The Good Stuff
Friday’s Vintage Co. Finds Value in the Past…
Dylan and Paige Mosshart have always been big thrifters, and now they are using their entrepreneurial spirit to share their passion for vintage clothes with the wider Redding community.
It all started at the beginning of the Carr Fire in 2018 when the Mossharts moved from Washington State down to Redding to be closer to friends. They bought a house and had a bunch of clothes, but not much storage space.
“My wife took over the closet and said I had to get rid of clothes. But we have a rule that if I get rid of one thing, she has to get rid of one thing. So, I invited my friends over to look at the clothes and just started selling them out of my closet,” Dylan says.
Dylan worked as a server at a local restaurant and started selling clothes online as a side hobby around the time when the couple met fellow online vintage clothes reseller Jackie Mueller. Mueller and the Mossharts went out to dinner one night and she explained to them how she ran her own vintage clothing business (now she works alongside the Mossharts at the Friday’s Vintage Co. brick and mortar store on Market Street). Dylan changed his personal Instagram handle to @fridaysvintageco and started doing pop-up events at their house. The first one they held on a Friday had a line around the block.
“With vintage clothing, everything is one-of-one. Nothing is mass produced. We buy locally; everything is sourced within 30-40 miles of Redding,” Dylan says. Everything in the store is at least 20-30 years old, good quality and made in the United States.
“When you get something from here, it’s unique. No one else has it,” Dylan adds.
The secondhand pieces are sold at fair prices online and in the store, and anything that doesn’t sell goes to Raising Shasta teen centers. Friday’s Vintage Co. donates 100 to 200 pounds of clothes to the nonprofit per week, depending on how much the teen centers can handle.
Friday’s Vintage Co. is doing more than giving clothing with character a second life, though — it is helping battle the fast fashion industry responsible for producing inexpensive, low-quality clothing made by exploited workers and often with microplastics in them which often disintegrate easily and end up in the landfill.
But certain brands like Levi’s make clothing built to last, and haven’t changed their quality. In 2023, a pair of 1873 Levi’s jeans salvaged from a shipwreck sold at an auction for $100,000; and even Friday’s Vintage Co. has fetched upwards of $2,400 for a pair.
“Clothing from the ‘30s and ‘40s can go for crazy money,” Dylan says.
Friday’s Vintage Co. won’t buy multiples of one certain item of clothing from one single seller because they feel the entire batch loses its charm, but the same Pink Floyd T-shirt from its 1993 tour from three different buyers has more appeal. “All have flaws or are unique in their own ways,” Dylan adds.
Since everything is one-of-one and clothing is cleaned, spot-treated and repaired in different ways before it can be resold, every item is priced individually. Sometimes it can cost $200 to $300 to repair an item before reselling it, depending on what kind of material and type it is. “A 1930s dress can cost a lot more to stitch than a cotton T-shirt,” Dylan says.
Friday’s Vintage Co. carries a diverse inventory, everything from concert T-shirts to Carhartt jackets and gunny sack prairie dresses. Understanding that reputation means everything, Friday’s Vintage Co. is upfront and transparent about how they run the business.
“This is a bit about educating people about what vintage is and what it’s worth. Some things are too new for us to take. We will pay a third or a half of what we sell it for, unless we’re buying it in bulk, like an entire storage unit,” says Dylan. “Most sellers are just so happy it’s going to someone who is going to appreciate it.”
Dylan then tells the story of a 49ers jacket with the name “Jeff” embroidered on it. A few years after Jeff passed away, his widow sold the jacket to Friday’s Vintage Co., hoping it would go to a good home. A few months later, the customer came back and said she saw a guy at Pipeline Craft Taps & Kitchen wearing her late husband’s jacket.
“The customer always comes first, and we take the time to hear the story. We treat the person we’re buying from with respect and understanding. We really find the value in clothing and know how to restore it,” Dylan says. “One of the perks of this job is getting to meet so many people. And we have amazing, consistent customers who keep coming back.”
Friday’s Vintage Co. hosts $5 clothing days and gives exclusive discounts and insider tips on spontaneous drops to those who join its email newsletter. •
Friday’s Vintage Co.
