“She would buy dresses for us from the 1930s and 1940s,” said Barnes, who grew up in Tampa, Florida. “That’s when we started to appreciate the style.”
When Rae Barnes was a young girl, her grandmother would collect vintage accessories including broaches, pendants and gloves.
That love of vintage fashion stayed with Barnes and her twin sister, Von Vorhauer, well into adulthood.
Now the two women own the recently opened 2 Earthy Mamas vintage clothing store at 442 Main St. in downtown Danville.
The store held its grand opening July 27 and offers vintage dresses — including a collection of wedding dresses from the 1930s through the 1980s — and accessories for customers seeking style at an affordable price.
“We’re looking for the young woman who wants to make a statement on her wedding day,” Barnes, 52, said during an interview at the store Friday morning.
2 Earthy Mamas features items for “women who want to add pieces to their collection that won’t break the bank,” she said.
Their vintage bridal items are part of the business’ “I Do and I Did” collection, referring to the present and past uses for the stylish wedding dresses.
2 Earthy Mamas also offers full styling packages for customers, with matching garments, accessories, jewelry and footwear. There is also a Forever Box collection, featuring vintage wedding gifts for the bride, groom, bridal party and the mother of the bride and groom.
Barnes was part of one of five businesses that offered pitches during the River District Association’s IGNITE pitch competition in April 2023. Of those, three were awarded funds from the competition.
Barnes received $11,000 to open her and her sister’s operation. The money came from RDA IGNITE Pitch Grants — money to expand or open a new brick-and-mortar businesses in the River District.
The grants are part of an entrepreneurship program led by the group.
As for where Barnes and Vorhauer get their vintage clothing, they usually acquire their pieces from estate sales online and in the region.
“We always try to find something unique,” Barnes said.
They also make sure that distinctiveness doesn’t come at too high a cost for customers and are “translatable to now,” fashion-wise.
“None of our wedding dresses are over $200,” Barnes said.
In fact, the most expensive item she pointed out in the store was a $288 Imperial cocktail dress.
Barnes and Vorhauer were going to open their store in 2019 in Augusta, Georgia, where Vorhauer lives and where Barnes used to reside. But the COVID pandemic hit, so they went strictly online at the time.
“She takes care of our interests there [in Augusta],” Barnes said of her sister.
They are in the process of upgrading the website at www.2earthymamas.com. The site should be revamped in about two weeks, Barnes said.
Barnes moved to Providence, North Carolina, where she has relatives, in the summer of 2022. Driving through Danville, she was charmed by the River City.
“I fell in love with the Community Market,” she said, referring to the event space downtown on Craghead Street that has the Danville Farmers Market, Bright Leaf Brewfest and a variety of other events.
She noticed the city’s revived downtown. She saw families strolling along and shopping in the River District.
“I was driving through, it was bustling,” Barnes said. “It was a huge sense of community. I felt very optimistic about that. I wanted to be a part of that.”
2 Earthy Mamas is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Read the original article here (Danville Register and Bee, John Crane)