A lifetime spent choosing well
Forty years of buying, editing and selling beautiful things — and the collection it left behind.
Est. 1984I have been doing this since 1984
Fourteen years buying for Nordstrom. Six hundred stores at Ross. A fashion desk at an Urban Outfitters title, and two boutiques of my own — one in Orlando, one in Southern Oregon that became a small local landmark before I retired it.
Buying teaches you a particular kind of honesty. You learn very quickly which pieces come back and which ones customers wear until they fall apart. Everything here passed that test.
— Rita Gingras
Four decades, in order
The buying rooms and shop floors that taught me what is worth keeping.
Buyer, Nordstrom
Learning how a great buy is made — and how quickly a bad one shows on the floor.
Buyer, Ross Stores
Buying at a scale where one decision reaches hundreds of shop floors.
Fashion editor, Urban Outfitters publication
Writing about clothes taught me how to describe them honestly.
Owner, my first boutique
My own floor, my own edit, and customers I knew by name.
Owner, Southern Oregon boutique
A small-town shop that became a local landmark before I retired it.
Curated Vault
The collection I kept, opened up to the people who used to shop with me.
What is in the vault
Hover a line to see it. Catalogued the way a buyer catalogues a market week.
Ready-to-wear
Outerwear
French Country
Coastal
One of oneHow I work
Chosen, never bulk-bought
If it would not go in my own closet or house, it is not here.
Described honestly
Flat measurements and plain condition notes on every listing.
Packed like a gift
Tissue, care, and a note — the way my shops always did it.
