Orleans boutique to offer vintage, antique wedding gowns

Orleans boutique to offer vintage, antique wedding gowns - Cape Cod Times

Posted: 19 Jan 2020 01:47 PM PST

ORLEANS — Maureen Leavenworth has always considered herself an outside-the-box kind of person.

The Orleans businesswoman sells antique and vintage clothing, jewelry and accessories at her Vintage in Vogue stores in Orleans and Provincetown, and she's decided to expand that tradition by opening a bridal shop at a second Orleans location.

Vintage in Vogue Bridal Boutique, located at 47 Main St., will offer hundreds of antique and vintage bridal gowns from the 1890s through the 1970s.

The store will be a timeline of bridal fashion history with dresses arranged by the decade, showcasing fabric and style changes through the years. There are dresses with leg-of-mutton sleeves once fashionable in the 1830s and 1980s, as well as gowns with empire waists, which were popular in the 1810s and again in the early 1970s.

Leavenworth, who studied art and business in college, has been a seamstress since she was young. About 20 years ago, she started working at the Caleb Nickerson Homestead in Chatham as a colonial hearth cook. As part of the job, she wore fashions from the late 1700s.

"I got a whole feel for the experience," she said.

In 2007-2008, she started working with historical reenactors, creating outfits suitable to specific time periods.

"I used to love hearing reenactors talk about the personas they had to portray," she said.

The job required her to find the fabric that was available at the time, sewing history into the clothing. So began a love affair with fashion.

Leavenworth said she loves the connection between fashion and architecture, how styles arise and disappear only to reappear decades later. In addition to running her shops, she also hosts a fashion class once a year at Nauset Regional High School in North Eastham that merges history, fashion and art and allows her to share her take on the intermingling of fashions.

The coats that men wore in the Civil War era influenced ladies' jacket fashions. Similarly, Eisenhower jackets were all the rage during and after World War II. That style was picked up by fashion designers creating women's clothing.

Hoop skirts made famous by Southern belles in the 1860s turned into flat-fronted dresses with weight pleated toward the back of the dress. Hence, Leavenworth said, the bustle was born.

In the 1880s, walking suits became popular, and women were dressed tight "like penguins," Leavenworth said.

"The extremes of fashion are fabulous," she said.

Leavenworth started her new shop by offering Civil War-era bridal gowns. Starting in February, she plans to carry a range of dresses, all vintage, some antique, at the new location.

The average price for a dress will be far below what women pay on average for a bridal gown, she said. According to a survey conducted by the wedding website The Knot, the average cost for a wedding gown in 2017 was $1,509. The average price point at Vintage in Vogue Bridal Boutique is $350 per dress, according to Leavenworth.

Leavenworth and store manager Jessica Kidd promise to do anything from a simple fitting to revisioning an existing gown at the reduced price.

"We could use the bottom from one, sleeves from another and bodice from a third to make a custom design," Leavenworth said.

"A woman shopping for a vintage dress wants an out-of-the-ordinary, one-of-a-kind dress," Leavenworth said. "The beauty of vintage is that there is a diversity of styles and fabrics."

The store, which opens Feb. 1, will not carry any post-1980 bridal gowns.

"I'm too much a part of the past for that," she said

Follow Denise Coffey on Twitter: @DeniseCoffeyCCT.

Entrepreneurs look to keep it real at the corner of Selby and Snelling - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Posted: 19 Jan 2020 12:02 PM PST

Most of the recent publicity about the intersection of St. Paul's Selby and Snelling avenues was about the decision of O'Gara's owner to not reopen the 79-year-old bar in a new development in the old neighborhood.

And two years ago, a New York institutional buyer acquired 210 upscale apartments built atop the nearby Whole Foods for $87 million.

There's something of an upscaling underway at once-frayed edged Selby and Snelling.

It sure isn't the likes of nearby Grand Avenue, where chain stores and high rents have replaced a lot of quaint local shops from yesteryear.

In fact, the women who comprise the majority of the 25 small businesses within a strong-arm throw of Snelling and Selby are determined to keep the commercial face of the intersection an edgy, quirky and independent reflection of this middle-class neighborhood.

"I wanted a place for people like me," said Megan McGuire, 41, who grew up in the neighborhood and launched her Up Six Vintage clothing in 2001. "I wanted a place for people like me. Fun, funky and color on a budget.

"I knew this area and the people. At Up Six, you can get a $9 pair of earrings and pay up to $200 for a [used] wedding dress that would cost $500 to a few thousand new. We dry clean and launder everything."

These female-owned businesses boast names such as SweatShop Health Club, Flirt Boutique, Brow Chic, Spoils of Wear and Teeny Bee Boutique. They trend small in size. And usually the person serving the customer is the owner or a trusted employee hired by the owner.

"It's the anti-chain or big-box store experience," said Kristie Case, owner since 2013 of TeenyBee.

Case, 37, not only retails her self-designed children's clothing but she distributes her line through dozens of independent retailers.

"The thing that is special is that these businesses are very carefully curated," Case said. "We know what's in our store. And we follow each other on social media and we spend time together.

"We're 'mom-epreneurs'!"

Indeed, each of the three business owners I met with last week are mothers who chose to own their shops, at least in part, because they could bring their babies to work.

Jessica Gerard, the owner of Flirt Boutique since 2008, spent 10 years at a law firm. Pregnant in 2005, she decided her now-teenage daughter was not going to a day care.

"I decided not to go back to the firm," said Gerard, 48. "I had plans for a shop, but I'd never worked in retail."

The first venture was an antique and refurbished furniture shop on Grand Avenue.

"That lasted 2.5 years," Gerard recalled, when she hit the 2008-2009 recession. "I was divorced. I had to do something else. I got rid of the furniture and brought in underwear."

Gerard also found a neat storefront, for a lot less money, into which she could pack a lot of colorful lingerie at lower price points that also could support her. Furniture tends to be pricey and takes up a lot of space.

"You only need one credenza," quipped McGuire, who also started with furniture and housewares. "Clothing takes less space. People need it."

Behind every successful small-business owner is often a smart, empathetic building owner.

Ed Conley, 57, who started doing house and commercial-building repairs in St. Paul in the 1980s, is that man. Informed, of course, by his wife and two daughters.

Conley, who estimates that he and his two bankers have invested a few million bucks to buy and renovate buildings, owns what's called the "Patina Building," a 35,000-square foot refurbished structure on the northwest corner that houses female-owned Patina, as well as Flirt and Up Six.

"It's been a labor of love," confessed Conley, chuckling. "For me and Trustone Financial and Bridgewater Bank. The property taxes keep going up. Faster than the rents. But I used to be just like these businesswomen. I started out in the 1980s with a dream, $3,000 and a credit card.

"I laugh because I say that I would do this for free. And there have been a few projects that I have done for free the way it worked out. But I like taking a risk on people and buildings that the city has wanted torn down. There were condemnation notices on the Patina building. It's fun to be part of the positive change at Selby and Snelling."

Gerard said Conley is a "humble, genuine" and supportive landlord who's not after the last buck.

"He is proof that doing an honest good job brings you the most success," Gerard said. "We know their whole family well. His daughter was my daughter's babysitter for years. We are all in the family over here at Selby and Snelling!"

In fact, at coffee, the business owners used to quip about one day creating a reality TV show called the Corner.

However, unlike the Apprentice and shows of similar ilk, these Selby-Snelling business owners are the real thing.

Neal St. Anthony has been a Star Tribune business columnist and reporter since 1984. He can be contacted at nstanthony@startribune.com.