Oona's: New Owner, New Look, Same Vintage Products

Over the summer, Oona’s Experienced Clothing—the Mass. Ave. shop that has provided outfits for themed parties and Halloween alike for 38 years—was redecorated, rearranged, and retagged, according to the shop’s new owner 24-year-old Eleanor “Ellie” Mueller.While Mueller said that the renovations “weren’t emotionally difficult, just a lot of work,” she also said that there remains “a constant to-do list.” The shop reopened on August 1.

Mueller said that she is excited about her new position in Cambridge. A Vassar College graduate with a degree in film, Mueller describes herself as an “art history dork” and recalls that “even when I took an economics class in college, I was most excited for the history aspect of what I would be learning.”

“The history is really why I liked vintage clothing to begin with,” she said. “From an artistic standpoint, there are more textures and colors and there is usually a higher quality because it needed to last.  People didn’t have as much clothing in the past, so they invested more of their time and income on an individual piece.  I love examining the way things work and connecting the dots all over the place.  This business is more like a puzzle, which is very satisfying.”

Mueller was able to express this passion for all things history in her redecorating process.  Oona’s is now separated into four different rooms: women’s clothing, men’s clothing, one for more costume type pieces and coats, and a boudoir room with a new vanity table and an armoire of some of the more delicate pieces.

“The first thing I asked myself during the redecorating process was what kind of a space Harvard students would enjoy. And I thought of it becoming a sort of voyeuristic pleasure space of sneaking in on someone else’s living space.” Mueller said she drew inspiration from Citizen Kane and Sherlock Holmes, “and even Diane Arbus’s photographs that focused on outliers and the normal people that just never got photographed.”

But what’s the best part about being a vintage clothing storeowner?  For Mueller, it’s playing matchmaker. “I really like helping people find things. Each piece is different, so you’re finding it a home and you should really find the right person for it. That’s why I feel like the business didn’t, and hopefully won’t, get old for me.”

Photo by the Harvard Crimson.