She was always drawn to the closets at estate sales. Karen Ellman loved to tour older homes when she first moved to Connecticut from California and a tag sale was the perfect opportunity. But it was never the furniture that caught her eye, it was the clothes.
“I couldn’t imagine all of these beautiful dresses and vintage pieces ending up with someone else or worse, in a dumpster, so I bought them.” Karen wasn’t sure what she would do with her growing collection, she just knew she had to save the clothes. She began to research her fabulous pieces on line and discovered a whole wide world of vintage clothing and collectors.
“I didn’t have a plan, but at 2am one night I claimed a domain name online – working with a play on the words virtual for on line and vintage – Vintage Virtuoso was born. Karen’s domain sat idle for a year while she designed her site and until one day when she met a webmaster through a friend who could help her set up an online store for her vintage treasures. Now she was able to market her items to vintage shoppers 24/7.
Through word of mouth, people heard about Karen and began to call with items to sell, like the woman who had several pieces from the 1970s and 1980s made by Calvin Klein, including some of his inspiration pieces collected from other countries. “I can be in a client’s closet for hours and it feels like 10 minutes. This is my nirvana. I’m transported to another world.”
With so much inventory, Karen ventured into retail with a store-front in 2011, in Westport, CT, and brought in her niece to help. “My niece loves vintage as much as I do and helps source inventory and repair items. We love restoring pieces and sending them back into the world to be loved and worn again.” Who buys her one of a kind things? Everyone from prom goers to someone going to a White House dinner – they were even asked to provide clothing and jewelry for Jennifer Anniston and other actors for a 1970s movie being filmed locally. Movies and television shows often reach out to source things from certain eras. The store makes it easy by categorizes things by decade offering couture and street clothes.
Karen’s favorite find was a Fortuny Cape from the 1910s made by the iconic designer. “I still have that cape and don’t think I can part with it. For me it’s more about saving the item than making money. I reinvest revenues into new inventory.”
Karen finds it so much fun to take a walk back through a different time through the clothing. One of her favorite things about what she does is when a young girl finds the perfect dress for her prom and it is from her Grandmother’s era. “The stories of each piece of clothing or jeweler is so incredibly interesting.” Karen’s store is all that and more.
Contact: [email protected], www.vintagevirtuosa.com
VentureMom Tip
Just jump into something you love and figure out the venture later.