Tough & Tender

Driving down the streets of Detroit, there are a plethora of local businesses ranging from restaurants and bars to boutiques and vintage stores each unique in their own right. Growing up in Michigan, I never ventured into Detroit nearly as often as I do now that I have graduated high school, but it is safe to say that it has become one of my favorite places to be. During this time, I have investigated a number of the community’s vintage stores, but one of my favorites has always been Old Soul Vintage. I have been in and out of its doors since 2021, but one December night last year I finally had the pleasure to meet the business’s owner, Mary Capicchioni. We instantly clicked, and from there I worked on one other project with Old Soul. Both Mary and her best friend/creative partner Audrey Davis have been a pleasure to work with and get to know, and I cannot wait to see what comes next from the duo!

Starting in Mary’s bedroom, Old Soul has come a long way since its establishment in 2019. With a global pandemic closing its storefront two weeks after its grand opening in 2020, there seems to be nothing that the business cannot work through. By the way, the pair talks about Old Soul and each other, you can just tell the amount of dedication and hard work that has gone into the curation, creative direction and business aspects of the store. From the beginning of getting to know them, they have been very encouraging of Starmaker Machine’s vision and we have been very grateful to have support from two creatives of their caliber. Seeing such a bond and creative cohesion between both Mary and Audrey reminded me a lot of Milan and me, and it’s safe to say it was vice versa for them. From pitching ideas down to the final product of this spring/summer collaboration, it has been a pleasure to learn more about this amazing local business and work on such an exciting project that I feel really represents the joint effort of both Starmaker and Old Soul.

KITTY QUINN: When did you first meet and was there a specific moment that you knew you wanted to work together professionally?

AUDREY DAVIS: The first time we met in person was August 14th, 2019. I have always admired what Mary was doing on Instagram and we knew each other through mutual friends. Once I saw what she was doing with Old Soul and her personal stuff, I always reached out and let her know that I loved what she was doing, and that I couldn’t wait to work with her. I was super consistent every time. If I saw something sweet, I would say ‘Oh my god, this is amazing! I can’t wait to work together.’ Then, I had just moved back to Detroit and Mary asked if I would model for the fall 2019 lookbook for Old Soul Vintage and I was stoked. On the 14th we did the shoot and we were both nervous and excited to meet each other. After that day I knew that this was something I had before in my past life, like I was reintroducing myself to her. I knew it was going to be something that stuck for this life as well.

MARY CAPICCHIONI: When I met Audrey I was extremely intimidated because she had such confidence and poise to her. I think we came into each other’s life at the right time, and the creative force just happened from there because I have never met another woman that shares the same interests as me; art, music, boys— never. I never had a woman other than my mom and grandma in my life to relate to. I grew up with three brothers, so meeting her was very refreshing. I thought it was great because this girl is my age, and I just saw a world of the future with Audrey as soon as we met so I thought, ‘okay, let's try this shoot out’. From there, it was meant to be. In 2019, we shot that fall and then we opened the shop in February 2020, so Audrey was thrown in very quickly.

KQ: I’m a big believer in everything happening for a reason and have found connections so similar to yours. I relate to that aspect of growing up with brothers, so those connections with other women really mean a lot. It’s great that you two have found each other and get to work together now. What originally got you guys interested in vintage clothing, and did you always know you would start a business?

