(POSTPONED) Visiting Artist: RoomShop Vintage
Each 4th Friday of the month, all the businesses on 4th street stay open an hour later to celebrate our community. Each 4th Friday at Moon + Arrow we celebrate by offering 20% off Moon + Arrow jewelry, serve refreshments, and highlight a local maker through the weekend.
As we move into springtime we will be welcoming local maker and vintage seller, Room Shop Vintage to Moon + Arrow! Shelly of RoomShop Vintage will be joining us from March 27th to the 29th at 742 s 4th Street Philadelphia, PA. Shelly will be creating an exclusive line of cotton pieces sourced from historic fabric row specifically for this pop-up! We can't wait to have Room Shop Vintage in the shop, so we sat down with Shelly to talk vintage, working and living in Philadelphia and her inspiration.
Q: What is it like to be a small business owner in Philadelphia?
We love Philadelphia! It’s perfect for starting a small business because it is an affordable East Coast city that is very much on the rise. There are so many people doing such creative endeavors that we feel supported and understood. Philadelphia has been very supportive of Room Shop and is located in the Bok Building has given us a built-in creative community. We are also very inspired by the history of Philadelphia as a historic textile center that we love being a part of the continuation of that. Every single Room Shop Collection piece is made in Philadelphia and our fabric and trims are sourced locally - sometimes right here on Fabric Row!
Q: Can you tell us about your background? How did Room Shop come to fruition?
My husband and I both come from retail backgrounds. I have extensive experience in Merchandising and Trend Forecasting. My husband’s experience is in Creative Direction, Music Supervision, and Event Planning. We had both worked in the industry for many years and were feeling super burnt out. My husband quit his job and the thought was that I would keep working while we figured out the next steps. Well LOL I got laid off 2 weeks later so the decision was made for us. We went on a long soul searching road trip across the country and along the way we collected vintage thinking it would be fun to have a party when we got back for all of our friends and sell the vintage we had gathered. We set up the back bedroom of our house as a shop (Room Shop) and the rest is history.
Q: Why scrunchies? Can you tell us about your love for them?
The cloud Scrunchies was born out a desire to use the leftover fabric we had lying around from a photo backdrop. Around November of 2018, I started seeing Scrunchies having a moment and thought hey we could make our own out of this recycled fabric but let’s make ours different by making them really really BIG.
When I was in High School my sister had made a scrunchie for me when I was trying out for the Cheerleading team (spoiler I didn’t make it haha) but something about that act really stuck with me and so when I think of scrunchies I think of that warmth. It also showed me that it was possible to make scrunchies using a traditional sewing machine. So this memory gave me the confidence to break out the sewing machine and start creating! 
Q: We are so excited about the Room Shop Cotton Collection! Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind this new collection?
We’ve been having fun expanding into apparel and playing with new fabrics and shapes. We love Cotton for spring for a few reasons - it has a structure to hold the shapes we like, puff sleeves for example. It also takes the dye so we can play with a color which we love! For the Moon and Arrow pop up, we are doing a special assortment of vintage printed cotton sourced right here on Historic Fabric Row! We’ve spent so much time sourcing vintage fabrics and special trims from the street you are located on, we wanted to give it some shine and do something special. I’m sure you know this but some of these fabric stores have been here for 90+ years! That history is so important and I’m so inspired by Philadelphia’s history as a textile center and want to give shine (and money!) to these incredible businesses.
Q: You are located in the Bok building, what can people expect by stopping into your showroom?
We have a really beautiful Showroom on the 3rd floor of the Bok Building. It’s set up like a shop and you can make an appointment to come through and shop at your convenience. The studio is sun-soaked and honestly my happy place. You’ll get to shop our product before it is available online and see behind the scenes of our creative process. You can make an appointment by DMing on Instagram or emailing roomshopvintage@gmail.com. We love nearby so even last minute appointments can oftentimes be accommodated. Bring your friends and go up for a drink on the roof afterward.
Q: What is next for Room Shop?
Continuing to expand our product categories and explore apparel while pushing the boundaries with accessories. We are working on our wholesale business to get into more shops across the US.
