Charlottesville is known as a restaurant town, but it’s also a lively retail place that attracts new ventures. And with an eclectic population—traditional and trendy, students and tourists, third-generation and newbies—it’s not surprising the offerings are eclectic too.
Airea Garland took the plunge with lifestyle store Mac and Mae, just off the Downtown Mall on Fifth Street. “This is my first solo retail venture,” says the newly minted entrepreneur, counting on her background working at major top-end retailers, and the financial skills of her partner/fiancé. COVID is what kicked off the idea—“It gave me a desire to reinvent my home,” Garland recalls, “and it made me think, ‘Am I really doing what I love?’” So she earned a degree in fashion design and visual merchandising (on full scholarship), while working full-time, and credits the Community Investment Collaborative for supporting her launch. She named her store after two family inspirations—her grandfather Papa Mac and her late mother Anna Mae (whose closet she admits raiding while she developed her own personal style.)
Garland describes her store as “where home and wardrobe meet—how we present ourselves should work with how we are at home.” The space is quiet and airy (there’s a back balcony with French doors that lets in air and light, unusual in a retail space), with racks of clothing and accessories, tables with candles and aromatics, and shelves with pottery and home décor. Garland sees her clientele as largely young professionals, but also “anyone who wants to elevate their home and wardrobe—where everyone feels they can pick out [a style] for themselves.” Since opening in August, she’s still sourcing, but wants to maintain an emphasis on local suppliers, especially artisans. “And my neighbors on the block—Low Vintage and Thai Fresh—have been really welcoming.”
Then there’s The Beautiful Idea, which announced itself with a sign heralding the opening of Charlottesville’s first “anti-fascist bookstore, queer market, and radical community hub.” The new spot on the Downtown Mall near Fourth Street is all that—and hopes to be more. The owners are all trans and active in the LGBTQ community. Senlin Means and Ellie Picard having been running antifascist (“you could also say leftist or anarchist,” notes Means) bookstore F12 Infoshop in gallery and community space Visible Records since 2021; Dylan West and Joan Kovach, founders of Critter Butts, have been selling their “queer feral trash creature” T-shirts, cards, prints, and stickers at the Ix farmers’ market and other outlets. Means and Picard were looking to find a space for F12 Infoshop to enlarge, which meant enlisting a partner, and once they found Critter Butts, it all came together. “[The idea was] we would be an anchor store, and form something like a mall for queer leftist stuff,” says Means. Since the store opened in September, “It’s been wild—there’s been so much support,” says West.
But the “beautiful idea” is more than having a new retail space for their businesses and others, it’s also providing a gathering space for the LGBTQ community. From Critter Butts’ ongoing presence at the farmers’ market and other venues, West says, “we’ve accumulated all these people who felt they were alone—and now they have a place to come, hang out, and feel safe.” Means, who was actively involved in the antifascist resistance to the 2017 Unite the Right rally, says, “We have an antifascist approach—that’s my perspective—but we’re also here to teach and encourage people to explore.” And haven’t we all had days when we’d love to wear a T-shirt that says “Eat the Rich” or “Be Gay Do Crimes” or “Be Ungovernable”? (We’re going with the “Raccoon Bonfire.”)
Another new entry is a long-time Charlottesville institution with a new identity—appropriate, since it’s a secondhand store that offer new lives for formerly owned stuff. Rethreads in McIntire Plaza is now Wilder, and its revamped look is thanks to new management by the owners of a group of secondhand stores in Richmond. Lyn Page, one of the new owners, says that when Rethreads approached them about purchasing, the group was especially impressed by the store’s community of sustainability/reuse businesses—Circa, Heyday, Scrappy Elephant, High Tor Exchange, and the Habitat Store just down the street—and by the Rethreads staff (“their sales associates now work for us, and are amazing!”).
Wilder’s refreshed décor—reorganized floor space, new paneling, refurbished changing rooms—is the beginning of a rebranding that will be consistent with the group’s adult-focused stores in Richmond (Clementine and Ashby). “Currently the store carries a curated mix of secondhand women’s and men’s clothing, plus new jewelry and accessories,” says Page. “That’s what we’re known for, and what we do best.”
What’s ahead for Wilder? “We’re still in a testing phase, where we’re learning what shoppers want,” Page says. In the meantime, the store has stopped taking consignments—although it will honor all Rethreads store credits from former consigners. In the meantime, Wilder has been stocking merchandise from the groups’ Richmond sellers.
A full rebranding and possible re-launch is in the works, however, so keep your eye on this space—and on the Wilder web page.