This story is part of WTOP’s Small Business September coverage. Each week, WTOP highlights small businesses across the D.C. region, along with financial, government, and other organizations that help our small business community thrive.
Vintage Vintage Vintage is hard to miss. The brightly colored neon walls of the former 1950s PNC bank sit between an open lot and a tiny Italian restaurant in D.C.’s Union Market.
Inside are two-toned walls covered with funky glassware and disco balls that reflect colorful light. Racks and racks of late-80s garb — think shoulder pads, light wash denim and crushed velvet — weave an intricate maze through the store.
On this visit, Libby Rasmussen, a co-owner of Vintage Vintage Vintage, was dressed uncharacteristically in a casual, long-sleeve black zip-up. When first approached for the interview, she was wearing camouflage culottes and a bright yellow baseball cap — an outfit more in line with her “living colorfully” mantra.
What originally started as a seasonal pop-up event grew when Rasmussen found a sizable brick-and-mortar location in Northeast D.C. and called on her sister-in-studded-arms, co-owner Rajni Rao, to join her.
The two began running the collective, sourcing items from more than 15 vintage clothing vendors and curators.
Rasmussen, 35, said the name of the store came from wanting to be “straight to the point.”
“When Libby and I first started the pop-up, we really went to our network and were like, ‘Who are the incredible people who are selling vintage full time?’ And that was sort of the first list of people that we reached out to. A number of these folks are experts at what they do, as far as the eras that they’re searching for, and how they mend and care for clothing,” Rao said of the store’s curators.
The store at 1348 4th St. NE used to be down the block but moved to the new location in August of 2025.
Vintage vs. thrifting vs. consignment
Rao, who also runs her own vintage curation, Jungli Vintage, said shopping secondhand is becoming more popular as more people are feeling a squeeze on their wallets.
The D.C. region is still reeling from mass federal layoffs, rising gas and grocery prices, and stubbornly elevated inflation.
But, Rao makes one thing abundantly clear: Vintage is different from thrifting and is different from consignment.
“As secondhand shopping has become more popular, I think those lines have sort of been blurred, and it’s never been more important to distinguish between the three,” she said.
Thrifting, Rao explained, is shopping secondhand at a shop where clothes have been donated for free — for example, Salvation Army and Goodwill. Vintage is clothing or items that are “20 years or older,” she said, and they’re not always cheap. Consignment is a model in which the seller is sharing in the profit of the sale where the store acts as the “custodian of the clothes,” Rao added.
“What’s helpful about those definitions is it helps you hone in on what to expect when you’re doing each of those things,” Rao said.
She pointed to the increase in new vintage, thrift and consignment stores popping up around D.C. — “What that does, is it allows for different access points for different people, depending on where you are in your secondhand journey. … The price tag is sort of going to be related to how much care went into the piece and the rarity of the piece.”
The growing gap between the country’s highest earners and the richest corporations is forming what experts are calling a “K-shaped economy.” The market for secondhand apparel grew four times faster than the primary fashion market in 2025, according to an April report from ThredUp.
“Frankly, one of the most affordable ways to shop secondhand is actually online. Period, end of story,” Rao said.
“The challenge, though, is that if you are shopping secondhand online … you are taking on tremendous risk because if you buy something, most of the time, you can’t return it.”
She added that brick-and-mortar secondhand and vintage stores give shoppers the opportunity to find unique items without the risk of it getting lost or damaged in the mail.
“What’s really special about our store, and a lot of the vintage community, is you have conversations with our staff — who, by the way, are behind the register mending things on the spot as well,” Rasmussen said.
“‘How do I take care of this? Do you guys have a cobbler that you can put me in touch with?’”
Vintage vs. fast fashion
Rasmussen, who grew up in the Midwest, said she fell in love with vintage curation when she first saw mid-century home goods, especially glassware.
“Vintage pieces, they just withstand the times, not only the trends,” she said.
But fast fashion still has a hold on people, Rao and Rasmussen said.
“Fast fashion is hard to quit. There’s a lot of folks who are at the earlier part of their journey with sustainability and secondhand fashion,” Rao said.
However, clothing made for more utilitarian purposes in the past was meant to stand up to more use, especially by blue collar and lower-income workers who needed their clothes to last longer. That makes vintage the better value, they said.
“Sometimes fast fashion clothing — if they’re not made of a higher quality material or they were made very quickly by someone who was in maybe less than desirable circumstances, to say it lightly — those pieces aren’t going to withstand as long. I think that’s the beautiful part of vintage, is the construction … will take some maintenance, but overall is just a better bang for your buck,” Rasmussen said.