Buffalo Gal Vintage Clothing Accessories and Gifts is a retro retailer who supplies and celebrates American Fashion History. Buffalo Gal Vintage provides the finest Men’s and Women’s antique, vintage and new reproduction clothing.
Buffalo Gal Vintage clothing brings to market men and women’s retro and vintage accessories and kitschy humorous gifts. Buffalo Gal even offers eye candy! Yep, Personalized Pin-Up Photography… of You! Buffalo Gal Vintage Started in 2004 on the internet and soon expended into her brick and mortar location.
Nestled in historic downtown St. Petersburg, Buffalo Gal Vintage is located at 911 Central Avenue, St. Petersburg, FL. Two stories of a 1930’s house, it is stocked with quality yesteryear and reproduction fashions, accessories and gifts.
Buffalo Gal Vintage Fashion: Treasure hunt amongst their authentic one of kind, retro and antique clothing. If you’re a collector, you’ll be satisfied with their 1800’s to 1920’s historical clothing. Love unique style? Then, you’re gonna love their affordable laundered mint condition vintage clothing dating up to the 1970’s. They pride ourselves in offering pre loved impeccable cleaned and restored garments. Have hard time finding retro apparel in the right size? Buffalo Gal Vintage carries new reproduction clothing too. Looking for Victorian, Edwardian, Mid- Century, Rockabilly, Steamer Punk or Goth clothing, you’ve found the right place.
Buffalo Gal Vintage Gifts: Scouting for humorous gifts, but don’t want to settle for typical gag gifts? Buffalo Gal Vintage carries high-quality funny and unique gifts. Additionally, they feature merchandise created within community harmony. Throughout the store, from gift cards to paintings, local artist and crafts persons are featured.
BGV Pin-Up Photography: Be it Betty Grab or Bettie Page, Every Betty has a different look! They’ll help you create your fantasy! Choose from their vast wardrobe and accessories. You’re Pin-Up shoot comes with professional make-up, hair and professional photographer. You can book a private sitting or bring along your gal possy for a Pin-Up Party! Everyone (including the recipient) will enjoy Buffalo Gal Pin-Up for a lifetime. Just call for a consultation or stop by.
Buffalo Gal Vintage Candy Kitchen: Get a fix for that sweet tooth in the retro candy kitchen! Enjoy Chowards, Abba Zaba, Clove Gum and other old time favorites. The sweets shop shares the kitchen with antique linens and adorable children’s clothing.
Tell us how you started this project?
Back in the day, in the 70’s, back when I was an aspiring actress, I scoured vintage stores to dress my characters. I always started with undergarments and shoes. They were the two articles that were a must! I stumbled into a vintage clothing store in Hollywood, Florida and met an eccentric vintage clothing store owner. She had tangled webs of salt and pepper hair, wore dramatic eye makeup and big jewelry. We became vintage kindred spirits, and I became a regular visitor. Patient she was with the “kid,” and let me admire the treasures found beneath clothing in heaps on the floor.
Of course Miss Beautiful (my Mom) had a fabulous wardrobe from Buffalo, New York. As a child, she would settle me down by opening her box of costume jewelry and letting me play dress up. My Grandfather was manager of a high-end Buffalo department store. Miss Beautiful would model samples for him. Although not allowed to play in the racks of clothing, I was drawn to the difference between well- and poor-fitting garments. Fabric samples would be given to me to play with. Being a very tactile person, I would feel the fabric and try to create a one dimensional outfit for my handmade paper doll. I would see the garments Mom would try on, and with my semi-sharp scissors, would recreate the garments. I don’t know whether the creations were truly good or if they were appeasing me but either way, I continued this practice until I grew out of dolls to horses and boys!
2005 was a tough year as I lost my boyfriend to skin cancer. Joel was only thirty and his too-soon death brought the cliché’ “life is short” to a reality. I began working on my vintage clothing retailer dream. This dream had been reserved for retirement, but given the economy; it pushed forward sooner than later. I look back to the beginning of my online business, when I was washing clothes in my bathtub and bawling my eyes out. I literally put my sweat and tears into my business. So, now I have a vintage retail business, frequently do not have time to color my hair salt and pepper hair, models try on clothing for me, I cut out patterns, and when things get tough for me, Joel is forever in my memory. I still put sweat and tears, given sales, into my business. It’s good to be a kid! 
Tell us about your career in the past?
There have been three strong careers in my life: Fashion, Theatre, and Sales and Advertising. My first love was and is live performing arts. Because of my love for developing characters, fashion came into play often. It was accelerated by a clotheshorse mother. My first job was as a fashion model at a wholesale merchandising mart. It was there I learned the art of selling. When you model for eight hours and say nothing, you do a lot of listening.
I fell back on my early wholesale fashion days once out of graduate school. I was an independent rep for small production designers. I’ve always maintained a preference for higher-end fashion. When in undergraduate and graduate school, I received a minor in marketing. I have been a marketing manager for publications, mostly City life magazine. This entailed ad creation and supporting the editorial staffs.