MC: When I was in high school I wanted to be a fashion photographer. I knew I always wanted to be involved in fashion. My hobby is 2D painting and I knew that I didn’t want to make money off of that form of art. Graduating high school, I moved to San Diego for two years and as soon as I moved out there I started going through all of the local vintage shops and asking if they would hire me. I got hired at this vintage shop and was doing their Etsy work and from there I was just like, ‘I can do this’. I barely went to school, I went to an art school. I hated people telling me what to do so I knew from there that I’d want to do something on my own. I started at the very bottom. I took all of the skills from corporate, commercial America and went to small business America, and when I moved back to Detroit when it was revitalizing, I knew I had to be here. I was 20 at the time and started working at Lost and Found Vintage, and I was very persistent with them because it was my wonderland. I worked there for about a year and learned a lot. They are the OGs in the game and they’ve been around for around 25 years now. I originally got started in vintage around 5th grade watching Who’s That Girl? with Madonna. When I saw the outfits, I knew it was who I was supposed to be. I went into my closet and grabbed my old tutu, tights, grabbed my mom's jewelry and put it on and thought, ‘This is me now’. I grew up in a very musical house. My brother’s a drummer, my other brother is a bassist, my one brother really loves hip hop, my dad is really into rock n’ roll, my mom’s very into soul and jazz, my grandmother is really into Nat King Cole and Sinatra… so that was very pivotal for me. Film was also very influential— my dad showed me The Godfather and Goodfellas. My brother showed me Almost Famous— that completely changed my life, which sounds extremely fucking corny but being twelve and watching that movie was crazy. My grandmother was an artist and she was like my best friend. She was a painter and a seamstress, kind of like a Renaissance type of woman. After I left Lost and Found, from 2014 to 2020 I was just selling clothes out of my basement to start. When me and Aud met, she just completed the other half that I needed to make Old Soul what it is.

AD: How I’ve found my love for vintage was growing up with my brother as a musician, my sister and I taking piano lessons, and my mom and grandma playing piano and all sorts of music. Growing up, we’d always shop at thrift stores just because that was the means that my family had, so my brother and sister and I would always go. My mom had this lime green beetle, and I remember being embarrassed being in the thrift store because I knew people would see our car there. When shopping, I’d always see things and be like, ‘okay, how can I make this work?’. I’ve always been very intrigued by building outfits. For instance, I took one of my old ballet leotards and made leggings out of it in 5th grade. The next week, there were a whole bunch of kids coming with leggings from Limited Too. It’s what I’ve always known and loved, so I’ve taken that and went with it. I also always try to be eco friendly— I care a lot about the earth. There are a lot of things that could be done differently, so I appreciate vintage and secondhand types of stuff because of the amount of waste in this world. There's so many clothes and I just don’t feel the need to buy brand new clothes when there’s so much already, and you can feel the history of it as well. I love wearing a pair of pants and wondering what teenage boy was wearing them in the 70s. The history in the clothes is something that's super powerful for me as well. Growing up, I never cared too much about material and went with the flow. I never really thought I’d be in retail, but once all of this came together and I was a part of it, I knew it was what I was meant to be doing.

KQ: I’ve been coming to the store before I met you guys formally and it has been so interesting to see you guys grow so much. When I finally got to meet you guys and work for you, it was so exciting for me. I never really connected with the community with my art to this degree, so it’s cool to finally integrate myself with so many like-minded individuals.

AD: That's another thing I’m so fond of. It’s such a beautiful community of creatives, artists, musicians— it’s very powerful.

KQ: Being surrounded by so many clothes all of the time, I know you probably have a lot of things that you’ve added to your personal collections over the years. Have you ever been outsourcing, not intending to buy anything for yourself, and you found something you couldn’t pass up? I know if I was doing this, I wouldn’t be able to contain myself [laughs].

MC: Audrey is the one every time, but it’s like small shit. She really gravitates towards linens— things I don’t typically gravitate towards. We do gatekeep some things, 100%. When we’re ready to let them go, I do. We find some amazing treasures. It’s a rewarding part of the job but we also have to have some restraint, which is hard. We definitely keep things to ourselves.

AD: The real special ones. I have so many pairs of pants that are too big on me but I can’t let go. I have them organized in my drawer all snazzy and I’ll open it up and I’m like, “Hi…”.

KQ: I’m not in the same business but we still have to source for our photoshoots, and whenever we have to go find things I end up getting a lot for myself. Now I try to narrow it down like, if I can’t imagine it with three different outfits then don't buy it.

MC: That's good, we don’t usually have that mentality. It's one of us just being like, ‘you don’t need it’ [laughs]. We try to hold each other accountable. I’ve been doing this for ten years, so honestly– I know this sounds shitty– but sometimes you just become desensitized because you’re in a selling frame of mind. There are those couple of pieces where you know you’re keeping them, but for me its more like posters and furniture. Other than that, I’m cool with sellin’ it.

