Meet Juliana | Vintage Fashion Enthusiast & Business Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Juliana and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Juliana, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I loved the idea of working for myself. Opposed to working for someone else, running your own business, in theory, is limitless. You can grow and change and create to your heart’s content. However, I quickly learned that it is not that simple. While you absolutely will grow and change, a small business will inevitably have limits, but it is up to you to decide if you are going to let those limits define your path.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
What sets you apart from others, what are you most proud of or excited about?
-I would say that we are different from other small secondhand/vintage clothing stores in the way that we strive to create a safe and comforting space for anyone to shop in by not separating our clothing by gender. People shouldn’t be restricted in what they wear or what brings them joy by societal norms imposed on the clothes we choose to put on our bodies. We, also, prioritize measuring all of our clothing to hopefully aid our customers in being able to find clothing that fits them more easily.

How did you get to where you are today business-wise. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way?
-The only reason I’m still here is because I’m yet to give up. There have been many times over the last 4 years that I have wanted to give up, but it just never felt right. I would be abandoning my community just because things got hard? I couldn’t do that to them or to myself. I have put in so much time and energy into this business, it would feel wasteful to just throw my hands up as soon as things got difficult. Running a small business, especially on your own, is no easy feat. It takes a lot of dedication, self-motivation and picking yourself up off the ground. It hasn’t been the smoothest ride so far, but I would say it’s been worth it.

What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?
-I don’t know about the world, but I would love our community to know just how special and important they are to me. Every purchase, every opening of my door, every conversation, every interaction on social media, every person that has said “I got it at Salvage!” – all of it means so much to me and it is all slowly making my dream come true.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
There is so much to do in or around Denton, so I would definitely have a week full of activities planned.

Some of those would have to include:
– Getting a Jupiter House bagel sandwich.
– Dilly dallying around Recycled Books.
– Treasure hunting at the Downtown Mini Mall.
– Grabbing a matcha and a plant from The Brown Thumb.
– Playing arcade games all night at Free Play.
– Grabbing a food-truck dinner and drinks at Eastside.
– Of course, ice cream from Beth Marie’s.
– Popping over to the Denton Community Market on a Saturday morning.
– Vintage shopping throughout the Denton square.
– Taking them to my favorite restaurant, I Love Sushi.

And so many more fun things!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My husband, my family, my friends and the Denton community. Most of the time, I am doing the brunt of the workload for my shop, but this journey truly wouldn’t have been possible without the help and support of my community. For that, I am forever grateful.

Website: https://www.salvageshoppe.com

Instagram: @salvageshoppe

Image Credits
All of the photos were taken by me (Juliana) on my iPhone.