Vintage Clothing Picking - An Experience!

For as long as I can remember liking vintage things in the St. Louis region, I have continuously interacted with, in one shape or another, Donna Knott from Donnaland Vintage Variety. It started when I found her shop in University City, next to The Pageant (the shop is no longer there). I bought one of my favorite little purses that was made out of vintage pulp fiction novel covers and mesh - super cool! Then I discovered that Donna put on estate sales. I went to two before I started selling vintage myself and bought gorgeous costume jewelry pieces for me. Then I got into selling vintage and I started going to more sales, where I picked up beautiful hats, a few great coats and some wonderful dead stock jewelry.

At one of these sales I mentioned wishing I had gotten there earlier for a chance to get more vintage clothing and Donna said six epic words, "You should come to my warehouse." This was the first I've heard of the warehouse and instantly my vintage picking brain started to fixate on the idea. A chance to go into Donna's warehouse?!?!?

Well a few months went by and I figured it was just an off-hand remark, because I hadn't heard back from her after leaving my card. Then, as typical in St. Louis, a "it's a small world" incident occurred. At one of my basement sales in December I met a woman named Kim who does resale and vintage who really thought I should get to know a lady named Janet. Janet also sells a lot of vintage clothing and just so happens to be in one of my teams on Etsy. I looked her up on Etsy and found her linking an invitation to go to the Donnaland warehouse of all things! It turns out, Janet is Donna's sister! I introduced myself via Etsy, sent Donna an email and the rest is history. On one of the first days she's made her warehouse open to the public - I had an appointment!

I spent 3 1/2 hours digging through industrial sized boxes of vintage clothes. Donna purchased over 155 bales, yes bales!, of vintage clothing, each weighing around 1,000 lbs. As she and her team breaks them apart and sorts them they get put into general category boxes and you have to dig through them to find your pieces. There's a fair amount of stained, damage pieces, but there are also loads of treasures! I  ended up with 34 pieces, spending $200 on dresses, women and men's coats, men's sports coats and shirts, and women's skirts. I didn't even make it through five whole boxes... Nor did I manage to get to women's blouses... So I think that just means another trip is necessary once I acquire some more seed monies! 

 Just check out the photos! Now for the hard part, soaking, washing and pressing...