Lori Caringi alongside her mother Joyce and sister Lisa inside their new consignment shop Fashion Follies on South Street in Glens Falls.
Jana DeCamilla
GLENS FALLS — Stepping into 34 South St. is like taking a trip back in time, even though the owners say they don’t believe in the manmade concept of time, so you won’t find a clock anywhere inside.
Sisters Lori and Lisa Caringi opened their new consignment shop Fashion Follies on Monday and by their fourth day already had a repeat customer.
Indira, a young woman who said she was relocated to the area recently from Arizona, works nearby and stumbled upon the store after her shift and then came back again the next day.
“I just moved here, so I’m always looking for little shops like this. I love it in here,” she said.
Lori said she loves young girls, like their repeat customers, are into consignment shops because “it wasn’t cool” when she was young.
These two sisters, along with a lot of family help, they say, are proving it is never too late to follow your dreams.
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“This is my baby. I have always dreamed of having my own store and after 40 years in retail and a push from my son, I did it,” Lori said. “I love fashion and I love vintage stuff — things that you can’t find in stores.”
The ladies described their inventory as everything “from a T-shirt to a tuxedo,” but they said their current five consigners brought in “a lot of high-end stuff.”
There are some new items on the racks along with the consigned merchandise. The sisters say their prices are fair.
“We want to be a place where people want to come and just sit down for a while and look around,” Lori said.
“Yes, that’s why we have chairs here,” Lisa added, moving to one of the several seating areas in the double storefront.
Lori said a lot of the clothes, accessories, shoes and jewelry came from herself and their mother Joyce, who visited her daughters wearing large white retro sunglasses.
“I’m just here riding her coattails,” laughed at her older sister Lisa. “But soon I will have a studio space in the back for me to do my art, but that part isn’t finished yet.”
Lisa does commissioned pet portraits as well as nature and abstract paintings that will also be available for sale in the store.
The sisters are encouraging local artists to bring in their work to be sold in the new store, after a woman comes disappointed that she missed the opportunity at another newly opened South Street shop.
The store was renovated by the Caringi family to reflect the “Great Gatsby era,” with gold pillars and paper lanterns in one room and lamps donned with vintage aviator goggles and fuzzy hats.
In between the whimsical displays are roll racks of different styles, hues and sizes of jeans, dresses and sweaters, a wall filled with shelves of shoes, display cases of real and costume jewels and a section for men.
Jana DeCamilla is a staff writer who covers Moreau, Queensbury, Warren County and Lake George. She can be reached at 518-903-9937 or [email protected].