Noir Vintage & Co. Time Travels Downtown

With the snip of a ribbon, Evelyn Massey opened up a portal through time in the form of a vintage shop styled after a Harlem Renaissance salon, the culmination of a long-simmering dream.

Dozens of city officials, local artists, entrepreneurs, and loved ones of Massey’s huddled on Friday afternoon around Noir Vintage & Co.‘s newly-opened store of wearable artifacts from the 20th century that is bringing an empty block of Court Street back to life.

“I may be the first Black vintage store owner Downtown,” Massey told a small crowd gathered before the storefront at 111 Court St.

After cutting a ceremonial ribbon alongside city leaders and entrepreneurial educators, a stream of supporters entered the shop and walked from garment to garment, era to era. 

Open for a little over a month, Noir Vintage & Co. is a tribute to decades of history, and especially to decades of Black culture. Massey sells clothes, accessories, and items from the 1920s — arranged in the front of the store, where soft jazz, elegant furniture, and red textured walls evoke salons from the Harlem Renaissance era — to the 1990s, with a retro display awaiting customers in the back. 

“I wanted it to have a museum type of feel,” Massey said.

Walking into the store is like stepping into a memory. The front room features a set of vintage furniture, arranged as if in someone’s living room, which can seat anyone who walks in and wants to linger. The scent of warm candles and the sounds of jazz fill the shop alongside the items for sale. Racks of silk and lace and velvet, vivid patterns and chic statement pieces, bold jewelry and delicately woven hats are reflected in the walls of ornate mirrors.

Massey, who spent most of her career as a cosmetologist, has gravitated toward style and fashion since she was a child. Having lived in New Haven since the age of 5, ​“I used to watch my aunties go to church” in fine clothes, she said. She developed an eye for secondhand style by browsing Goodwill and the Salvation Army ​“because I couldn’t afford the mall, and no one there would look like me.”

Over time, Massey accumulated vintage apparel that she’d curate and sell at pop-up events and online. She housed the growing collection of clothes and accessories in her own home. The items soon filled not one but two 10 by 10-foot storage units, overflowing into the homes of her friends. Massey knew then that it was time to start her own brick-and-mortar store. 

One day in March, she glimpsed a ​“for rent” sign in the window of the Court Street storefront that would soon be hers. She hastily parked and knocked on the door until it opened. She made her case to the landlord and eventually signed a lease.

Noir Vintage & Co., Massey said, is the product of ​“a lot of sweat, a lot of praying, tears, wanting to give up.” It’s the product of one person’s lifelong love of beauty and history, combined with vision and grit. It’s also the product of a community that rallied in New Haven to support Massey’s aspiration.

According to Massey, the ​“& Co.” part of her shop’s name is meant to honor the company she keeps, and the communal efforts that led to the store’s genesis.

Massey’s brother helped her transport troves of apparel and décor into the store. Her friend Darren Vereen helped her sponge the front walls with textured red paint that seems to shimmer.

Several local Black artists and entrepreneurs showed up to support Massey on Friday, representing a growing and thriving network of Black-owned businesses in New Haven.

“I’m super proud of Evelyn,” said Kim Poole, whose recently-opened clothing shop More Amour Boutique has brought a burst of color to Chapel Street.

“Collaborating in the ways that we are is allowing us to grow,” said Alisha Crutchfield, whose wellness gift shop and cafe in Westville, BLOOM, was among the first venues to feature Massey’s vintage collection. ​“It’s community, collaboration, over competition.”

BLOOM, like Noir Vintage & Co., has become more than just a place to buy things; it’s evolved into a gathering space and a hub for local artists.

Local fashion designer Tea Montgomery said that Massey was the first person to do his makeup while he modeled his creations. Montgomery called Massey’s success ​“good for the New Haven community and for the Black community,” modeling how ​“entrepreneurs can live their dreams.”

Though most of the items for sale in Noir Vintage & Co. are indeed vintage, Massey also sells artistic products from local businesses such as Tierra Soap Co.

Cathy Graves, the city’s deputy director of economic development, noted on Friday that August is Black Business Month. Spotlighting the city’s annual Black Wall Street event that will take place on the Green on Aug. 19, Graves encouraged customers to seek out Black-owned businesses: ​“You are actively supporting economic growth in the Black community.”

Mayor Justin Elicker added that through small business incubation programs like DNA of an Entrepreneur, which Graves runs on behalf of the city and from which Massey graduated, the city is ​“addressing the challenges we have had with generational poverty and changing that into generational wealth.” 

Elicker joked that the shop, located just down the street from City Hall, might inspire him to venture outside his fashion comfort zone: ​“I’m a fixer-upper. I wear the same thing every day.”

“We have ties!” Massey interjected.

Soon, Massey began to tell her story — and found herself in tears, glancing behind her. ​“This is my shop!” she said, as if to remind herself that a long-imagined future was finally here.