If you’ve ever bought a piece of clothing from Vintage by Judith on the Marietta Square and received a dirty look from the store’s namesake, don’t take it personally.
Just understand — Judith Nudi runs her store more as museum than mercantile — she is reluctant to part with much of her collection.
Even now, as she tries to create some space for a new locale — three doors, and one level, up Roswell Street — Nudi cringes each time the cash register rings.
“Every day I’m taking things out,” said Nudi, who’s owned the vintage clothing and costume rental store for 15 years. A rent increase is prompting the move, which she expects to complete by Aug. 1. “I hate selling my stuff.”
And when she does, she’s picky about who buys it. She said she prefers selling to people “who are worthy of having that particular piece of clothing. They’ve got to love it as much as I do.”
That’s a tall order. While she’s experienced success as a retailer, Nudi is, by her own admission, more astute harvester than savvy businesswoman.
“Look at this 1940s Girl Scout uniform,” she said as she perused a rack of vintage garb. “I can’t stand to part with it.”
Nudi estimates she has 30,000 articles of clothing — ranging from Old South ball gowns to zoot suits — scattered between her current location and her new digs. Transporting that collection has made these past few months “the hardest in my life.”
“It’s been dragged out because I’ve had to go through every single piece,” Nudi said.
The items she felt she could part with are marked down, though don’t expect a hard sell from Nudi or her assistant.
“Between the two of us, we spend most of our time just admiring the clothes,” said retired social worker Susan Hopkins, who works part-time at Vintage by Judith. “It’s a roomful of history. You can develop a whole story line for these clothes.”
Nudi’s love of “old things” goes back to her childhood in Pittsburgh. While some kids blanch at the idea of accompanying their mother to an estate sale, Nudi was always a (vintage) clothes hound.
“I appreciate the quality of the fabrics, the craftsmanship … just everything about them,” she said. “I like to find something old and musty that might be worthless to someone else but is priceless to me.”
Nudi plans to emphasize the rental part of her business at the new store, relieving her of at least some of the sorrow that comes when she must part with one of her “children” (pack-rat speak for merchandise).
“I prefer to add [clothes] than subtract,” Nudi said.
Which leads one to wonder: Does she ever worry about running out of space?
“I’ve got a 3,000-square-foot basement at home that’s still got a little bit of room left,” she said.