Lastly, the stage…yes, the stage. I’ve had little success on commercial television and decent success in the theatre. Making a living and life’s hard knocks make it very difficult to be an artist. I found a knack for teaching. See, the goal was to become a famous actress and open a performing arts school. To a degree, although not on such a grand scale, I suppose I had achieved that dream. Those who knew, trained and worked with me saw a fine classical and contemporary actor. Shakespeare and Comedy were my specialties. Youngsters, special needs children and adults respected me as a teacher. Proudly I and a team of educators opened, developed, and grew fine performing arts schools and integrated non- traditional teaching methods into secondary education. For eleven wonderful years I worked in Equity Theatre to lockdown juvenile justice facilities and loved every minute of it.
Do you have a passion for the vintage fashion style, or also for rock and roll music and other vintage related things?
First of all, I am vintage! The era I most love would be the 1920’s. I adore the loose fitting forms and freedom with which women began to express their newly founded rights. Women finally had freedom of movement and there is something about that release which always resonated within me. I quite like vintage things. Here’s a list of both current and past collections: Seltzer bottles, Creamers, Demitasse cups, Early American dolls, glass incinerators from light poles, clothing, coins, paintings, fencing swords, crucifixes, Milk Glass dinner ware, and scarves.
What’s the secret of your success?
Tenacity.
Are there celebrities buying at your shop?
Yes. Here’s a funny story. A gal and her grandmother come into the shop, and with a snap of the fingers, the grandmother ordered me to service. I was on the middle of a transaction and you can bet your bottom I took my time in getting to her. Well, as I getting to Grandmama, I passed by the young girl and Holy Moses did she smell. I had to hold my breath and use my theatrical mouth breathing technique. Darling, pretty young gal, so whimsy with her beat up, unlaces, 1920s oxford shoes and a romper! But shut up Helen, she stunk to high heaven. Now you see, I’d had this experience before, a smelly girl who rubbed her stink all over my clean pretties. I had to dry clean everything she touched! Now, I braced myself, faced my fear and told her and her grandmother NO! No, you cannot try on my clothing because you smell. Grandmama became pie eyed and the smelly girl began to cry over a rack of clothing. Don’t cry I told her, certainly not on my clothing, step back should you cry. What were you thinking leaving the house smelling and preparing to shop? Grandmother huffed her way in and explained, we were planning on spending a lot of money and my granddaughter is a performer. She came off tour to have her wisdom teeth removed and has done nothing but lie in bed for two days, whimpering how she wanted to come to your store. She responded that her mother would drive here with deodorant and the two of them left the store. Through the window, I see the embarrassed ladies settling their sorrows in ice cream cones from the Dairy Inn next door. Mom arrived with deodorant and the youngster asked to use my restroom. Swell, I said but all your going to do is rub your smell and scented deodorant on my clothes. I’m sorry young lady, this is not easy for me either, Listen, give yourself a French bath. She looked confused. I said, Here’s clean towel, there’s some nice organic soap, stand at the sink and wash yourself child! Now Mother is apologizing, explaining her daughter just came off the David Letterman show and she’s soon to film Saturday Night Live. Occasionally I get a call from smelly girl. She identifies herself as such and I call her by that nickname. The other name I call her is little bird. Between her soulful voice and her pixie spirit, this celebrity flies around the store, dressing her famed character and flying out my doors expressing her beautiful talent.By the way, I never reveal anything about anyone… especially celebrities!
What’s your favorite brand, and why?
I don’t have one.
Do you think vintage fashion is lasting?
I do so far. Good design and fabric is timeless.
Tell us about the design process and what goes into your clothing?
Simplicity, good design and quality fabrics which are true to the era.
What inspires your designs?
Line, shapes.
You’re also specialized in pin up photography; can you tell us how this happened?
Oh sister, I cut my teeth on the song “The Stripper.” Miss Beautiful showed me how to strip off my diaper to that song. We would be in the grocery store, the song would come on over the speaker system and away I went. This was not a stretch for my mother, as Miss beautiful herself was a baby contest winner who posed as a 1920s fan dancer. My step-father Joe was an OB/GYN. Playboy magazines were UN-hidden in my parent’s quarters. Miss Beautiful explained Papa Joe had to get his head screwed on straight….Now, there’s a double entendre! Mom would clean on Saturdays, and when I stumbled upon a half-hiddenn Miss Playboy Bunny, Mom would show me the draping of the blanket ,following the lines of Miss September’s hip bones and breasts, and how the lighting and editing supported blush in her cheeks and nipples. At first this was very, very interesting, but without costumes, I became bored. They all had the same thing, the same three body parts showing. Sometimes they would have a few costumes half on, half off. I liked the cartoons best, even though I didn’t understand them. Pin-up is natural for me. It’s a “Pretty Girl” in action… like an actor… action!
What sets you apart from other designers/photographers doing vintage/retro style?
Being in the moment … enough said.
What can we expect from you in the future?
Sorry I can’t say…I don’t want to jinx myself!
Is there anything you want to tell us?
Visit the website often. New items are posted daily. We’re working hard to get all the bells and whistles on track and provide affordable, high-quality vintage
“To thine oneself be true”
Shakespeare
More info: http://www.buffalogalvintage.com
