Sign Of Times: ​“Persnickety Thrift” Debuts

In a jet-black 1950s Polack dress and gloves to match, Chloe Rose modeled a grieving widow look styled by Fashionista co-owner Todd Lyon — complete only with 1960s kitten heels, Aviators, and a maroon headscarf. 

The outfit was one of four that Rose donned to promote ​“Persnickety Thrift,” the vintage store’s new line of thrifted clothing, which debuts this weekend. The line marks a new stage in the evolution of one of New Haven’s most colorful homegrown businesses, and a reflection of where fashion consciousness and society at large have moved amid the chaos of a pandemic.

“Beauteous. Work it darling!” Lyon cooed while Rose posed for photos to help the shop prepare for Saturday’s opening of the Persnickety line.

Rose, 27, has been shopping at Fashionista Vintage & Variety for over 10 years. She used to accompany her dad to the shop. Now she peruses the store to find stage outfits for performances with her band, Killer Kin.

The four looks — all $50 and under — were assembled with items from Fashionista’s new collection of everyday, wearable items priced at $15 and under. 

Co-owners Nancy Shea and Lyon have nicknamed the line ​“Persnickety Thrift.” Lyon says the name aims to let shoppers to know that the items have been selectively curated: ​“It’s not just a bunch of junk.”

“We have to be persnickety about what we take in and sell,” Shea said.

Fashionista Vintage & Variety, at its new location in the MarlinWorks building at 85 Willow St. in East Rock, will debut its line of budget clothing on Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. The beloved store has offered higher-end vintage clothing and rentable costume pieces for two decades.

The shop is abundant with vintage pieces spanning every decade from the 20th Century to today. Splayed across the racks and hanging on the walls are ball gowns, bathing suits, lingerie, jewelry, men’s formal wear — even costume animal heads.

At the store’s previous location on Whitney Avenue, they offered a single rack of thrift clothing. ​“It was more discard-type stuff” that the store owners were unable to use for other purposes. Until now, the store had never offered a substantial collection of thrift clothing.

“We’re transitioning to this more wearable clothing now, and we’ve upped the ante,” said Shea.

The business model shift is a response to evolving cultural perceptions about buying clothing second-hand. Shea observed that Covid-19 allowed many individuals to rethink and become more conscious of their lifestyle choices. ​“Finally, people are catching onto the idea of not buying things new. It’s a disaster for the environment and for everybody else.”

Shea said a stigma about vintage has prevented the less fashion-adventurous from finding items at their store in the past. With the addition of thrift clothing, the owners ​“want to convey that there’s something for everybody here. It’s not just really pretty vintage, not just fancy; we have everyday stuff too.”

The line will include clothing for men and for mid- and plus-sizes. ​“Recently we took in a bunch of larger size stuff that’s actually been flying out of here, so there’s absolutely a demand for that,” Shea said.

Lyon and Shea agreed that that one of the barriers that have kept people from buying thrift in the past is the perception that the clothing is inherently frumpy. It’s part of the reason they wanted Rose to model and demonstrate how fashionable thrift can be. ​“Some of it’s sort of ironic and funny, but it can also be so much fun, theatrical, dramatic, and rock ​‘n’ roll,” Lyon said. 

Some items featured in the thrift section are previously expensive items that landed there only because of damage. One dress was first listed at $200, but because of some tears, it’s now being sold at $10.

The co-owners have nicknamed this high-end clothing that need some repairs the ​“Handy-Girl Special.” Shea mentioned that many of their customers will get creative with reusing the fabric from items like these: ​“There are a lot of people who do really cool stuff with our clothes.” Other items may be quality vintage, but have stains or spots. ​“Somebody may need to dry clean it” or ​“work on it to turn it into something more wearable.”

Flappers, Disco, and Drag Queens: Oh My!

Another deciding factor in the transition to offer a greater quantity of affordable items derives from a decrease in one of Fashionista’s main income sources: costume rentals.

As the pandemic has diminished the size and quantity of social gatherings, Fashionista has had fewer opportunities to rent out the vast collection of specialty pieces the owners have accumulated over the years.

“If you have an outfit that you’re only going to wear once, even if it’s not one of these outlandish getups, even if it’s just a beautiful dress and you’re never gonna wear it again — why should it rot in your closet?”

The shop offers costumes for birthday clowns to rodeo-goers and themed events. ​“We do a ton of 1970s parties. We do a ton of flapper parties,” said Lyon, showing off several prohibition-era reproduction flapper dresses and matching headpieces. For men dressing in that era, the shop offers jackets with coattails, top hats, bowties, ascots, and jabots.

“This is really why we’re here. That particular thing is our niche, that’s what makes us really different from other vintage shops. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of any other shops doing what we do with costuming,” said Lyon.

Once, the stylistic duo fashioned an elderly couple, who rented out attire for their grandson’s wedding.

