When walking into Cheeky Vintage it's a relief to find out that designer clothes do not meet their untimely end at the bottom of a trash bin. They live on, they persevere and they are born again all under one roof. Those lucky garments spend their twilight years in the hands of the passionate ladies who own Cheeky Vintage.
Denise Haven and Tina Davis run a shop around that doubles as a museum. They have collected for years and three years ago decided to open up to the public. Like many art historians and art lovers, these two women collect wearable art and history. Each dress and garment has its own story; a unique history attached to its previous owner and the adventures had while wearing the garment.
The store has three rooms and the first is the most glamorous, dedicated almost exclusively to evening gowns, cocktail dresses and everything that sparkles, accompanied by knee length boots, clutch purses, scarves and jewelry. It feels like you're walking into Audrey Hepburn's closet.
Asking Haven to pick out a favorite garment would be like choosing a favorite child. She quickly glanced over the dozen racks of history and picked out an embroidered Kimono floor length coat as the winner. The coat was owned by a lady who was a big fan of vacationing in Las Vegas and clearly, she was not afraid to standing out from the crowd. Something all the garments at Cheeky Vintage succeed in doing. No wallflowers shopping at this store.
Haven and Davis are not only preserving iconic clothing but also safeguarding the owners' stories and passing them along to be remembered by the next owners. And, yes, these clothes originate from a different decade and were once possibly worn by someone else but that is why they are so beautiful. Some of these clothes might have actually been sewn by the designer, something that has sadly been lost in today's fashion industry.
They were made when clothes were meant to last and be sturdy. When was the last time you bought a dress and thought, "my grand daughter will some day wear this dress".