KQ: Building on that, I know that could be an area of difficulty to an extent, but what has been the overall most difficult part of running your own business within this industry?

MC: The most difficult thing when we started was working with a friend. It was hard to be a boss and a best friend, and it still is hard. We’ve learned how to switch from work mode to friend mode and sometimes it does get crossed, but we both bring it back when it comes to business. In the beginning, it was pretty hard. We opened two weeks before Covid hit— nobody ever really prepares you for a global pandemic. We were in the midst of changing managers too, which was hard. It’s all very hard, to be honest. The Detroit vintage community is amazing, hands down. Everyone is very sweet— even to the point where if someone bought something from Old Soul and it didn’t fit them, they’d reach out and let me know they’re selling it at their booth. It gets down to that point of courtesy that it’s amazing. Networking is hard in general across any job, but in this scene, it’s great because everyone is so welcoming. Fashion in Detroit is growing which has been amazing to see. Back in the ’40s and 50s, it was Hudson’s. We were a huge deal as far as department shopping and furs. I think Detroit gets skipped on the map of style and fashion because we’re so known for cars and music— which is great, but it’s nice to see the growth within the field of fashion as a business owner. Every day is a struggle as a business owner— from employees to finding products. Since there are so many people selling vintage now, having healthy competition is great but it’s also harder to find things.

KQ: Touching on the community aspect and working with businesses like Lost and Found in the past, would you say that you had a mentor or any sort of guidance when it came to starting your own business, or did you go in blind so to say?

MC: Lost and Found and even the corporations that I worked for gave me stepping stones on how to run a business. When it came to working for a corporation as a sales associate, I worked my way up to visual merchandising. Through that, I realized I could open my own store because I had those building blocks. My mom was always such a pusher for college, but I didn’t want to go to college. The college I went to was just business classes and I didn’t understand a lick of anything— I was just like, ‘fuck this’, I’m going to figure it out. My dad has always had his own business, he’s been a cement guy for 50 years, and I saw that he could do it so I knew I could try too. I will say, one of my mentors was a woman named Dawn that I worked with at Macy’s. She wasn’t my manager, she was just my coworker. She was a bitch, but she taught me so much. She was tough and I feel like a lot of people don’t like that shit nowadays, and though I’d go home and cry because she was so mean, I learned so much about how to make things look good, how to be sure of what I’m doing and how to not half ass. She was very sweet with my vintage endeavors and was one of the first people to let me check out some of her old clothes. She was a big role model despite being very fiesty. I definitely run my employees with her teachings, but of course not as harsh. I let the girls make their own mistakes and I tell them why they did it and what needs to be done to be better because that’s how she taught me. My mom also is a huge mentor because she had four children and worked a full time job, and she still took care of us. She got her college degree and became a big person within her field, and that was a very big inspiration.

AD: I hadn’t worked in retail until I worked for Mary, so she’s definitely taught me everything about it. I started out as doing just sales and then I got promoted to assistant manager and then buying. Then, I was in visual merchandising and Mary taught me her ways with that. It was definitely something that felt familiar as I was learning so I caught on quickly.

KQ: Getting into your creative aspect, unlike many vintage stores I know locally, you guys have your seasonal campaigns. I know you wanted to be a fashion photographer at a young age, did you ever think you would go in a creative direction?

MC: In sixth grade, I got my first Vogue. I just melted into it. My room was just covered with pictures from Vogue and [Led] Zeppelin and The Beatles— it was always one thing for me. When I started Old Soul, we immediately started doing shoots. They weren’t as cool as they are now because it was just me at the time. Though we don’t have a Haute Couture line and we aren’t making ready-to-wear clothing, I still adapted that to vintage to get that fashion feel. Editorials and being creative stems from my high school photography years, that Vogue in sixth grade, and getting into all of that. When I started Old Soul, I’d reach out and invite photographer friends to shoot for me so I could support them. From there, it blew up into this thing where we do two campaigns a year with some extras for holidays thrown in. When you walked in I was like, ‘Okay, I know this girl but I don’t know this girl’, so that’s why I wanted to work with you. You remind me of me and Milan reminds me a lot of Aud, so it felt like two creative forces meeting two other creative forces. Having Aud come on to help with the creative, It brought everything I was trying to do into fruition. I always knew I’d do something creative.

