A vintage store in Downtown Phoenix encourages people to express themselves through their clothing while also reducing fast fashion waste. Antique Sugar is a vintage clothing store located in Downtown Phoenix off of 2nd Street.
According to the website, the store “offers an astonishing, ever-revolving selection of curated, authentic vintage clothing spanning the entire 20th century”.
The two owners, Annamarie Sanchez and Sarah Bingham, first started their business in the 1990s.
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Sanchez and Bingham were high school students who had a dream of opening their own vintage store.
Antique Sugar’s website explains that, “they spent most weekends combing small town thrift stores for anything weird, wonderful and wearable”.
Sanchez and Bingham’s collection began to grow and they started a shop on eBay to showcase and sell their best vintage items.
Now Sanchez and Bingham have a store that is over 2000 square feet and is covered in vintage clothing and accessories.
Sanchez says the store buys 800 to 1200 pieces of clothing each month.
These are clothing items that potentially could have been throughout or turned into textile waste.
“Yesterday I think we bought over a hundred pieces,” Sanchez said.
“We’ve been open for 12 years and every piece we sell is just one less piece of shit thrown out there,” Sanchez said when asked about clothing waste.
The store books appointments to buy vintage clothing from people in Phoenix and then styles it perfectly on their racks to draw in the attention of its future owner.
“Pick out what you like and stop trying to fit the mold of what everyone else is wearing,” store manager Jasmyn Adcox said.
“I’m sick of trends, I hate trends because they come and go so fast,” Sanchez said.
Fast fashion trends turn over quickly and this leads to more clothing waste put out into the environment.
According to earth.org, of the 100 billion garments produced each year, 92 million tonnes end up in landfills.
“The beauty of this place is you can be anyone you want to be but especially be yourself,” Adcox said.
Antique Sugar creates a lot of traffic through its website and its instagram platform.
The store has nearly 12,000 followers on instagram.
During October, Antique Sugar’s instagram creates 31 instagram posts for every day of the month.
The post shares outfit inspiration for halloween costumes.
The store’s customers love the Halloween inspiration.
“The only thing cooler than the fact that this dress is soooo perfect is the story of going to see them and hanging backstage,” instagram user @taraophotos commented on Antique Sugar’s instagram post of a DJ Lance Rock costume.
Recycling your vintage clothing at Antique Sugar is a great way to help reduce clothing waste while also earning extra cash.
Sanchez wants her customers to know that Antique Sugar is not a thrift store but a curated vintage store where people can come and buy a style that represents their true self.
