The other day I couldn’t stop watching a reel of a white wool vest getting clean – the vest, which looked dismal and dingy at the loops’s start, is so freshly white by the end I could smell its clean through my screen. Incredibly satisfying, this rebirth and transformation. I’m happy to have chatted with Lexie Griffith of Lexie Butterfly Vintage, the creator of said addictive cleaning reel. Lexie is an experienced vintage seller, an expert restorer and a purveyor of beautifully colorful clothes.

How does a vintage seller like Lexie clean, prep and merchandise clothing she acquires for resale? What might I learn from her expertise to apply to the clothes in my own closet?

Lexie describes the Somerville MA based Lexie Butterfly Vintage as all about “humorous, hippie, clown vintage for the rainbow soul.”

She’s been in the vintage business full-time since 2010, starting following a fire that burned down her childhood home. The fire took a cache of clothes Lexie’s mother had saved for her daughter from the ‘70s and ‘80s. Lexie had grown up playing dress-up in those clothes and learned from them first-hand what high quality feels like. After the fire, Lexie and her mother began a mission to reacquire as many of the lost clothes as possible.

Processing clothes for the shop

“Every single thing that ends up in the store goes through a processing period in my studio,” Lexie says. Processing clothes for the shop includes both laundry and repair. “I have learned through trial and error how to fix just about anything. Not that I can fix everything – some things are definitely a lost cause, but at the very least, my train station is the last stop.”

Love for the clothing she’s handling inspires Lexie, “I just can't help [but try for repair] when I see a really, really beautiful piece,” she says, “[especially when] it has a very clear course of action to make it better, bringing it back to life for its new home.”

Vintage clothes, Lexie notes, are hard to handle because they often lack care tags and also lack labels on the fiber making up the garment. She’s learned how to restore vintage clothes simply by handling a lot of them, creating a sort of flow-chart in her mind through the feel of the garment of likely fiber types and the best care methods based on what has worked previously with similar garments. Her 15+ years experience in the business has given her a lot of opportunities to learn. According to Lexie, “trial and error that basically translates to: there have been thousands of pieces that I've ruined over my career in order to be able to fix some now.”

Laundry

Lexie launders clothing carefully to lift body odor from an oft-worn garment, to clean out old discoloration or staining and to remove any toxins the vintage fibers might have been exposed to, like mold or asbestos,. Cotton whites are particularly satisfying to revive Lexie finds, as they “shape up really well.” Silks, she notes, are most frequently the lost causes, as exposure to water can irreversibly change the touch of the fabric.

Lexie developed a process she terms at-home dry cleaning, refining her process with her scientist husband. She sprays clothes with a mix of vodka, water and tea-tree oil before steaming them from the inside. The vodka is inspired by the frequent use of the spirit to freshen up clothes in theater costume shops. The tea-tree oil has natural antibacterial properties and does a great job of lifting a musty smell, without leaving a heavy scent. While Lexie doesn’t use scents like lavender, so that the clothes don’t smell strong for her clients, for your own clothes you might add a few drops of your favorite scent into the spray bottle.

Repair

Lexie doesn’t just clean clothes before selling them, she’ll also take on repairs big and small. The repairs are aided by the supplies she has in her studio.

Lexie recounted a particularly satisfying recent repair replacing a button – “I have a ridiculous collection of vintage buttons…the other day, I was processing a 1940s Navy issue officer skirt, and it was missing one very important button, with an embossed anchor on it. I happened to find a nearly identical button, centimeters off of being the exact same. I swear, I got misty eyed. I just thought, what are the odds? It's one singular button in this 15 pound bundle of buttons I randomly bought.”

She even applies her expertise in clothing restoration for local customers, either by directly working with the clothing themselves or providing a step-by-step list of instructions and recommended products.

Restoration tips for you or me

What does Lexie recommend for a non-professional?

1. Wash as little as possible and hand-wash if you can (“every time you wash clothes, it shortens the life just a little bit.”)

2. Skip the dry-cleaner, try out at-home dry cleaning instead (see the tips above!)

3. No Febreze ever (“Don't do it. It's a super harsh chemical and it won't ever stop smelling like Febreze.”)

4. Use biodegradable soaps (she loves Sol-u-mel)

5. Consider batching similar items (That way you only need to get out all the stuff to process only one garment, think: “Today is the day I'm washing all my cashmere sweaters. Or today's the day I'm doing my at-home dry cleaning.”)

Merchandising her store, merchandising my closet

Lexie Butterfly Vintage is known for hippy clown vintage, but while that stands out in the shop window it’s not all Lexie sells. She notes that the wacky brings people into the store, attracted by say a “neon yellow disco shirt with clocks all over it” even if they end up leaving with a beige top that better fits their lifestyle.

I reflected how I could take that same approach to the clothes I own – brightening up the black clothes I wear frequently with more bright and playful touches.

Try the same? Or if you find yourself in Somerville MA stop by Lexie Butterfly Vintage where “The whole purpose of my store is happiness,” Lexie says, “and the embodiment of childhood whimsy. I wanted it to be a space where it could be like a rainbow escape for people, you know, escape the mundane beige-ness of your everyday life, enter into my rainbow den for a short little period.

How have you ‘processed’ vintage clothes brought into your closet? Any lost causes you’ve long mourned or pieces you’ve been meaning to try to restore. I’d love to hear about it!

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