An old chair in the corner, an old bike on the wall, flowery blouses, dresses and skirts hanging on the rank, as well as shiny earrings in the cabinet. Smiley Vintage around the corner of the street, fits cozily in Stockholm's SOFO area. Owner Akin started the store, and Sophie is the manager. I am delighted to have a chat with Sophie to bring this little gem to you.

Annie@Petite&Minimal
Hi Sophie, can you tell us about Smiley Vintage?

Sophie@Smiley Vintage
Smiley Vintage is a store where we sell remade vintage clothes and jewellery for girls and women. We are located in Södermalm, in the trendy area called Sofo. The address is Södermannagatan 14 and close to subway station Medborgarplatsen (the green subway line).

Annie@Petite&Minimal
What inspired you to open such a store?

Sophie@Smiley Vintage
When Smiley Vintage started, the business concept was to meet the demand for an alternative to the long tradition in the fashion industry: mass-produced clothing in large editions. Consumers, who were looking for personal and unique alternatives, or who are conscious environmentally and ethically, would not need to sacrifice either quality or design.

Annie@Petite&Minimal
What distinguish you from other second-hand stores?

Sophie@Smiley Vintage
We are not a typical vintage- or second hand shop, because everything is remade form old vintage pieces. We also sell vintage-looking jewellery, but they are new ones. We also try to keep our shop very clean and organized all the time, so it will be nice for customers to look around in the shop.

Annie@Petite&Minimal
What are the most popular styles among your customers?

Sophie@Smiley Vintage
We do not have a typical customer group, as we have girls and women from all ages. We have clothes catering for everyday life or fancy parties. But I could almost say that our best sellers are blouses with patterns, dresses and this cardigan looking shirt with a lace detail on the neckline or a round neckline, as shown on the pictures here.

Annie@Petite&Minimal
Can you tell us about those remake items you have, where do they come from and who design and make them?

Sophie@Smiley Vintage
A lot of our vintage clothes come from Japan. We work without any intermediaries. We directly work with artisans, self-employed people and family businesses. This makes it easy for us to negotiate and communicate with them. Both parties win in this way, meaning that we can affect production immediately, require exclusively high quality and avoid expensive and unnecessary intermediaries. We always make sure work conditions are good. It is not only a good deal for us and the people we work with, but also for the customers, who can wear the garments with their head high and good conscience.

Annie@Petite&Minimal
What are the challenges of running a store so far?

Sophie@Smiley Vintage
The most challenging thing might be that we do not have any size, so customers need to try the clothes to be sure it is the right size (of course you don’t need to do it, but we recommend it). We only have one piece for each style/pattern, so every piece is unique. That means we don’t have bigger or smaller sizes of one piece, so you kind of need to have a little luck when you try an item you like. But on the other hand, this is also what makes us and our garments special. If you buy a piece of clothing from us, you can be sure no one will ever have the same thing.

Annie@Petite&Minimal
Today it's also quite popular to have online store, how does Smiley Vintage embrace this demand?

Sophie@Smiley Vintage
We do have an online shop at TPH.co which is an online vintage platform, where other vintage shops sell their things too. The biggest challenge for the online shop is that we don’t have sizes. I have tried to take measurements of the clothes and customers are always welcome to contact us if they need more detailed size information. Our online shop is not that big at the moment, and we only have a small number of pieces online, but we are putting more items every week.