I have been fascinated with collecting and searching out vintage since I turned 9 years old. But a couple of years ago I started to become more serious about it, and that’s when my passion took off. I created a business through my love of vintage, and when I came to Propel I knew I wanted my project to be based around my love of vintage, but I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted that to be. After considering various ideas I decided I wanted to do something that would improve the face of my brand into something I was proud of. I started my semester by completely rebranding to a fresh name that took lots of consideration. Eventually I landed on “Velvet Owl Vintage”, which I feel represents and gives people an idea of the items I might offer. (I focus on primarily items from the 1960s/70s) which of course was the peak of velvet, and owls! My next step was creating a logo for my company, which of course had to be the cutest owl, designed by me! I learned how to use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create my logo, which is a lot harder than it looks!

After my rebrand, I created coordinating stickers and business cards, which all had a very positive response! once that was all said and done, I went on to the next part of my project which was to build my brand. I applied and then opened my very own space at old house revival company, as well as started an excel spreadsheet to keep track of my sales. I then spent many mornings, afternoons, and evenings out at thrift stores, garage sales, flea markets and estate sales curating the best items I wanted my brand to represent. While doing these things I also made content about all of it! My goal was to create 4 reels a week which I was able to accomplish a majority of the time. Thinking of different ideas for content certainly wasn’t the easiest but it paid off. Within my time at propel I saw my account grow over a thousand followers through these reels which has felt very rewarding. I will definitely continue my vintage journey after Propel and high school.