FK’D: A Lively Q&A With the Gals of Find Keep Vintage

{ Written by Ally Francine }

Find Keep Vintage founders Larrissa Phillips and Kayla Rainey aren’t just two small town girls with big dreams, and they certainly aren’t sitting around waiting to get noticed. Like many of us, especially yours truly, these two refreshing young ladies love to scour every thrift shop and flea market in their path. Yet unlike most online vintage re-sellers, Kayla and Larissa aren’t just slapping a price tag on their finds. These crafty mavens spend hours in their Charleston bedroom-turned-studio reinventing the treasures of lost decades. Many of FK’s garments have been updated or altered in some way, giving these already unique vintage finds a new life, adapting those pieces to work with today’s trends… a snip here, a tuck there, a couple of carefully thought out splashes of bleach, and the results are fun and fresh.

Only a year in the making, and already FK Vintage is making waves in the universe of fashion, offering super stylish women’s and men’s apparel, a plethora of accessories, jewelry, and some very adorable home decor. The FK ladies hosted a successful Charleston Fashion Week unofficial after-party this spring, got a letter of kudos from the Nasty Gal team—home of the girls’ own personal hero, Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso—and most recently received an official invite to strut their creations down the runway at Charlotte Fashion Week this upcoming September. These two won’t claim all the credit though, recognizing that the success of FK Vintage has been a blossoming team effort of talented friends collectively pooling their skills. Their most notable shout outs going to New York based photographer and vital team member Jake Simpson, hair stylist Elayna Lyon, as well as models Hannah McIntosh, Anais Ver, Mikal Davis, Lanna Phillips, and Hunter Watson.

After only a short visit to the FK studio, I had a wish list that would set me back an entire month’s rent, and I could’ve gladly spent days rummaging through Kayla and Larissa’s wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling collection of eye grabbing goods. Furthermore, I could have spent hours chatting it up with these lovelies who put simply, exude a pure love of playing dress up, but enough from me already…

How FK Vintage came about:

L: It started out kind of personal, stuff that we’d make for ourselves that other people would think was cool, so then we’d make gifts, like necklaces for mom and handmade stuff in general, and it evolved into clothing for other people.

K: It was all about being original.

Who does the sewing?

L: We both do. My grandmother was a seamstress, so while I was being babysat I’d sew little pillows and honestly it came out of necessity. I got to the point where I was like, this would be the most perfect skirt if it was just shorter.

K: My grandmother was also a seamstress and my aunt makes children’s clothes.

About photographer Jake Simpson:

K: He is from Anderson [SC], my hometown, and we were both stuck in this small town and he happened to email me, “Can I take pictures of you, you seem really cool, you like to thrift-store shop…” and we instantly became best friends. Then when we had this idea for FK, he said, “I would love to be your photographer.” We just got lucky to have such an awesome talent.

On sales in the first year:

L: It’s going pretty well. Honestly, we just wanted at least one sale, but the word has gotten out through friends and a lot of locals. We had a custom jewelry order placed… I didn’t think we’d have that so close to the beginning.

About their creative process:

L: It's been fun to test different techniques, its not just about what we know we can do right now, but you start to build off of a vision you have for something taking it one step further. Each piece that we do, we probably remember the worst part of getting it finished and the best final product, so we have stories for each piece.

What are your other big dreams?

L: To travel, we want to go everywhere!

K: Definitely travel… shop the flea markets in Italy.

What is your fashion philosophy & personal style like?

K: Be different, wear what you want, express who you are through your clothes. The wilder the prints the better, the brighter the colors the better.

L: Definitely wear what you want, you gotta feel it. I like to wear rather simple stuff, but I have a love affair with jewelry, the more jewelry the better.

You can shop the full FK Vintage collection @www.fkvintage.com