The Dandelion Vintage website went online a few days after Christmas in 1997. I got the idea for starting the website after accidently finding another website that was selling antiques and vintage clothing. My website started with a single page of about 20 items from my closet. I had been collecting and wearing vintage for over 10+ years by that time, so I thought a website might be a good way to resell things that I had been hoarding.
There weren't many vintage clothing websites at that time, less than 10, and it took a very long time to show up in search engines then too - I don't mean getting onto the first page of results, I mean just cracking the top 100. It was 2 months before I sold my first item, a pair of 1960s faux leopard fur pants.
I started my website about 3 months before I discovered ebay. I slowly added to the website and started listing on ebay, and grew from there. I listed regularly on ebay for 7 years, then mostly gave it up to focus on the website. In the past 5 years, I've only listed occassionally on ebay and I also list in spurts on etsy.
On my website I have over 2000 items to choose from. From Victorian to the 1970s. Clothing, lingerie, hats, purses, jewelry and more. This is my fulltime job and I am very serious (and obsessive) about it. I've been wearing and collecting vintage clothing for 25 years, I'm not someone who just jumped on the bandwagon when it became popular. In 13 years, I've probably handled 30,000 pieces of vintage.
I try to keep my items reasonably priced so that buyers can afford to add them to their wardrobes or collections. I don't follow trends, I don't read current fashion magazines. I just focus on quality vintage clothing. I've met some of the coolest people over the years, who love vintage clothing as much as I do. I feel very lucky to have a job that I love (although I am a very demanding boss)
To celebrate 13 years online, I'm having a 3 day sale with everything 33% off!
Some favorite vintage clothing memories:
*Meeting my 2 favorite vintage ladies who have been helping to supply me with stock for about 12 years.
*Buying 2521 pairs of vintage stockings
*Learning about the lives of the ladies whose clothing I buy. Aspiring actresses, farm wives, spinsters, nurses, milliners etc. Wondering about their lives and what the clothing originally meant to them
* Seeing photos of my customers happily wearing a vintage outfit from the website.
* Selling a girdle on ebay for $1000 (that was a fluke, an old fashioned bidding war, never to be repeated)
* In one stock purchase, discovering two 1920s dresses with Lanvin and Molyneux labels in them.
* Blowing my poker face when I discovered a pair of Pucci sunglasses.
* Making vintage friends with my customers, who are very cool, and other vintage sellers - even though I'm the type of person who keeps to myself (selling online from my house is SUCH the perfect job for a hermit like me)
* The 1000s of bound button holes, beautiful tailoring details and tiny handstitching that I've admired in garments over the years.
Thank you to all my vintage friends!
Bye for now, Carol
