The Phoenix Network:
 
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Moonsigns  |  BandGuide  |  Blogs
 
 

Found

I stopped into Find this afternoon, the new vintage/consignment/clothing-exchange shop at 16 Free Street (where Arabica used to be). Owner Laura Ker, a Waterville native who returned to Maine last April after sojourns in New York and New Mexico, has set things up beautifully -- tons of denim, plus shirts, sweaters, jackets, and shoes for men and women (more stuff for girls than guys right now, but she plans to expand the male section soon). There's also a pegboard of purses and a table of accessories. The store's interior, like its logo, is streamlined and simple -- no Goodwill-esque chaos here. To complete the vintage vibe, Ker set up a functional Ms Pac-Man game in one corner, to keep non-shopper spouses or children happily occupied.

Ker -- a former Pilates instructor who studied textiles at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute, and had a successful vintage eBay operation going before she decided to go brick-and-mortar -- is accepting clothes in exchange for cash or store credit. Everything is washed (at a local laundromat) before it's displayed, and there's a color-coded discount every day. 

And yes, I walked out $16 poorer, but one pair of charcoal skinny-leg Levi's richer.

Leave a Comment

Login | Not a member yet? Click here to Join

(required)  
(optional)
(required)  
ABOUT THIS BLOG
A roundup of the on-the-street action in Portland, Maine, plus updates on all manner of interesting topics from the staff of the Portland Phoenix.
SUBSCRIBE
Links
winner, The Best Blog, Portland Phoenix, 2008
A Portland-based legal-activist group
You tell us what they think
Portland-based local-foods blog
A media-watch column by journalism professor and Phoenix contributor Dan Kennedy
Comments from Maine peace-and-justice activist Bruce Gagnon
Updates from Portland's Green Party
See what the crowdsourcing crowd is saying
winner, The Best Blog, Portland Phoenix, 2007
The SPACE Gallery blog
Activists for prisoners' rights




Saturday, September 19, 2009  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2009 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group