Please shop my “Vintage in Red” section for vintage Valentine’s Day gifts.  Get these now and give them to your sweetie early so she can wear them all day long on February 14th.  It’ll definitely earn you some xoxo, and maybe more!

Wishing on a star,

LonesomeBrown

Do you have an Etsy account?  If so, please “heart” my shop!

My goal is to have 200 Etsy users call me a favorite before the week is out.  Click here to be directed to my shop and choose “Add Seller to Favorites” on the right side bar.  Thanks!

Upon my decision to open a vintage store, one of my brainstorm births was a fictional character who I dubbed LonesomeBrown.  I figured I would name my store after her and all of the items for sale would be her possessions.  At first Lonesome was left underdeveloped, a mere sketch of a character described in my shop announcement:

Lonesome Brown lives in the past with her memories and possessions, with her wool Scottish sweaters, ceramic trinkets, and record player. She loves her wellingtons, always wears a floppy hat, and goes swing dancing on Saturday nights. During the week she just waters her flowers and reads Sherlock Holmes.

After a few weeks, I decided to include short fictional stories in each of the item descriptions, thus increasing the believability of the items being “owned” by LB.  As I did so, the character started to really become fleshed out.  LonesomeBrown, who had always been whimsical and old-fashioned, took on a distinctly 1950s persona.  It became clear that she was sheltered, artistic, and extremely lady-like.  Her background and childhood have been alluded to and new characters introduced to my shop’s audience.  (Audience may be an odd word-choice, but I have received feedback from shoppers who say they check my shop daily for new stories.)

With time I decided I wanted LonesomeBrown to be more than a shop.  She’s a story to be followed.  In order to encourage her growth I’ve created a Facebook Fan page, and a Twitter account.  Please fan my Facebook page and follow my Twitter updates to gain daily insight to the LB world.  And of course to shop vintage, please visit www.LonesomeBrown.etsy.com.

Wishing on a star,

LonesomeBrown

When I was a child, I hated all things old and second-hand.  I had four older siblings, three of which were sisters, and so more than three-quarters of my wardrobe and toy collection were comprised of hand-me-downs.  (The other quarter were brand new straight from my mother’s sewing machine, which I found almost equally as mortifying.)  My parents were what I considered junk collectors.  Almost no trip, even to the supermarket, ever ended without a stop at a yard sale, estate sale, flea market, or antique store.  I just couldn’t understand why my parents enjoyed acquiring old, dirty, used stuff.  And beyond that, they seemed to simply enjoy browsing and seeing the stuff; they got a kick out of it even when they got back in the car empty handed! They were nuts!

When I turned 16, I refused to continue going on any more road trips with them.  Long weekends spent visiting my eldest sister in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania were three or four day long antique-fests.  I had had enough!  By this time I had learned to appreciate the wonders of sewing machines and their creations, gaining a little bit of a reputation as a budding fashion designer in my circle of friends, but still was of the mentality that old equals gross.  My mom would come home and show me china plates with birds painted on them.  My dad would display rusty tools with wooden handles.  I just shook my head.

I honestly can’t remember when my parents’ appreciation of the old and battered began to rub off on me.  I remember that I was slightly obsessed with the idea of identity-building, and that I slowly began to appreciate that aged items each possessed their own history and character.  I remember my mother coming home from an estate sale one day with an amazingly tailored navy wool coat lined in winter white with a matching shawl scarf.  She had found it at an estate sale; it still had the original tags.  The coat fit me so perfectly and was so beautiful - so much more beautiful than any other coat I had ever owned.  ”Why don’t they make coats like this anymore?” I almost yelled with excitement.  ”They just don’t make anything like they used to…” my mother responded in a tone that was an odd combination of disgust and world-weariness.

By the time I graduated from college I was enthusiastically accompanying my mother on Saturday mornings on her scavenger hunts.  My affinity for fashion and my seamstress skills heightened my appreciation for the superb handicraft of vintage clothing, so while my mother would check china spread on folding tables for chips at yard sales, I’d be digging through bins of stained and ripped clothing looking for the perfect, unmarred, couture survivor.  I’ve made some marvelous finds, among them a black suede evening bag with original Macy’s tags on it.  The tags read: $5.  Unbelievable.

Almost a year ago I launched my online shop for vintage clothing and novelties.  I knew that if my parents and I enjoyed saving the aged from uncertain futures by cherishing them and giving them good homes, others must have that same desire to preserve history in such a manner!  Founding LonesomeBrown has been one of the best decisions I have made in my life.  I’m so excited to reach my shop’s one-year anniversary in seven weeks, and am looking forward to growing in my second year of business.  Please visit my shop here.

Wishing on a star,

LonesomeBrown