I love collecting stuff so much - particularly clothing from different era's - that nine months ago I opened a little shop in Sydney's inner west (a vintage mecca for sure!). My shop stocks many a treasure including vintage and contemporary fashion, handmade jewellery, handbags, scarves and hats.
Art works by local and up and coming artists adorn the walls, sharing space with art deco mirrors and retro paintings including the kitsch and the religious iconic.
There is old English crockery, hand-dyed cushions along with vintage children toys, and handmade aprons and bibs...the list goes on and on -
My idea was simply to provide people with a beautiful shopping experience where they would be surrounded by fabulous items at reasonable prices. I was inspired by the European shopping experience of boutiques stuffed with a hodge-podge of amazing clothes, jewels, collectables and other desirable objects.
The main focus though is really about sharing my passion of vintage clothing. I have been collecting vintage, particularly evening wear, for over 15 years and I take great joy in being able to source amazing pieces and sharing them with my customers.
Sooooo, nine months on (boy what a rollercoaster)we are motoring along quite nicely (at times not so nicely) but retail is a tough gig and sales can vary considerably from month to month (along with my confidence!). In fact, I'm now thinking that we might set up a little on-line store too.
It seems to me that online shopping might just be the way to survive in business going forward. Research show that consumer on-line buying in Oz is growing at an incredible rate and I've notice alot of the big retailers are all jumping on the band-wagon too.
I thought I'd blog my progress for you and hopefully get some advice/feedback along the way.
Oh, and once I've got the hang of this blogging thingy I'll post lots of great info/ideas/links about the stuff that I'm good at - collecting!
