<\/p>\n
Owner of Deja Vu Vintage\u00a0Robin Krentcil\u00a0sits in front of the store on Sept. 13 that she has ran for 40 years in downtown Orlando.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Octavious Lawrence<\/p>\n
Deja Vu Vintage offers more than a consignment store experience. For owner Robin Krentcil, she wants it to be a one-stop local shop for the Central Florida area.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like my shop is to shopping therapy as Cheers is to drinking therapy,\u201d Krentcil said. \u00a0\u201cI\u2019m chatty with my customers. I want people to leave here wanting to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n
A landmark of its own, the vintage clothing and antique store celebrates its 40th anniversary on October 2.<\/p>\n
A friendly approach has been what kept D\u00e9j\u00e0 Vu Vintage part of Orlando\u2019s local shopping scene. The store had an unlikely beginning.\u00a0After an unexpected introduction to the world of vintage, it became Krentcil’s career seemingly overnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t originally interested in vintage,\u201d Krentcil\u00a0said. After helping at a friend\u2019s shop for a day and having a successful day of sales, she ended up running the store for three years. \u201cWhether it was fate, luck, coincidence, blessing, meant to be, whatever you want to call it.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the previous owner\u2019s blessing, Krentcil\u00a0opened Deja Vu Vintage in 1986. Krentcil said she worked a bunch of jobs before running the store, but had finally found her niche.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think about failing,\u201d Krentcil\u00a0said. \u201cI just wanted to try.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the first six years, Krentcil\u00a0waited tables while also operating the store. She said being self-employed requires constant effort, especially when a business depends on one person to keep inventory moving and customers coming through the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot be lazy and self-employed. You have to fight to be successful,\u201d Krentcil\u00a0\u00a0said, before joking that she may be \u201cthe hardest-working lazy person I know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now at its third location, Deja Vu has spent about 13 years in its current home. In that time, Krentcil\u00a0has watched both Orlando and the vintage clothing industry change around her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first started, it was artistic people coming in, you know, the artsy type. Not just people stuck in ‘fashion inertia,’\u201d Krentcil said. \u201cNowadays everyone has heard of vintage clothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The shop\u2019s inventory stretches beyond the Y2K clothing that has become popular in recent years. Krentcil said she focuses on authentic vintage pieces from the 1950s through the 1990s, but the shop has even carried items dating back to the 1800s.<\/p>\n
Krentcil said that new inventory is added to the floor every day, depending on what comes through the door; that can include clothing, jewelry, purses, records, books, cologne and other collectibles.<\/p>\n
The store’s true greatest treasure comes from the relationship between Krentcil and the customers.<\/p>\n
David Morris, a UCF Grad Student, said the experience at Deja Vu sets it apart and has allowed the store to celebrate 40 years in such a tough market.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can actually spend time going through everything and find something that feels unique,\u201d Morris said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel like every piece was picked because it\u2019s trending online. There\u2019s older stuff here that you really don\u2019t see everywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n
The student said Krentcil and the store\u2019s atmosphere also contribute to the appeal that makes people keep coming back.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe talks to people and actually makes you feel welcome,\u201d Morris said. \u201cYou can tell this place has been around for a long time because it feels like people already know it and keep coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a small business. I pay for all of this,\u201d Krentcil\u00a0said. \u201cLittle acts of kindness are especially important in today\u2019s world, and it helps to get people coming back in good spirits\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Krentcil\u00a0said she encourages shoppers to visit other vintage businesses as well. Krentcil says greater interest in vintage can help the vintage clothing community and expose more people to older styles of clothing.<\/p>\n
After nearly four decades, one of her favorite parts of the job is still just as simple: Krentcil enjoys selling things and meeting the wide range of people who walk through the door.<\/p>\n
Just 5 years ago, Krentcil said she hoped someone young would take over the business. Now, with rising prices and fast-fashion trends, she hopes young people like UCF students will keep supporting the business and that her client base keeps coming in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Junior kinesiology major Stella Lueck first visited the store when she was about 17. She said the experience became memorable before she even made a purchase.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to Deja Vu Vintage for the first time when I was about 17 years old,\u201d Lueck said. \u201cIt was a super cozy antique store that was filled with many different booths and types of clothing from different eras.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lueck said she and a friend wandered through the clothing and jewelry before eventually striking up a conversation with Krentcil at the front of the store.<\/p>\n
At the time, Lueck was looking for a prom dress and noticed an older formal dress displayed on a mannequin. Krentcil suggested she try it on and took it off the mannequin for her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had other clothes to try on as well, so we did a little fashion show, and she had excellent taste,\u201d Lueck said.<\/p>\n
The interaction stuck with her and became part of the reason she returned to the store several times afterward.<\/p>\n
“I get all kinds of clients, young people, old people, rich people, poor people, whatever kinds of people. They’re all welcome in my shop. I treat everyone with respect, but it’s nice seeing young faces come through the doors,” said Krentcil<\/p>\n
Krentcil didn\u2019t know in 1986 how much Orlando would change, how popular vintage clothing would become, or how long the shop would last.<\/p>\n
\u201cSupport your local businesses,\u201d Krentcil\u00a0said. \u201cI survive off this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Owner of Deja Vu Vintage\u00a0Robin Krentcil\u00a0sits in front of the store on Sept. 13 that she has ran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1210,139,141,140],"class_list":["post-417659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-life","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}