Vintage clothing pop-up shop dressed to make a splash | Business | Popgen Tech

WILMINGTON — For a limited time only, a downtown vintage clothing store will take shoppers back in time.

Lexi Oliveri, owner of Antoinette Brooklyn boutique in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood and a lecturer at the Fashion Institute of Technology, lives in West Dover and was thinking of setting up a pop-up shop at a local brewery. While looking around, she noticed that the former Norton House Quilting in Wilmington was available for lease and then sold. She said she asked the owner if the space could still be rented out.

“The sale price is completely out of my price range,” she said, but the owner agreed to rent. “I said, ‘Well, I’d like to just do a pop-up. You know, we’ll see how it goes because I don’t know how the city will react.” And everyone I talked to was like, “God, we need vintage.”

Oliveri said The Fashion Plate is a consignment shop in downtown Wilmington that doesn’t carry a lot of vintage clothing, so she won’t be competing.

“Besides, I’m helping each other anyway, just creating a buzz and creating a shopping town,” she said. “Mostly I got everybody’s blessing because I wouldn’t have done it without the community’s blessing.”

Oliveri will manage the store at the front of the Norton House building. The location is between Ratu’s and Vermont Country Store, which she called some of the “best small business stores in Wilmington.”

Her plan is to adjust the prices and products to suit Vermont, but keep the Antoinette Brooklyn aesthetic. It will carry “legacy brands” such as LL Bean, Eddie Bauer and Orvis.

Vintage clothing is usually between 20 and 100 years old.

“I was collecting. I was saving up,” said Oliveri, who attends vintage shows and has access to warehouses. “I’m reaching out to some of my indie designers that I wanted to bring into the store that maybe didn’t make sense in Brooklyn but made more sense in Vermont, like really nice knit sweaters that might be too heavy here, but would be perfect in Vermont because there’s a difference in climate.”

Oliveri said she plans to direct a portion of the proceeds to “the woman at the Hermitage.” Based in Wilmington, the Hermitage Club is a private ski resort owned by its members.

A pop-up shop soft opening is scheduled for Thursday, with a party at 7 p.m. Friday, sponsored by Valley Craft Ales. The store will be open until January 22 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday.

When asked if she thought the pop-up shop could turn into something long-term, Oliveri said, “I mean, a girl can dream, right?”

“It’s a big dream, a big wish,” she said. “But I have to leave it up to the universe because the building is for sale.”