New Kirkwood boutique offers more than vintage

Vintage Vogue offers a wide variety of vintage and modern fashions for both men and women at its location on Kirkwood Avenue. The shop has high-end fashions, bags, shoes and an assortment of house knickknacks.

But the items are more than vintage finds.

“We are a combination,” said Joshua Mattick, an employee at the store. “We have eclectic things, and a lot of our things are brand new with the tags still on. So many people don’t come in because they think it’s all vintage. We want people to come in because we are a combination of newer and older styles.”

Vintage Vogue is one of many “Goodwill boutiques,” which can be found all around the United States. The store gets its inventory from Indianapolis Goodwill stores that have a high volume of inventory. A team in Indianapolis goes through everything in the warehouse.

Management from Vintage Vogue then goes to the warehouse weekly to handpick items for the shop, Mattick said.

Cindy Graham, vice president of Marketing for Goodwill in central Indiana, said items are not taken directly from Bloomington stores and there is very little impact on the Indianapolis stores the boutique receives
items from.

“If you donate at a Bloomington Goodwill store, items stay there,” she said. Because Vintage Vogue is a Goodwill boutique, profits go back to people in Indiana to help them get education and improve their lives, Graham said.

The shop does not want to take away from the adventure of finding a great item in a Goodwill store, Mattick said.

“We still want people to be able to go to those stores and find treasures and things they think they may not find,” Mattick said. Vintage Vogue is designed to be between the concepts of a Goodwill and a Plato’s Closet, he said.

There are plenty of finds, from dresses and tops to funky candle holders and picture frames.

“We want to be able to have a 50-year-old wedding dress sitting next to a brand new, designer dress with the tag still on it,” Mattick said.

Because Vintage Vogue is a Goodwill satellite, some people might get the wrong idea about the shop, he said.

“We try to distance ourselves from Goodwill, because on a college campus the Goodwill name might scare some people away,” Mattick said. “We try to focus on the high-end donations.”