FOLK: The Vintage Issue

R

edefining LOCAL BUSINESS

a vintage perspective

article featured in

FOLK magazine

www.magazinebyfolk.com

Photography & La yout Jeremy Ryan Hatfield

Article

Gavin O’Neill

R

edefining LOCAL BUSINESS

a vintage perspective

Photography & La yout Jeremy Ryan Hatfield

Article

Gavin O’Neill

America is still to this day one of the fastest growing, forward thinking communities on the planet. As a culture, we constantly change our music, art, and fashion in efforts to keep up with the media moguls steamrolling towards the future. “New” is a term taken to heart.

New homes, new cars, new businesses, new goals, new likes, new dislikes. It means we’ve done something right; we’ve created hope for a better tomorrow. For over two hundred and fifty years we’ve progressed in this way, heeding our elders’ words but never counting them truly as wisdom, as we peer over into tomorrow’s greener grass. So what happens when we do tilt our heads and look at the yesteryears? Is it even appropriate in this American culture to acknowledge that maybe some things were done better in the past?

For myself and for others a strange phenomenon seems to be sweeping across the country; the vintage ideal. The historical responsibility to listen and remember what things once were, and to preserve them. No, I’m not talking about food preservatives, but the abandoned home that used to be the gem on the block; the original city layout before freeways strong-armed the landscape; the beautiful carved piece of furniture that housed the radio; the forgottens that stood as central pieces of prominence in our grandparents’ and great grandparents’ lives. For me, I’ve always harbored a strong connection to my parents’ parents in my heart. Their stories, their clothing, their furniture; it’s kept me grounded in a pattern of style that I can turn around and call “tradition” to my children.

This trend is forming pockets of neighborhoods all across America’s large cities -the Mission district of San Francisco, Williamsburg and Brooklyn in New York City, and in the sleepy South we have East Nashville. For some Nashvillians, East of the Cumberland River is a place you just do not go to. It is a part of town which, in recent past, was fraught with gang wars, random acts of violence, and heavy drug dealing.

However, few can truly answer what East Nashville started out as. In fact, many would be surprised to know that East of the river was originally the most beautiful and fashionable place to live and be seen. Through renovation, rejuvenation, and respect for what once was, a new generation of East Nashvillians has committed to reminding our greater Nashville community all that East Nashville has to offer.

Through several families committed to the cause, local business in East Nashville has sky-rocketed. From trendy eateries, coffee shops, and organic groceries, to locally owned boutiques and music shops, East Nashville is reawakening. In fact, right off of the heart of East Nashville’s Five Points intersection lay twelve independently owned stores that have given entrepreneurs an actual chance to turn a profit. The 5 Points Collaborative opened with the idea of giving twelve hopeful business owners the space to, well, open up. Twelve startups lay in two rows with a two year lease and a ticket to make dreams come true; not without a great amount of hard work, that is.

Second in from the back sits Goodbuy Girls, comprised of Kim Davison and Tanya Montana Coe, where inside vintage apparel with a modern twist is for sale.

For most, shopping for vintage clothes begins as a big adventure and ends as an even larger letdown. Common ailments of vintage shopping amount to size shortages; material that’s not user friendly; and outfits that are great for a costume party, but rarely for the day-to-day fashion. However, Kim and Tanya had a different experience planned for their customers. Committed to shedding the poor image of vintage shopping, these girls set out to to create a completely new store.

The idea of the store came to them as quirky as the name they call it. Tanya and Kim are old college friends that were both climbing professional ladders which they very quickly realized were not yielding the happiness they expected for the effort they were putting forth. One night as the two friends lamented, a business proposal was born.

Without prior experience or know-how, a casual internet search lead way to the store that stands today. Kim explains it plain and simple: “I just Googled how to start a business.”

With this whimsical spirit, and passion to create a place of their own, the ideas both girls had been brewing collided and their hard work began. Tanya tells of the store first opening on 16th street: “We wanted to be happy and we wanted a haven to go to.”

So in order to create that space, they’ve made a conscious effort to fill their store not only with things they’d wear, but with things they’d also want to sell to their best friends. The store was their own workroom to create and represent a new age of fashion. It wasn’t about designer names or revealing clothing, it was centered to remember the glamorous and elegant pieces their parents and grandparents wore so many years ago. It was an updated twist to the memory of watching these great men and women get dolled up and have a night on the town. Kim and Tanya have collected, bought, and traded pieces to fill the store with clothing that not only has personality, but becomes a personal wardrobe with a story.

The store carries a full section of actual vintage pieces as well as pieces that Kim and Tanya buy with vintage-inspired lines in mind. Most of what they carry comes in small, medium, and a variety of large. One full wall of the store is given to their incredible boot selection for guys and gals; handbags, jewelry, scarves and other accessories to match are in abundance. Although the store boasts mostly women’s threads, the men’s section has some incredible Western threaded snap shirts, as well as an assortment of jackets and t-shirts. The pieces are fun, usable, and cater to hundreds of body types.

When it came to showcasing the store to share with the Folk reader, the clothes created a story themselves. With bright, fun colors accenting skin tone complementary neutrals, the Nashville sixties chic clothing put us back on the farm. Our models have fun with Dad’s old purple pick-up as they transition from day looks to a night on the town. The pieces mix and match and show just how much vintage accessories and cuts give your look a classic new start.

Hard work and dedication flow in and out of this boutique and into the rest of the small shops on Woodland Street. Tanya and Kim explain that the shops are the best community they’ve experienced. Help here and advice there has knit a tight bond for these shops and given birth to some awesome community events in East Nashville. Every second Saturday of the month, these shops host a festival throughout the day and into the evening, sporting live music, a cocktail or two and some excellent shopping.

East Nashville is an experience, filled with rich history and larger-than-life personalities.

It is a place to remember how great things were, how great they have been, and how much better they can be. Goodbuy Girls is a testament to hard work and dedication to a dream. Kim and Tanya cannot express enough how grateful they are for the overwhelming support their community-turned-family has given them. Our community is a secret society of historians. People like Kim and Tanya are preserving the memories of these great places and sharing the importance of Nashville’s story. If you’ve got a seed of inspiration or an idea that should be shared, come on over and plant it in East Nashville. The soils has proven itself before, and we’re certainly growing again.

Mo dels

Bethany D illingham John Wes ley Lasite r Gavin O’N eill Tanya Mo ntana Coe

Truck Doree Fis h

er

C lo th in g Goodbuy Gir [Kim Da v is ls on] [Tan ya M onta na Co e] S t y lis t Ga vin O’N eill

Ha ir & M a keup Brian O’C onnor

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