LYON: We had this pretty elderly couple come in at one point a couple years ago. Pretty elderly…
SHEA: … and that’s even compared to us!
LYON: Their grandson was getting married. And they walk in and the guy goes, ​“My grandson’s having a wedding, and the theme is steampunk. You’ve probably never heard of it.“
SHEA: Yeah, they said, ​“We don’t know what this is!“
LYON: And they were so much fun. They were game for anything. We dressed them in the most badass steampunk things you have ever seen.
SHEA: They looked fantastic.
LYON: We had the grandma in a Marie Antoinette sort of top with this blue top hat on. And all these other accessories.
SHEA: And they just loved it. They had no idea what sort of look they were going for …
LYON: … they were playing into our hands …
SHEA: … they just completely trusted that the grandson would think they looked fine or at the very least okay. Well…the grandson went crazy!
LYON: They owned the wedding. Grandma and grandpa owned the wedding. Nobody expected them to be completely in the pocket and totally decked out and outrageous. It was a screaming hit.
SHEA: We have so many stories like that, you know, people who just knock it out of the park with their costumes.

In the 1970s section, Lyon showed off several rare, authentic disco shirts that are not available for sale.

“At one time, two of our premium disco shirts were stolen from us. They were rented, and they never came back. And the New Haven Police Department was out of their mind. They were so upset.”

Shea and Lyon encourage renting these types of specialty items because participating in the ​“sharing economy” is better for the environment than buying new for every one-off occasion.

“They shouldn’t really be sitting rotting in somebody’s closet anyway. They should be out having a good time. And these disco shirts definitely go out and have a good time,” Lyon said. One shirt Lyon brought out has been rented over 40 times.

Fashionista has also outfitted high schoolers for prom nights — ​“the kids who wouldn’t be caught dead in a typical prom store, all the creative kids, the kids at ECA, the gender fluid kids,” as Lyon put it.

“From day one, we were dressing drag queens, but now there’s a lot of people that are really into a lot of gender-bending way beyond just drag. They feel really comfortable shopping here, and there’s no judgment,” added Shea.

Like with the older steampunk couple, patrons can book a private shopping session at Fashionista and build an outfit with one of the co-owners completely free of charge with no obligation for purchase.

“We want more of that. We’re really good with that stuff,” said Lyon.

Shea and Lyon have accumulated their eclectic array of costuming from a variety of shop closures and auctions over the years.

LYON: The weirdest place Nancy and I ever got stuff was somebody had closed down one of those god awful Halloween shops.
SHEA: Those pop-ups. You know, Spirit Halloween.
LYON: They had auctioned off everything except for a roomful of stuff that they’d forgotten about. It was being stored in a basement of an Italian restaurant. And there was no electricity. There was no heat. There’s no light.
SHEA: We were down there with …
SHEA & LYON (simultaneously): Headlamps on!
LYON: And we’re in a basement! We’re like, ​“Oh what’s over here? What’s this?“
SHEA: ​“Ahh! I touched something!“
LYON: ​“What’s this bag?!” We had to look with a flashlight.

Lyon and Shea reminisced on the days that folks were constantly attending fun, themed parties and sourcing ​“outlandish” outfits from their shop.

“I’d love to have it get back to that there. Little by little people are starting to get out and do things again. We’ll see. We’re cautiously optimistic,” said Shea.

Worm Food

As curators of a second-hand shop, Lyon and Shea live the motto to ​“reuse, repurpose, and recycle.”

During the early days of the pandemic, Lyon relied on her stash of vintage fabrics and harvested elastic from thrifted fitted sheets to create cloth masks.

Hardly anything from their shop was bought new, even the clothing racks, and every sign is handmade. The owners hope that offering a greater variety of clothing styles with the addition of thrift will help others engage in this mission as well.

“Fast fashion is a bad disease, and we’re fighting it,” Lyon said. ​“Shopping secondhand counts as a good deed. Even if you’re buying something that’s unfortunately synthetic, if it was made several years ago and you’re its second owner, it helps.”

The problem with some synthetics, like those used in the production of the popular puffer coat, is that they take centuries to biodegrade, Shea said. ​“It’s also the process itself. Part of the reason why a lot of those products come from China is that you can’t make those fabrics in the U.S. anymore. In countries with less strict environmental laws, they can still make them.”

Vintage leather, fur, and wool make much better alternatives to new, environmentally-irresponsible products, Lyon said. ​“Changing people’s minds about fur is one of those things that we take very personally. Ask yourself, ​‘Is it going to become worm food?’ ”

The women agreed that conflating veganism with environmentalism can mislead consumers to believe the purchase is eco-friendly.

SHEA: Products like those puffer coats so often are advertised as plant-based. But they’re clear-cutting all of the forests to get that material.
LYON: When people call something vegan because it’s pleather and not made out of real leather …
SHEA: … that is my pet peeve.
LYON: Don’t call it vegan, man. What it is, is plastic. It’s horrible.
SHEA: The manufacturing process is terrible. And throughout the chain, it’ll never biodegrade. People say, ​“I won’t buy leather,” but …
LYON: … at least it becomes worm food.

Shea said the two are committed to their environmental lifestyle, but they try not to ​“jam things down people’s throats.” Many customers share their dedication to eco-conscious practices. 

“People who shop used clothes just tend to have more of an enlightened attitude about buying new.”