As Timi Weathers explains it, vintage goes way beyond the clothing. It’s a lifestyle.
“The lifestyle is incorporating the vintage with it, not being antique but one of a kind,” Weathers said.
And Weathers should know; she’s a veteran of vintage.
Weathers is owner and operator of Ruffles &Rust Square in Snohomish. She is also the promoter of Ruffles &Rust Vintage Market.
Ruffles &Rust Vintage Market takes place this weekend at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds, where more than 80 vendors and handcrafters from Washington, Oregon and Idaho will gather to showcase the frills and foundations of a vintage lifestyle.
Guests can expect to see at this year’s market a new wave of “big, huge dramatic displays,” Weathers said.
Some vendors will be highlighting the hot trend right now: vintage-style wedding themes.
Vintage-style weddings focus on putting the “something old” into the festivities by using a lot of vintage decor: old buffets to hold cakes and desserts; blue Ball or mason jars to hold flowers; old-timey suitcases stacked one on top of another, leaving the top one open for receiving cards and letters; chalkboards for welcoming guests; pictures in big beautiful vintage frames. The list goes on.
“Everybody is trying to do it on a budget,” Weathers said. “You buy blue Ball jars for 40 tables for $100. Put flowers in them and they look great.”
All the big retail stores and designers are trying to capitalize on the vintage theme, trying to appeal to the 25- to 55-year-old demographic by incorporating the retro look into all their reproductions.
Ruffles &Rust can offer the vintage look for half the price of larger retailers, said Weathers, who does scouts and scavenges herself to help fill the shelves.
“And I want the vintage,” Weathers stressed. “The rusty and the crusty, and the stained and the chipped stuff. What we have is one of a kind, the real-deal stuff.”
Also at this year’s vintage market at the fairgrounds, guests will be reintroduced to the grow-and-eat-organic theme with food selections such as rubs and spices by local celebrity chef and recent James Beard Foundation award winner Tom Douglas; cookies, scones, jams and jellies made from locally grown products from Skagit County, and extra virgin olive oils, and blackberry and Marionberry balsamic vinegars from Oregon’s Willamette Valley, Weathers said.
Shows like the Ruffles &Rust Vintage Market provide guests with the opportunity to try locally grown and organic food while also looking at beautiful displays to learn how to go vintage, Weathers said.
“You learn to incorporate the new pieces and old pieces and make it look pretty,” Weathers said.
Weathers said she has been marketing her Ruffles &Rust Square store as a place where customers can buy vintage on a budget and also become inspired.
“Even if you don’t find something, you are going to at least leave inspired to do something,” Weathers said. “We like to watch people walk out with their eyes crossed over with stimulation.”
Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424; goffredo@heraldnet.com.
Vintage market
Ruffles &Rust Vintage Market is from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Evergreen State Fairgrounds, 14405 179th Ave. SE, Monroe.
Friday night’s opening is a special early shopping event; only 400 tickets are sold for that night. Tickets for Friday are $30 at the door. Friday’s ticket can be used for re-entry Saturday. Tickets for Saturday are $7.
Tickets are also available at Ruffles &Rust Square, 1234 First St., Suite No 1, Snohomish, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays and Mondays.
For more information, call 360-217-7557 or go to www.comejunkwithus.com or www.rufflesandrustsquare.com.
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