First Polyvore Set

I just made my first set on Polyvore. What a fun tool! This here is inspired by the simple beauty of Anna Karina in one of Godard's classics Bande A Parte.

Starting a Start-Up

Hello all!

I hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was great as I attended a beautiful wedding on Fire Island. Now I am back in the city and ready to put my nose back to the grindstone. There is nothing that will inspire you to work on your business more than being surrounded by wonderful (and very expensive) beach homes!

Today I wanted to give a little background on myself, and talk about my plans regarding my relatively new venture as a vintage retailer. Personally, I am always very interested to read other people's tales of success and what obstacles they encountered along the way. I would like to share with whomever is interested where I am at now, how I got here, and update you along the way. I have not become successful YET, but hopefully if you are reading this now, and you choose to stick with me, we will all learn some things together. 

First, about me. Originally I am from Maine, although post high school I lived in Boston, Los Angeles, and then back in Portland, Maine for a few years. Then, on August 17th, 2009 my boyfriend and I packed up a U-Haul and left our quaint city for the far less quaint neighborhood of Bed-Stuy, located in Brooklyn, New York. We arrived without ever having seen the neighborhood or the apartment that we had already rented off of Craigslist, but so far things have managed to work out. Whew.

We came here so that I could pursue a career in fashion, and he could pursue a career in music. While both of these things may have been possible back in Maine, we needed the inspiration and the opportunities of New York in order to get us motivated. 

We have been here for almost a year now and I work at a cafe in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Fort Greene. I have also been attending classes part time at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and up until the beginning of April I was interning with a company called Zachary's Smile (ironically the bf's name is Zachary) which is where my tale of vintage selling really begins. 

Zachary's Smile is a fashion company with two stores in Manhattan. They sell vintage clothing and also there own line that also gets sold wholesale at places like Barney's and Anthropologie. My job as an intern with them consisted mainly of altering and repairing a lot of the vintage clothing that would be sold in the stores. It was through this that I initially gained an eye for vintage trends and how alterations can make a lot of vintage items more appealing to the younger market. 

One day, like many other poverty stricken days, it felt clear that the money I was getting from the cafe job was just not cutting it. However, I didn't want to get another food service job just to make ends meet. Really, I didn't want to get another job period. So I sat down and wrote down a list of ways that I could make money on my own. I can't remember now what my other ideas were, but through a methodical pros and cons list, selling vintage clothing seemed to be the winner. I went online and bought a 60 dollar/30lb. box of vintage cast-offs that were billed as being in fair condition to "needs repair". And thus, a business was born. 

With a few gems from the box, and some items that I had picked up elsewhere, I went ahead and started my Etsy site. I was very encouraged at first - I couldn't believe how many people viewed the items as soon as you listed them! I also got my first sale within a few days of opening shop and three more followed somewhat quickly afterwards. However, since then my sales have stalled. I haven't made a single one! Personally, I thought that the items I was listing were higher quality and more on trend than my initial listings, but apparently Etsy shoppers have not agreed. I have tried adjusting the prices and re-listing, but it doesn't seem to work. One area that definitely needs work is my photos. Currently I am using a point and shoot digital camera in an apartment that doesn't get the best light, so sometimes I am forced to put up pictures that area slightly out of focus just to get SOMETHING up there. 

But alas, that is where I am at now... Working on getting my Etsy sales on a somewhat regular track. 

Next time I will talk about my foray into the New York flea markets... 

À bientôt!