indigo style vintage
Cheryl Roberts began her modeling career while attending college in Texas and turned to full-time modeling after graduating from the University of Texas at Arlington. Her breakthrough moment occurred when she was featured in her 25th anniversary book of ESSENCE in 1995, and she became a frequent collaborator with fashion magazines. She currently owns a boutique, Indigo Style Vintage, in Brooklyn, New York.
In 2017, Roberts launched Indigo Style Vintage in a separate store, occupying a modest 200 square feet of space, even though he didn't initially intend to become a full-time business owner. That opportunity arose when the owner of an interior design store in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, sought to integrate fashion without embracing fast fashion. “It took me three weeks to form an LLC, build my own space in the store, and stock the products, but I did it anyway because I was just collecting it myself. So, I had no business in the business. I didn’t have a plan,” she says. essence.com. After hearing from the owner of the store where her boutique was located, she decided to expand into her own brick-and-mortar store in 2019.
Roberts is a woman who values quality over quantity and has loved vintage shopping since she was young. She has always been money savvy and she was on her own team as a model for 30 years. When Roberts started her career as a professional model, her agency did not help her. “When I first started, I didn't have any help. The first few years I was just spending money. I can make $7,500 a day, which is great. But I didn't really want to go to New York full-time. Once I moved there and got an apartment, I realized how expensive it was. I knew there was always time to go to work and time not to work.'' She didn't have a side job. I was modeling full-time in , so once I realized that, I started saving more money and started depositing money into different savings and checking accounts to budget accordingly. .
She invested in her first big piece when she was modeling three to four times a week. One is a Bergdorf shearling coat she bought at Goodman. She still has it. Another was a blue ruffled Patrick Kelly dress that she vowed never to sell, even if it no longer fit. Wisely, she also invested in her art work. “I bought art when I had more money because I loved it and knew it was an investment that didn't depreciate as much.” We recommend vintage clothing that does not deteriorate in a short period of time.
As a business owner, Roberts is putting the boutique on solid financial footing. She advises against overextension and advocates testing buy orders with small amounts to avoid potential setbacks. “I think a lot of times people start out wanting to get really big, and then they get really big, and if it doesn't work out, they get stuck. So I took it upon myself to buy, sell. I learned to buy more and sell more.”
She also advises other Black women who want to open a boutique or business to sit down and thoroughly write out a business plan before doing anything else. She asks herself, “What are my goals for year one, year three, and year five?” She goes on to say what she would have done differently: I went back to infrastructure. Because we were just starting the business and we had to backtrack to get all the infrastructure right. ”
