Lauren Ballentine, 27, loved spending time with her grandmother growing up and especially loved when they went shopping. However, you would never find the two at a classic shopping mall looking for new clothing. The two preferred to scour through piles of vintage offerings at antique malls, looking for anything from a glassware set from the ’50s to ’70s-era bell-bottoms.
“She rooted my passion for fashion, fashion history, antiques,” Ballentine said. “I just found my own passion within that.”
Ballentine turned her and her grandmother’s favorite hobby into a career path and now owns and operates a vintage consignment store in downtown Arlington. Deep Dive Vintage invites customers from every type of fashion niche to, well, dive into its collection.
The store sells women’s, men’s and children’s clothing, as well as accessories and a women’s plus-size section. However, before it landed in Arlington, Deep Dive Vintage began as a small Poshmark account that Ballentine opened when she was 16 years old.
Ballentine recalls asking her mom to drive her to the post office to ship out items that her online customers were purchasing and curating her Poshmark page specifically for vintage-apparel collectors wanting to get their hands on genuine clothing from different eras.
Deep Dive Vintage offers a variety of vintage clothes, from women’s dresses to men’s T-shirts, on July 23 in Arlington. (Christine Vo | Fort Worth Report)
“Whenever I first started, it wasn’t such a popular market. It was really a collector’s thing,” Ballentine said. “If you were into the ’30s, you were into the ’30s …. That’s their personality, down to undergarments, socks, shoes, everything; they’ll just fully embrace the era.”
Ballentine opened up her first storefront in a 600-square-foot space in North Richland Hills, before officially opening in a much bigger space in Hurst.
Because the Hurst location was in a much older building, there were multiple maintenance issues, Ballentine said. She looked for a new location during the summer of 2024, before finally landing on one in the heart of downtown Arlington.
Though the spot they settled on was not fully completed and even lacked concrete for the floors at the time, Ballentine said she and her staff were immediately motivated by the blank canvas.
“We created the space to what we needed it to be, rather than kind of conform to a space that already existed,” Ballentine said. “I hadn’t really ever been out to downtown Arlington much before that. But whenever I first came out here, the energy and just the vibe of everybody, I was like, ‘This is where Deep Dive is meant to be.’”
As thrift and consignment shopping grew in popularity, Ballentine realized that the mainstream market was catering more to men’s clothing, such as vintage graphic tees and baggy Levi’s jeans.
Customers shop at Deep Dive Vintage on July 23 in Arlington. (Christine Vo | Fort Worth Report)
Ballentine said she attempted to curate for men but knew women’s true vintage options were missing in the marketplace. She decided to focus most of her store on those needs, rather than conforming to what she said was more popular at the time.
“For a while, I felt like an outcast because I didn’t carry the stuff that everybody was looking for,” the business owner said. “But then it grew to be a better thing. … We’re that space for people that felt the same as me, who wanted to shop women’s vintage.”
Estephanny Jimenez, the manager at Deep Dive Vintage, said she discovered the store in an effort to find more-curated vintage women’s clothing at an affordable price. Jimenez shared she would drive from Dallas to the Hurst location just to browse for something she liked. Her first purchase was a pair of vintage ’70s linen pants.
“I found myself struggling to buy things anywhere else, in general, because of prices,” Jimenez said. “I just loved the women’s section, and I was obsessed with the fact that this was their thing.”
Pricing for the store remains lower than most curated vintage shops in DFW, with most tops and bottoms ranging from $15 to $45, with some luxury designer items ranging from $60 to $150.
“With our pricing, we try to find the typical going rate on the market, which isn’t necessarily the value, and we go around 30% underneath that,” Ballentine said. “It’s like a one-stop shop. You can find something in your price range, your style, your size, all within the same building.”
Finding something for everyone is a goal Ballentine stands by, saying she is more than happy to spend extra time curating the plus-size, men’s, and children’s section, despite feeling more confident in women’s curation.
“You get that adrenaline rush,” Ballentine said. “Not everything’s my style, not everything’s my size, but I am excited to bring that to somebody whose size it is, and it is their style.”
Dresses and tank tops hang on the walls of Deep Dive Vintage on July 23 in Arlington. (Christine Vo | Fort Worth Report)
As the vintage-clothing community has grown, Ballentine has also noticed that her clientele is getting younger, seemingly finding their style in older trends, similar to how she once did with her grandmother.
She hopes to continue to create a community within Deep Dive Vintage, where customers don’t feel judged or uncomfortable trying new things.
“I’m proud of the fact that we’ve created a space for virtually every single person that could possibly have an interest in vintage,” Ballentine said. “Not everybody can fit in everywhere else, but everybody is always welcome here.”
Bianca Rodriguez-Mora is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at bianca@fortworthreport.org.
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