I finally found the receipt for the Eric B. & Rakim t-shirt I sold in 2012. I sold it for $255.58. It was worth $1,700. As I unpack my inventory in West Lafayette, I’m confronting the “stagehand” collection and the “fur coat era”—inventory I held onto as armor against poverty and reminders of a past life. This is the story of letting go, pricing correctly, and stepping into 2026 light.
I didn’t plan to become a vintage seller. In 2011 I rode a freight elevator to the top of a Lemp Brewery warehouse and fell into 22 tons of clothing at DonnaLand. Dust, drama, union tags, and lessons. This is how I learned the trade the hard way, burned out, and came back in 2025 with systems, AI, and a shop I can sustain.
After a few wild years of job changes, burnout, and moving states, I’m finally back in my happy place: a bright studio full of mannequins, ring lights, and boxes of forgotten vintage. In this post, I share how Vintage Reveries is relaunching from my new workspace and why vintage still feels like the thread that pulled me through.
Here’s ZiZi modeling an Edwardian Lace Dress. I’ve posted a few untouched close ups of the dress so you can see the intricate details in the lace. It was an amazing piece and required minimal styling to bring a turn of the century mood. I especially loved her poses with the violin.
It happens to us all. Occasionally we buy a piece and are disappointed, or overlooked a flaw noted in the description, or don't agree with the seller that the item was in "great/good/awesome" condition. Maybe it even fits wrong. Anyway, we received...
This week I’ve been inspired to scan old magazines and post them after finding a hoard that I’d bought years ago and thought were lost in my several moves! Since I have that space with all my vintage in it, and room, I made a DIY magazine scanning set up….
The history of some clothing can be most fascinating.
This is what I learned about the history of Kirk’s Suede Life, the maker and label on this vintage leather coat that I just sold:
I stopped updating with new vintage fashions for sale earlier this year because I had the chance to further my career at another job, and then my boyfriend moved in… 2021 was pretty awesome, but now that I’m getting back to “dealing” with my huge collection of vintage inventory that’s left from when I sold vintage full time (2011-2016)… I’m very overwhelmed by all the clothing that I need to list for sale in my vintage shop!
Revisiting and posting an update to my 2021 vintage selling journey. I’ve continued to make vintage sales and I really truly cannot stay away from vintage clothing, I saw my last blog about relaunching from back in March 2021. Since it’s winter, and I can’t go walk all the time, and I’m more or less settled in my new job, it is legitimately time to reboot my vintage… or clean the house (but working on this fun hobby is so much less of a chore)! I think… That is, if I am over being burned out of my self.
“Hollywood Steps Out” is a brilliant animated short from 1941, directed by Tex Avery, showcasing caricatures of beloved Old Hollywood stars in the glamorous setting of Ciro’s nightclub. Featuring iconic figures like Cary Grant, Greta Garbo, and the Marx Brothers, this cartoon is a humorous, satirical time capsule of the 1930s entertainment world, blending escapism and clever social commentary through artfully exaggerated celebrity portrayals.
My inspiration and start for reinventing VintageReveries. See the video of my current setup, investments I made, thoughts about mistakes, and more. My next entries will be about re-implementing ecommerce on this site and my experiences selling on different platforms.
October 2013 I collaborated with Clean Cut Creations to host a vintage styled photography workshop with classic cars. It was quite an adventure and a very ambitious project!
For TOO LONG I did my retro photography as ReverieRevel, and sold vintage as VintageReveries, which was not the best idea as far as branding and marketing goes. There were lots of things wrong with doing retro photography as ReverieRevel: Mainly it was stupid to split it from my vintage clothing and fashions, considering that retro styling and photography so obviously compliments vintage fashion.
To showcase my old and my new work, all of which is pretty awesome, I’ll be posting more blog entries and pictures! So that I don’t post everything all at once, over the next few months I am scheduling some blog entries with galleries of my notable, but not quite portfolio worthy, self-styled retro photoshoots since 2011.
I’ve decided to change things around, and re-focus this site on my vintage blog and on writing more about some of the fabulous finds that I post on my Etsy shop. I’ll only be posting higher end, and personal favorite, vintage items in my shop on this site (and ofcourse ephemera as I scan or photograph it).
The practical reason is that for a twenty five dollar dress, it takes an extra 15-20 minutes to upload the images to this site as well as to Etsy. That time adds up, and I could be listing even more, or marketing, or writing a fun blog entry or scanning more ephemera! There’s currently no way to import Etsy listings into this ecommerce system 🙁
With that hour or two that I save every few listings, I’m going to be blogging and writing more personally here. 2013 has brought me many personal changes, the most notable being a healthy dose of getting fed up!
As you can see, I created an online vintage shop to sell my "old" clothing! This gives me an excuse to buy more photography props and more vintage clothing for models to model... and take more vintage styled photographs! Yesterday I shot Tiffany...
I went to see if one of my favorite scanned book sites from the early 2000s was up, and I was so please to find it updated but still offering high resolution downloads of illustrations from old books. The site is, appropriately, FromOldBooks.org. From there, I surfed on to OldBookIllustrations.com, and their incredibly useful resources page… which only led me down a terribly meandering path of looking at illustrations from the 1700s-late 1900s… I ultimately remembered that I have a flickr account, and clicked over to an old favorite vintage advertisement poster’s photostream: Paul Malon
How often does a professional high end vintage car restoration company allow photographers to shoot beautiful gals with custom and vintage cars, without it being a car show or public event? This event is for photographers of all skills and levels....
Whew! I was so busy last week that I forgot to announce my vintage clothing and estate sale here on my site! That’s why you should really sign up for my newsletter, especially if you’re in the St. Louis area.
AlexEliza sent me progress pictures of this old ripped up dress that she was mending, and I'm getting excited. Doesn't sometimes a piece of clothing have such character and energy, that eventhough it's old and tattered, it still seems magical? Even...
Thank you everyone who showed up for my first private vintage sale! It was SO fun to network and put faces to names and see old friends 🙂 I'll be getting more vintage clothes before Christmas and we already have plans for another special private...
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