\u201cFashion wasn\u2019t a career that I chose. It chose me,\u201d says Cassandra Goins, owner of OOH LA LA, the new curated consignment store gracing the Upper West Side.<\/p>\n
The 70-year-old retired music executive, who headed Putumayo World Music (\u201cThe entire African continent was my territory\u201d), was, before that, president of Bob Marley\u2019s label, Tuff Gong International, and worked with another label that had a deal with Sony. She started her store as a pop-up five years ago during COVID from the garden apartment of her Sugar Hill brownstone.<\/p>\n
Says Goins: \u201cI\u2019m a very nostalgic person, and it\u2019s all of those memories I\u2019m attracted to. I remember my grandmother\u2019s handbags. I get pieces in here, and they\u2019ll remind me of my grandmother or my mother, who was a big thrifter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goins remembers as a child being embarrassed if classmates saw her family at Goodwill. \u201cBut,\u201d she continued, \u201call of those things that were instilled in me from my mom when we shopped there were how to shop for quality stuff. She\u2019d say, \u2018That\u2019s junk, but this here is good-quality.\u2019 In the late \u201860s [in California, where Goins grew up], my mom had a boutique. She was an entrepreneur. And I have a lot of her fearlessness and spirit of adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Five years ago, that spirit, plus her decades of marketing expertise and, quite frankly, a bit of pandemic ennui, led Goins to embark on her second successful career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had nowhere to go, like everybody else,\u201d she admits. \u201cI took the opportunity to do a lot of cleaning out of my own closets and thought a stoop sale might be nice. I started doing those on weekends, then I invited other women in the neighborhood to bring a rack of clothes and share my space. From there, I rented a space just down the street from me and rented that for two weeks out of the month. The first pop-up was a Christmas bazaar.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her good friend and actor, the late Michael K. Williams (The Wire, Boardwalk Empire) saw her new business\u2019s Instagram and said, \u201cI need to purge. I need to clean up my carbon footprint. My consumerism has gotten out of control, and I need your help. Why don\u2019t we do a pop-up and add my inventory of things?\u201d<\/p>\n
It was hugely successful. \u201cWe raised a lot of money for charity,\u201d Goins says. In fact, after Williams passed away in 2021, Goins worked with the estate to sell his remaining inventory to raise funds to help support his 95-year-old mother.<\/p>\n
When the world opened up again, Goins says, \u201c[The store] just organically happened. I had a lot of popularity in Harlem, but what I didn\u2019t have was foot traffic. I had more private clients.\u201d<\/p>\n
She decided to move and thought the Upper West Side was the ideal location but wasn\u2019t sure it could be attainable, until one day it was. \u201cThis was actually a very magical experience for me,\u201d Goins says, \u201cbecause I have a very special woman who was a consigner and friend, Marianne Spraggins, who\u2019s also a real estate lawyer and broker at Keller Williams. She found the space. I looked through the windows, and I was just like, \u2018Oh my God, that\u2019s my store. It spoke to me in a very unimaginable way.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
At OOH LA LA, Goins not only sells, but buys and consigns. \u201cI\u2019ve probably taken in maybe at least 25 new consigners [since opening in September]. It\u2019s a place for luxury, high-end brands, and quality vintage.\u201d But, the environmentally-conscious owner stresses, \u201cNo fast fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n
All her designer merchandise is authenticated, and when it comes to pricing, she offers better deals than The Real Real, with whom she sees herself on par.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though it\u2019s online, and obviously has a much bigger presence,\u201d Goins concedes, \u201cI have a lot of pieces that I\u2019ve curated that are hard to find, like the Chanel 1970 trench coat in the window. Customers will be hard-pressed to find that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goins doesn\u2019t sell via a website; instead encourages customers to come into the store because seeing and feeling a piece is the only way to know if it\u2019s for you. \u201cI\u2019m not a professional stylist, but I do know style,\u201d and the hands-on businesswoman is always available to her clientele.<\/p>\n
\u201cI share what I know and what I\u2019ve learned about mixing contemporary with vintage, getting people outside of their comfort zone. I just try to meet people where they are and find that sweet spot to help them.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked about her long-term vision is for OOH LA LA, Goins laughs and gestures to her surroundings: \u201cThis is it,\u201d and then turns sentimental and says, \u201cI have no regrets. I\u2019ve traveled the world, lived internationally. I\u2019ve raised my son. I\u2019m at a very good place. I\u2019m content and enjoying this chapter. I meet a lot of people.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince I\u2019ve moved [to the Upper West Side],\u201d she continues, \u201cI know a lot of the people in the neighborhood. Most times, I know their pet\u2019s name more than I know theirs. It\u2019s the community where you feel safe, and you feel good, and people support you, and you feel like you\u2019re appreciated.\u201d<\/p>\n
OOH LA LA. 60 W. 75th St. (between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue). 11 am to 7 pm, Monday through Sunday. Instagram: @_oohlalanyc<\/a><\/p>\n Lorraine Duffy Merkl is the author of the novel, \u201cThe Last Single Woman in New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n