Sherry's YesterDaze Vintage Clothing & Antiques

Shop owner deals in 'Hey, I remember that!'
By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF, Front Porch
Published January 18, 2008
http://www.sptimes.com/2008/01/18/Citytimes/Shop_owner_deals_in__.shtml

When she opened her shop nearly a decade ago, Sherry King had a hunch about vintage collectibles.

She still does.

"One half of my shop is home goods," says King, who owns Sherry's YesterDaze Vintage Clothing & Antiques along Florida Avenue.

As King prepares to celebrate the shop's 10th anniversary this spring, she's proving her hunch was right on the money.

A survivor in a town where many trendy antique and vintage stores last only a few years, King thinks she may know the secret: "People are drawn to things they remember from their families or childhoods," she explains, "long forgotten things that make you go: 'I remember that!'"

Even the shop itself.

The exterior of her shop, wildly painted in a pink, peach and sea-foam green theme, recalls the clothes of Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci.

She displays artifacts in front, including a World War II-era trunk hand-painted with the image of a map from Peter Pan.

The whole experience inspires browsing - sometimes for hours. "I've considered charging admission," she says, half-joking.

King, a former accountant, Realtor and DJ for WMNF radio, moved to her current Seminole Heights location four years ago from her old shop on S MacDill Avenue in South Tampa.

Her business acumen may account for her longevity as a vintage dealer. "It means the bookwork isn't too scary," she says, laughing.

An innate ability to "recycle with style" helps, too.

Her eye for the design icons of decades past inspires an inventory that teeters somewhere between the 1920s and 1980s.

Much of what King sells has been handpicked by a brigade of 200 consigners.

It's hard not to linger and look.

What's hot?

Nostalgia.

There are original Coca-Cola "It's the Real Thing!" bellbottoms, suitable for framing; Danish modern furnishings; tiki bar accessories; paint-by-number art; a perfectly preserved box of flashcubes; and a black rotary-dial telephone.

Let 20 years pass, and ordinary objects from the era become interesting, King says.

Rachel Cole, 20, a student at Hillsborough Community College, shops for McDonald's The Great Muppet Caper drinking glasses.

She buys them for her brother's birthday.

"We had them in our house when I was growing up, and I broke a lot of them - I'm sure my brother did, too," Cole recalls.

Cole, who lives in the Egypt Lakes area, says she likes to decorate her home with "signature" vintage pieces mixed in with newer things: "I love the feel and designs of things from older times."

King says the secret to decorating with vintage items is to mix them in with the rest of your decor. Even items that you never plan to use, like old board games, can add visual interest.

"It was the shabby chic era that really gave people the freedom to mix worn things into their decor; before that, everything had to look new," explains King, who decorated her own historic Seminole Heights home in an appropriate 1920s theme.

"In my own house, I'm a stickler about keeping everything from the same era, even the linoleum in the kitchen," she says. "The guy from the flooring store showed up and said, 'Linoleum? What's linoleum?'"