Unusual home working jobs – vintage fashion site

Those of you who love clothes (all my readers?) will enjoy today’s glimpse into the daily routine of Lynnette Peck.

She runs award-winning vintage fashion site Lovely’s Vintage Emporium, sourcing vintage clothes and accessories, and often selling them to artists and celebrities.

Hi Lynnette, how did you come to start a vintage fashion site?
I have always been obsessed by clothes from the past and have been wearing vintage since I was 13. Plus, when I was a young journalist in the Nineties, and on a very low salary, I also worked weekends in Steinberg & Tolkien, an iconic vintage shop on the Kings Road in Chelsea, London.

I learned so much about vintage fashion and met amazing designers and celebrities. This all led me to thinking about launching my own vintage business one day and in 2011 Lovely’s Vintage Emporium was the result.

I explored having a bricks and mortar shop but the costings didn’t work out, and as I had worked as both a print and digital journalist for a few years anyway so a vintage fashion site seemed the way to go. I also liked the idea of being able to combine both my careers (journalist and online retailer) from home. That feels such a privilege.

How do you combine these two different roles in your daily routine?
Now that is always the challenge!!! I just have to switch between the two all day long, depending on the emails and social media interaction.

I run two accounts on various social media forums to keep them separate. I post every day on my Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin and Google+ accounts.

I do have days though where I am disciplined and just devote myself to one task. Next week for example I have to spend Monday and Tuesday writing a feature for Homes & Antiques magazine January issue and researching for some features for Saga Magazine.

Then on Wednesday I am visiting a spa and having treatments for a review I am writing for The Good Spa Guide. On Thursday I am doing a photo shoot at home for my site, and Friday will be spent editing the photographs and uploading as many as I can to the website.

I also do a blog every day for Lovely’s Vintage Emporium and go to the post office to send off vintage pieces my clients have purchased. I walk my rescue dog Miss Polar twice a day and somehow fit in housework too…one of the problems of working from home is that every day you notice if the house needs cleaning or tidying.

What’s your favourite part of running a vintage fashion site?
I love styling the photo shoots as that combines my fashion journalism background too – all the shoots take place in my garden against a lovely old brick wall. Another benefit of working from home is that I do not have to pay for office or photographic studio space.

Plus, I use local girls who are not models but who have personality and I do pay them. I am not impressed by the culture of not paying people for work, which seems rather prevalent now. Ruby is my latest model muse but she has gone to university now so we can only shoot her in the holidays. But I also really love sourcing the vintage fashion and accessories for the website.

Any interesting or funny stories about people you’ve bought clothes from or sold to?
Where to begin! The first celebrity to borrow pieces was the American rapper Nicki Minaj who wore some of our vintage furs and turbans when she came to the UK in 2011. I was lucky as I knew her UK stylist. 

The first lady I bought vintage directly from had been keeping them in a greenhouse ‘to keep them warm, dear’ – luckily they hadn’t been there too long so they weren’t ruined. She had some real treasures ranging from a pair of 1970s bottle green YSL sandals to a large 1930s ostrich feather shawl (the client who then went on to buy this shawl from us wore it to the BAFTAs). 

One of my really lovely clients is a jazz singer called Melissa James, who comes to my house and we have fun afternoons with her trying on pieces. She then wears them for her performances.

I also really adore TV presenter and author Dawn O’Porter who always looks incredible in the pieces she buys from me as she is so willowy and gorgeous.

Holly Willoughby loved a vintage black cape that appeared on This Morning (she is the presenter) so much that she purchased it from us after the show. A lot of beauty journalist friends also buy from me and at beauty industry events it sometimes seems as if I have clothed the whole room!

How would you like your work to develop?
Like most retailers I would obviously like sales to continue increasing. But beyond that I would like to experiment with pop-up shops so that I can have more ‘real’ contact with clients. I am still enjoying writing for magazines and newspapers and consulting for brands so I hope to continue doing that mostly from home.

What advice would you give to someone hoping to set up their own online shop?
I couldn’t afford to pay for PR or SEO experts and I wish I had – so if you can save up to pay experts in these two areas when you first launch then I would.

I wouldn’t worry or even look at what others are doing but instead follow your gut instinct and your own path. I just set up the website how I wanted it to be and so far so good as my fifth anniversary is coming up in March 2016.

Lynnette is a journalist, stylist and media consultant. Lovely’s Vintage Emporium was voted the UK’s Best Vintage Fashion Site at The National Vintage Awards 2013.