My RI Life: Meet The PVD Woman Behind This Popular Vintage Vendor

                      Kim Hobby of Archetype Vintage 

                      Kim Hobby of Archetype Vintage 

About Me

  • I live in a 60's ranch house in Providence with my husband Andrew and our Akita dog.
  • Went to Emerson in Boston for film, but have always loved fashion history and costuming.
  • I have a thing for vintage kimonos, caftans, leopard print anything, and snake jewelry. (I have a 30's snake coil bracelet that I wear every single day.)
  • I'm a horror and sci-fi film fanatic.
  • Love 50's and 60's interior decor and collect crazy vintage chalkware lamps and kitschy pin up art.

I've been buying vintage everything (hats, dresses, jewelry, bags, you name it) since I was twelve years old and wore my first 50's prom dress to a school dance. Fast forward to 2011 when my collection was bursting at the seams (Wink, wink.) and I decided to open Archetype Vintage as a way to share my love of timeless and quality made clothing.  

Each item in the shop is hand picked with an eye for historical relevance and modern wearability. I love 30's velvet dresses, 40's and 50's  novelty prints (That's a print that features a definable object or theme, like cats, world travel or spiderwebs.) and unusual knitwear. I travel far and wide to get the good stuff and make sure that everything in the shop is clean and ready to wear. My job is 50% finding pieces, 25% cleaning, and 25% everything else like photographing, customer service, and shipping. I try to make sure that the shop always has a wide variety of items covering all eras, sizes, and price points. I sell to films and TV shows and to people all over the globe and my best customers outside of the US are in Australia. I even sell to brides and stock vintage wedding dresses in my online store

I list new things daily in my Etsy shop and you can find me locally at The Vault Collective (235 Westminster Street). It's such a thrill to give a new life to a piece and find it a loving home. 

Local Favorites


Social 

Etsy: www.etsy.com/shop/archetypevintage

Instagram: @archetypevintage

Facebook: Archetype Vintage

 

*This post originally appeared on the blog in November of 2016.

**Top 2 photos courtesy of Kim Hobby. White Electric photo by Ashley Farney. Additional ones courtesy of PattyJ.com