AD: Growing up, I always loved taking photos and being in photos. I remember hanging out with friends, putting on outfits and doing the self-timer on the camera. I was more used to being in front of the camera as opposed to being behind, but when I started helping Mary and doing creative directing on the opposite side I knew it was just right. You know too, having that flow that’s so natural and so powerful and then having the product is like no other feeling.

KQ: I had a similar experience getting into creative direction. When me and Milan were in high school, I primarily modeled with him for most of his projects. We had a project in school that I ended up helping him with on makeup and styling and then from there, we began working together, and after we graduated we decided to make Starmaker. With that, I’d love to know your biggest source of inspiration aside from fashion magazines, what specifically are you drawn to in your creative processes?

MC: Music is everything. You can be inspired by a song, an album cover, a movie cover, what's going on in the movie, photography— everything is such an inspiration. One of the biggest for me is Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix— so many people to draw from. I don’t necessarily think it's a bad way of creating things. Inspiration is everywhere. There’s a general knowledge that both me and Audrey have of music and film that we draw inspiration from. Playboy is also a huge inspiration to me. Anything that makes the hair on the back of our necks stand up.

AD: There’s so much inspiration everywhere. Having like-minded people with the same goals and visions is something that helps with the flow.

KQ: I’d love to know what your ideal vision is for Old Soul moving forward within your creative direction aspect. Do you have anything actively in the works aside from our project together?

MC: I would like to see Old Soul continuing to contribute to the community as far as being involved because if we do get bigger, I want to keep our core values. I see us becoming more of a popularized shop in Mid-town because I love Detroit but it does not have a lot of retail. A lot of the shopping here is unaffordable— that’s why having pop-ups is such a huge thing within the community to make things more affordable. Moving forward, I want to grow our presence and let people know we’re here for a sustainable and affordable place to shop. I have a very strong goal of being noticed by Vogue and the people I’ve looked up to for so long. Our next fall/winter is going to be pretty big. It’s going to be relatable and we’re jumping into the 80s which is pretty out of our comfort zone.

KQ: I’m excited to see what you guys do! I have one more business-oriented question, what is a piece of advice you wish you had heard when you first started?

MC: My mom always said that I could be anything I wanted to be— that stuck with me. What’s really weird about someone doing their own thing, is there’s going to be a lot of people trying to shut you down. People try to shut us down every day. In this day and age, you obviously have to be cautious about what you’re doing and we’re very receptive to that, but when it comes to people saying we’ll never open a shop or be able to do certain things, I was my own coach. Even for a period, my parents were urging me to do something else. I worked regular jobs but I’d always still be doing this. I did everything on my own when it came to applying for grants, and when we started getting them, my parents were like, ‘alright, let's see if you can do this’. Now we’re in year 4. A lot of it is just drive and passion. If you don’t have that spark, you won’t fulfill your purpose. You have to be your truest self and nobody ever really told me that aside from my mom saying I could be anything I wanted to be.

AD: Something that I’ve been saying to myself is to not allow my fear to get in the way of something I’m truly passionate for. Sometimes things are uncomfortable but you have to go through that to recognize that you can shine bright.

KQ: Onto my last question, this is something fun we like to do with everyone I interview. If you could choose a specific piece of media that you feel sums up your life or an idealized version of your life?

AD: For me, the book Just Kids by Patti Smith. Highly recommend everybody read the book. It’s just the greatest book ever.

MC: I guess I’m going to go with the Woodstock ‘69 film. Who wouldn’t want to live and experience that, even in the mud?

AD: Hell yeah, great answer! I think I'm going to change mine to the album, Pictures of Purple People by Marc Bolan. I want to live with that album.