Store Hours
Wednesday - Sunday
12pm-6pm
Welcome to Stella Bright Vintage!
Our mission is to find, clean, repair, and modify vintage clothing and housewares to bring you the best of the past.
Buying vintage matters.
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Here’s why.
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Here’s why.
The fashion & textile industry is the largest polluting industry in the world beside oil and gas!
(and that’s just in the production phase)
length of time the average person keeps their clothing items
average number of clothing items purchased per person
Additionally, in order to create these products at low costs to the consumer, garment workers all over the world are not paid a “living wage”
Be a Part of the Solution with Stella Bright Vintage!
Choosing to buy vintage clothing saves it from the landfills.
Our vintage items were made 25+ years ago, these items are not actively contributing to the stripping of our planets resources or grossly polluting our environment.
Vintage fashion is more durable. It was often made using finer fabrics and higher quality construction, especially American Union-made items, so the need to throw them away decreases.
Have it tailored! Vintage fashion was made with less spandex (and other elastics) and were often meant to be tailored to each person. There are usually far larger seam allowances and additional fabric at hemlines so that items have room to be let in or out – again increasing the life cycle of your garments.
Added Bonus – Great fashion stands the test of time!
How Stella Bright began
How Stella Bright began
The seeds were planted for this endeavor when, as a punk rock teenager, I walked into a little boutique called The Cat’s Meow. It was tucked up above an ice cream store via a narrow staircase in my hometown of Ann Arbor, MI. The store boasted a mixture of vintage clothing, army surplus, and quirky & eclectic new items. I learned from the folks there about how to spot the high-quality items, they gave me pointers on what to look for on my own, and taught me fun ways to integrate old pieces into my own personal style.
Fast fashion was already a thing but as I grew into my 20s I really started to appreciate not just the style but the far superior quality of mid-20th century clothing. Not only were the materials usually of a higher grade, the construction techniques were usually drastically better.
I soon graduated from finding vintage for myself to an obsession with rescuing ALL the pretty stuff before it ends up in a landfill or incinerator. This became a lifelong hobby and then a few years ago it expanded to a side business to supplement my career in large scale event planning when Covid hit.
I strive to give my customers everything I’d want as a vintage fashion and houseware lover: An engaging atmosphere, a fun soundtrack, a great selection of clean goods & ready for wear clothing in a wide array of eras, styles, colors, sizes, and price points.
Stella Bright Vintage combines my skill at sniffing out the best vintage goods & the know-how to clean almost anything & the wisdom to know when I can’t. It also utilizes the skills of my family – the “I can fix anything” support of my dependable Dad, all the sewing skills my resourceful Mom learned in Home EC (which are needed on almost everything) and the amazing eye for design & fashion trends of my talented Gen Z kid.
–Heather Mapstone, Proprietor