anything else any of you might feel would be helpful. Thank you all in advance, and I look forward to hearing from you!

Can you get it in your lease for either a sidewalk sign pointing the way to you or some sort of overhead sign over the alley?

Yes, I will include that to be discussed. I am hopeful that I will be allowed some sort of signage on the street side, despite the scrutiny of the Old Town Preservation Association, and city planning. Fortunately, there is an alley leading directly to the back of the building from the street, so even an A-frame type sidewalk stand would help direct traffic. I kind of like that the store is hard to find...just like vintage clothes. I think people like to "discover" neat little shops that they can tell their friends about. Thanks Weniki! :)

I have no specific experience in this area, but general wisdom suggests the following:

Talk to people in the business before getting into it yourself. Even cashiers and managers at thrift stores like Goodwill and Salvation Army that carry used clothes (usually nonreturnable) could probably give you good, practical, specific advice.

One idea: Why not custom make clothes in vintage style instead of selling old ones that are likely to fall apart from age? I had my mother do that when I wanted a dashiki just like the ones on the cover of the first Strawberry Alarm Clock album, and it turned out so well that my friend started having his mother do the same thing!

You could also lease window space from an existing business on the sidewalk side, with a sign in the window display saying "Entrance in alley."

It's often wise to diversify and to carry more than one type of item, even if in small quantities, like Borders and Barnes & Noble and Starbucks carry CDs and/or DVDs, despite being primarily in a different business (books, food). Maybe you could also carry vintage paraphernalia like tikis, rain lamps & lava lamps, postcards, used LPs, and so on.

Starting any small business is particularly risky. Most go out of business within 1-2 years. Although I'm sure you will quickly learn the field (vintage clothing) just by starting such a business, not knowing the field is likely to be an additional disadvantage at the start, on top of the existing location handicap. I would do some serious thinking about what type of business you really want, and why, and whether it's worth the high risk of bankruptcy to you. Sorry to be negative, but it's better to worry about that now than later. You still have time to change your course.

[ Edited by: mbonga 2005-12-21 10:09 ]

On 2005-12-21 10:05, mbonga wrote:
One idea: Why not custom make clothes in vintage style instead of selling old ones that are likely to fall apart from age? I had my mother do that when I wanted a dashiki just like the ones on the cover of the first Strawberry Alarm Clock album, and it turned out so well that my friend started having his mother do the same thing!
[ Edited by: mbonga 2005-12-21 10:09 ]

It's all good, mbonga! I particularly like this idea. I know of several people who are able to do just this, and would be able to contribute!

You are right about the number of businesses that belly up in a year or two. I believe most do not "go out for business", and therefore end up going "out of business". I doubt that my core customer will be off the street, and so I shall not cater to their whims by staffing a store all day long hoping that someone buys something. My core customer needs to be the vintage-oholic who will drive to OC for the experience that Old Towne offers, and to shop in my store. I will have hours that will accomodate THAT customer, not the bored, lookie-loo housewives and soccer moms that OC is know for. What we are considering are evening hours, maybe 5 pm until midnight. What Old Towne really needs is a Tiki Bar....hmmmmmm!!!

By the way, here's that album cover I was referring to, with the decor and dashikis I liked:

(This is my first attempt at posting a picture. I hope I get more than HTML code appearing!)

[ Edited by: mbonga 2005-12-21 11:21 ]

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(Still struggling. Picture top keeps getting chopped off.)

[ Edited by: mbonga 2005-12-21 11:46 ]

[ Edited by: mbonga 2005-12-21 11:49 ]

Nice Pic mbonga! Nice effort on posting it.

One thing I guess that is not clear, is that I am already looking for space for an existing business. This particular property just happens to be more than what I need, and the discussion of what to do with the remainder of the space is the motivation for this topic. Primarily what I am hoping to learn is what likes, dislikes, and advice I can get that is specific to vintage clothing. I may decide to go in another direction, or pass on this location all together. Many thanks for your interest. The album cover is awesome. :)

I tend to do my vintage clothes shopping in two ways -- some days, I feel up for doing some serious hunting, and some days, I'm looking for an easy kill. If I'm doing serious hunting, I'm willing to slog through Goodwills, estate sales, drive all over town, hit random thrift shops... my expectations for what I will find are low, but I've also been looking at $2, $5 and $10 price tags all day. On easy kill days, I feel more like hitting reliable vintage shops that have already filtered through all the crap, and for that, I'm willing to pay a bit more for a cool item -- $20, $30, I've paid up to $260 for a vintage dress. Spend a couple days going to the full spectrum of different kinds of vintage clothes shops to get a feel for the difference. Getting enough vintage clothes together, at a low enough cost to turn a profit on them, will take a huge time investment. My mind boggles when I consider the amount of time it took to find the items in my closet, and those wouldn't come nearly close to filling a store.

If your store is off the beaten path, then you'll be reliant on word-of-mouth between lovers of vintage clothes. Some people might not be eager to let people know about a little unknown place with great stuff.

What is the business that will be sharing this space? Is it attractive to the same audience of shoppers?

HUMU! So glad you chimed in on this :)! I have already learned so much about how the used clothing industry works, and how vintage is an extention of that process. In response to your question about the business "sharing" space with this vintage concept, do you recall all the excitement about bamboo fiber t-shirts here on TC beginning with a post from Bamboo Ben in the summer of 2004? You may have purchased some of these from either him, or from Rich Delano of Bamboo Textiles. Well, just like all of you on TC, I was also intrigued with bamboo as a source for textile fiber. I have done a lot of research, and am currently working with a Chinese factory to develope a garment for a client of mine. This is all wholesale, so there will be no mixed concept store at all.

Your response is exactly the kind of input that I'm looking for. Thank you so much for this insight and advice.

Kindly, BD