In fashion, as the saying goes, "What's old is new again." Few places reflect this better than the myriad vintage boutiques around the Inland Northwest.
One of the newest to arrive to this local scene is Collective Threadz, which opened in the Garland District last month and is stocked by half a dozen local resellers. Fittingly, the shop took over a building that was last home to Drop Yer Drawers (also known as DYD, or its more toned-down name, Drum Yer Drum), a former longstanding vintage shop that moved from Spokane Valley to Garland almost two decades ago, and permanently closed earlier this year.
While Collective Threadz' extensive inventory of T-shirts, jeans, jackets and more from the 1980s and 1990s are hot sellers among the Gen Z crowd, its owners say, the shop's stock spans all decades and styles.
Hung along the upper walls all around the store are threadbare, rare band T-shirts (none are reproductions, of course) from the likes of the Rolling Stones, Judas Priest and Nirvana. Midcentury-era collegiate and regional public school names printed or embroidered across faded crewnecks and letterman sweaters bedeck another wall, more of Collective Threadz' rarest wares.
In one corner, racks of ultra soft, worn-in flannel button-ups. Across the room, stacks of vintage Levi's denim. Vintage enthusiasts can also scope out old-school military-issue garments — all built to last — and hard-worn working folks' coveralls and Carhartt jackets.
"Vintage has always just kind of been a thing around here," says co-owner Grant Quine. "It's just more mainstream now with the kids."
Collective Threadz co-owner Tyees Cardwell, agrees, and notes that for most of their vendors, "picking," or sourcing, the shop's vintage inventory is a full-time hustle.
"These guys are always on the hunt everywhere, traveling," Cardwell says. "It's getting harder and harder to find when you have so many people out there doing it. But we get kids from all different walks of life who come in, and this is what they want."
Cardwell's other business partner, Earnest Finnie, is one of the shop's main pickers; the duo collectively sell under the name Off the Hook Vintage.
Quine, meanwhile, has his own inventory and seller identity, The Raven's Saga. Other vendors in the store include some well-known players in the local vintage scene, like Mike Kay of Time Machine Workshop and Brandon Martell of Bee's Vintage. Other contributors are Braun Webb of BW Vintage and Ann Schluting of Redux Vintage, the latter specializes in repurposing vintage textiles into quilt coats and tote bags. Auctashia Yates of Alliance Collective also sells there, specializing in women's vintage and thrifted modern clothing.
Collective Threadz initially began as a shop called Spokane Vintage inside a nondescript building on the far eastern end of Garland, where it intersects Market Street in the Hillyard neighborhood. Cardwell says she'd long envisioned growing the business and moving it to a more accessible part of town with more traffic.
When she and Quine heard there was a sign in the window announcing that Drop Yer Drawers' location was available, they knew that opportunity had arrived. It took about three months to clean out, paint and update the space before Collective Threadz and its vendors could move in.
Similar to other vintage clothing shops in the area, Collective Threadz vendors rent space there. Kay and Martell mostly keep their goods in a separate-but-attached room located to the left of the store's entrance, but other vendors' pieces are mixed together into curated racks, sorted by garment type and style.
"It works really well having different people in here because you get to see different points of view and different styles," Cardwell says.
The shop also offers pieces at a range of price points, from $14 T-shirts and $40 jeans to ultra-rare and high-end vintage pieces that sell for several hundreds each, like the aforementioned vintage band tees.
"Some people ask us about the shirts on the wall, and then kind of flinch when we say what the price is," Quine says. "But there are people who are into collecting and having something that's true vintage, and came out in the time, versus some people who just want to wear the band and they don't mind modern repros."
"It's good we have both," Cardwell adds. "The kids enjoy being able to come in and buy something vintage that's, you know, $14, $15 instead of $50."
The kids aren't the only ones excited to have a new vintage spot in Garland.
"The other business owners, and just the street traffic — everybody is so welcoming, and they're happy to see what this building has become," Cardwell says. "We know that this is a great place to be. It's so busy over here — it's night and day compared to where we were before." ♦
Collective Threadz • 719 W. Garland Ave. • Open Tue-Sun 11 am-6 pm • Instagram: @collectivethreadzvintage
