Poorbaby Fashion

Photos and Interview by Leah Bury

Playing Dress Up: It’s Not Just For Kids

How Poorbaby Fashion is Empowering People To Express Themselves through Styling Sustainably 

Anyone who has visited Austin, or lived here for more than 5 minutes, can probably tell you that the vintage scene here is top-tier. On any given weekend, there’s dozens of pop up vintage markets, each with dozens of vendors selling their unique array of curated wares. In a sea of so many vintage sellers, it can be hard to stand out.

Not for Poorbaby Fashion, who specializes in bold, colorful garments from decades of the past. If you’re lucky enough to come across a Poorbaby rack in the wild, you’re bound to find an array of dazzling prints, enchanting silhouettes, and captivating hues — and likely to be inspired to get back to the playfulness of dressing up that many of us felt we had to leave in childhood. 

Recently, I was lucky enough to visit Poorbaby owner Nicole’s house to peruse her assortment of carefully curated clothing, and I brought a few friends and my camera with me, so we could play dress-up and learn a little bit more about Poorbaby Fashion!

Can you tell me about the origin story of Poorbaby Fashion?

I grew up going to garage sales and thrift stores with my mom, some of my earliest memories are playing dress up with vintage dresses we bought at a yard sale. So, from a young age, I became a bit of a secondhand shopaholic. Since then I’ve always been pretty thrifty and drawn to unique clothing - the weirder the better. When I was in my early 20s I heard about the app Depop from a friend, and became addicted to it. I bought and sold stuff constantly until I realized I could make some pretty good money doing it. That was 2018, I think? Then I really started taking it seriously in 2019, selling on Depop and Instagram. I had a little studio space in Bellingham, Washington — where I was living at the time — where people could come shop and hang out. 

How has this work evolved over time since you started? 

It definitely started off as a hobby and a way to make a little extra cash but I really fell in love with the community and knew it was what I wanted to do long term. I moved to Austin in 2020 for more opportunities in the vintage scene and it’s been great. I work part time at Prototype Vintage in town as their buy manager and have enough time to do Poorbaby full time as well. I’ve had some awesome opportunities to get more into styling too which I really love. Maybe one day I'd like to focus less on selling and more on styling. 

How would you describe the style of Poorbaby? What kind of styles and pieces do you look for when sourcing, and what draws you to those styles? 

One thing that I think stands out about Poorbaby is mixing eras and styles. I try not to focus on one specific area because some days I wanna dress like a 70s princess and some days I'm giving 90s skater boy. So I have a lot of fun mixing femme and masc elements, and I think I reach a wide variety of customers by not pigeonholing myself. That being said, I love anything bright, bold, colorful, crazy patterns, stuff you’re not gonna see again. My favorite stuff to find is psychedelic prints from the 60s + 70s. They were on some crazy shit back then and I love it! I’m heavily influenced by 70s + 80s rock n roll too, leather, studs, animal print. And I love to merge those two styles together, so you’ll often see me wearing a crazy 1960s psychedelic mini dress with a big 1980s studded leather belt or something. 

What is the most difficult part of being a vintage curator? 

One of the hardest parts of being a vintage seller is not keeping everything! I really only source stuff I would wear and it can be really tough to let stuff go, cause you may not see something like it ever again! But, realistically the job is a lot harder than most people realize. It’s not just buying and reselling stuff for a higher price. It’s the sourcing, washing, mending, researching, listing, posting, shipping, and one million other little tasks. It’s a lot of work and rarely do i have a real day off where I'm not doing something shop related. 

What is the most fun part?

Sourcing has always been one of my favorite parts of the job. I love digging through old stuff, and finding treasure in another person's trash. That and connecting with the vintage community. I've made some lifelong friends through selling vintage and for the most part everyone is really nice and supportive.

Tell me about your styling process. What are the questions you ask the person you’re working with? How do you go about curating a unique look that feels authentic and comfortable to them while balancing it with your own taste? 

More is more. I remember getting dressed in high school and my mom always telling me “less is more” and I was like, “No! I'm going to mix patterns, I'm going to wear 5 necklaces.” There's always room to add another layer or accessory! I think my styling can be seen as ‘camp’ which is kind of what I'm going for. One of my biggest style inspirations growing up was, and still is, Lady Gaga. i remember watching her music videos in the early 2000s being like “WTF is she wearing! it’s amazing!!!!” I think most people that reach out to work with me kind of have a sense that my style is a little “extra” so it works out. and sometimes when i’m styling people I think they can be a little unsure of where it’s going but for the most part people are like “Damn! I would have never thought of pairing these things together,” which I love! I really hope I can help people find their own style and have fun doing it. 

What’s one thing you wish people understood about the work that you do? 

Again it’s probably just the amount of work that goes into it. Some people think that I find all this stuff at the thrift store which realistically maybe 10% of stuff I sell and style is thrifted. There’s so many other places to find clothes you wouldn’t expect, and to find the crazy rare pieces, I do have to put in a lot of work to find that stuff! And just the amount of repairing and washing I do is insane. Most of the stuff I sell is 60-100 years old so there’s bound to be weird smells and seams falling apart. so I’ve got to soak and hand wash stuff, often several times because 100 year old smell isn’t coming out with one soak! 

If you could do anything with Poorbaby Fashion in the future, what would it be?

I definitely want to work more on styling in the future! I always thought being a celebrity stylist would be fun, for someone who loves to dress super extra like Gaga or Rihanna. but realistically I don’t have the knowledge or interest in a lot of high end designer stuff so I think what I really would love to do is style films or tv shows. Anything that is set in the 60s and 70s would be a dream! I loved the styling in the show Minx, I thought they did a great job being true to the era - I even saw a couple dresses that I’ve had in my shop which is super fun! 

Models:

Shorna Haque / @silkyshroom

Rewon Shimray / @artbyrewon

Mar Beltran @empyreallove

To learn more and follow along with Poorbaby Fashion, who is also available for styling and rentals:

Website: poorbabyfashion.com

Instagram: @poorbabyfashion 

Email: poorbabyfashion@gmail.com