Ragtime Vintage Clothing, Asheville

Sometimes I think I must be living in a fog.  A good example is the fact that this store, Ragtime Vintage, has been open in Asheville for seven (or did she say nine???) years, and I’d never seen or even heard of it.  Granted, it is a bit off the beaten path, on Walnut Street, but I pride myself in knowing such things.

But no matter, because this little gem of a store is now on my regular circuit of Asheville haunts.   I’d like it even better if I were a guy, because most of the store has the best selection of early 60s boy vintage that I’ve run across in a long time.  Still, the women’s selection was small but select, with the best stuff, again, from the early 60s.  Honestly, it was just nice walking into a vintage store that was not 95% polyester 70s and 80s.

Loving that “College Shop” sign!

Design Archives – Greensboro, NC

Yesterday was a beautiful day to be out looking for vintage treasures, and it was made even better by a trip to Design Archives Vintage in Greensboro.  Design Archives is owned by Kit Rodenbough, who is a former designer and who chooses the store’s stock with a very experienced designer’s eye.

She also has a very large collection of vintage that is the “archive” – a source of design inspiration.  I was very fortunate that several years ago she allowed me to go though the archive in order to photograph the labels for the VFG Label Resource.   It was a significant contribution, containing some of the earliest examples of some labels that I’d ever seen.

This was my first visit to Kit’s new location on South Elm Street in downtown Greensboro.  Honestly, when I heard she was taking the store to Elm Street, I thought she had lost her mind.  But that’s because I had not been in downtown Greensboro in about three years.  I am happy to say that here is yet another Southern city that is reinventing its downtown shopping district, saving it from the neglect and decay that have occurred since the onslaught of the shopping mall.  There were shops open, people walking around, cafes spilling out onto the street!

So what can one expect to find inside Design Archives?  This trip I saw everything from that adorable Vera dress you can see in the window, to 1950s sundresses to a wide selection of vintage fabrics to Emilio Pucci.  In the past I’ve bought a Tina Leser swim cover-up and the best pair of mod purple and black shoes ever.  This trip I found a vintage 70s crocodile shirt with the Haymaker label – perfect with a 70s golf skirt and a pair of Tretorns.

So take a look inside Design archives and see for yourself:

And here are Julie Henderson the lovely shop assistant, Bogie the shopdog, and Kit,  and me, of course, in the mirror!

Help Needed Alert:

For a while in the 1970s, Kit designed a line of bodysuits – that 1970s leotard- with-a-snap-crotch.  The line was called Doll Rags.  She would love to hear from anyone who knows more about the line (its history from before and after her time there) and I would love to have a photo of the label for the VFG Label Resource.  Get in touch!