Darien Collins, owner of Envied Vintage Clothing, Etc. of Davenport stands next to a painting of a black panther at his business. Envied recently moved to a new temporary location at 800 Isabel Bloom Way, Suite 3. CREDIT DAVE THOMPSON
Near the front door of Darien Collins’ Davenport store is a painting of a snarling black panther. It’s actually one of the few items in the store – Envied Vintage Clothing, Etc. at 800 Isabel Bloom Way, Suite 3 – that’s not for sale. The painting on velvet is a present from Mr. Collins’ father. […]
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Near the front door of Darien Collins’ Davenport store is a painting of a snarling black panther.It’s actually one of the few items in the store – Envied Vintage Clothing, Etc. at 800 Isabel Bloom Way, Suite 3 – that’s not for sale.
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Featured here are some of the items for sale at Envied Vintage Clothing, Etc. of Davenport. CREDIT DAVE THOMPSON
Darien Collins, owner of Envied Vintage Clothing, Etc. of Davenport, stands next to items for sale at his business. Envied recently moved to a new temporary location at 800 Isabel Bloom Way, Suite 3. CREDIT DAVE THOMPSON
Books are among the items for sale at Envied Vintage Clothing, Etc. CREDIT DAVE THOMPSON
The shirt commemorates the former gothic rock band Type O Negative, and is for sale at the store.
Envied Vintage Clothing, Etc. recently reopened at 800 Isabel Bloom Way, Suite 3, Davenport. CREDIT DAVE THOMPSON
The painting on velvet is a present from Mr. Collins’ father. It helps decorate the business and shows the fighting spirit of the retail shop that has faced a lot of tough times and has rebounded. Envied was one of the businesses displaced when a downtown Davenport apartment building partially collapsed this spring.“People ask about the painting all the time. Nah, it’s not for sale,” he added.Envied, which specializes in selling vintage clothing and a lot of other vintage items, opened in its new site on Oct. 14. Mr. Collins referred to his new business location as a “tucked away place” that is next door to the Isabel Bloom hand-crafted sculpture retail store and production facility.He likes his new home, but it will only be a temporary one. If all goes according to plan, Mr. Collins will move his Envied clothing store to the building once known as the Bucktown Center for the Arts at 225 E. Second St., Davenport, in about 11 months. That building, now known as Bucktown Lofts, is currently undergoing a massive renovation into apartment space on the top three floors. The first floor will be commercial space, where Mr. Collins plans to set up shop next year. “It’s going to be a great place for me,” he added.Mr. Collins, 25, of Davenport, is looking forward to that new home because the past few months have been a tough era for him and his business. Envied Vintage Clothing, Etc. was doing business on the first floor of the building at 324 Main St., Davenport, earlier this year it literally all came tumbling down. That apartment/business building partially collapsed on May 28. The tragedy left three apartment residents dead, many people homeless and three businesses on the first floor were out of business.The Davenport man saw his business closed. He lost all his vintage clothing inventory and was put in a position of having to start from scratch. But his business comeback is almost complete today. Mr. Collins said he is off to a fast start in his new, temporary home as many of his old customers are returning to find vintage clothing treasures at the new Envied site.Mr. Collins recently gave the QCBJ a tour of the new store and pointed out two items for sale that he finds particularly special. One is an older green couch that he has for sale for $180. The other is a special, collector’s item black t-shirt he recently won in a contest. The shirt commemorates the former gothic rock band Type O Negative. The shirt has “Type O Negative” at the top, an image of blood cells in the middle and the phrase “This Blood’s For You” at the bottom of the shirt. It comes with a steep price – $350.But the vast majority of the other items in the store have much cheaper price tags. Currently, some of the top sellers are University of Iowa clothing items, Harley-Davidson shirts, jackets, coats and sports gear.Even though most items for sale have price tags on them, Mr. Collins said there is some room for price haggling. “A lot of the time, I can do that. It just depends on the item,” he added.Almost all the items for sale at Envied are used. However, there are few new, never-worn clothing items with the original price tags and maker’s labels still on them.Mr. Collins spends much of his time searching for and buying those items for his store. He finds them at yard sales, estate sales, auctions and just about any other sale you can think of that might sell clothing. In fact, on Saturday morning, Nov. 4, he came into his shop with a container and garbage bag filled with vintage clothing. He just came from an estate sale where he was charged $10 to stuff as many clothing items as possible into that garbage bag.“Sometimes, you go to these sales and it doesn’t look so great. But then you look in a closet or a corner and find all sorts of great stuff,” he said.One of his most memorable shopping trips recently took place in Aledo, Illinois. He bought the contents of a storage unit. Most of those contents appeared to be worthless. “They were just garbage bags. But those bags were all filled with vintage clothing. It was great,” he added.While much of Envied is filled with vintage clothing, the store offers a little bit of everything. Some of the items in the store include:
Lots of books. Some of them include titles such as “Great Masters of French Impressionism,” “The Lives of Twelve Caesars,” “How To Draw and Paint Cats” and “Carve-O-Lantern: A Unique Way to Carve Your Halloween Pumpkins.”
Baseball-type caps with just about every team and company advertised.
A small pennant with two monkeys that states: “Monkey Jungle 22 miles south of Miami, Florida.”
Shoes and boots.
Cups and mugs.
Envied Vintage Clothing is pretty much a one-man show with Ms. Collins doing almost all the work. However, he does get help from his family. For instance, his grandmother, Celia Spicer, was keeping the story open on Friday, Nov. 3, while he was on the road.Ms. Collins said he believes many people in the community can find something special for them at his reopened store.“You’ve got to be into vintage. If you’re into vintage, it’s almost a guarantee that you will see something in here that you can’t live without,” he added.Envied is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. It is closed Mondays and Tuesday. The business phone number is (563) 209-5576.