Inspiring Conversations with Holly Hillsten of Hills10 Vintage

Today we’d like to introduce you to Holly Hillsten.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started selling vintage clothes online through the app Depop in early 2020. I had recently graduated from Arizona State University, where I studied Economics, and I wasn’t sure what career path I wanted (though I always loved fashion).

I had always bought and sold things online since high school, but it was very here and there, and I never took it seriously. A couple of years later I attended a market and saw some booths where people were selling super cool vintage clothes. I thought hey I could do this, so I created my Depop shop, instagram and applied for my first market in AZ.

At first, I only had 2 racks of clothes and now (almost 3 years later) I have 6 and I have done so many markets in Arizona and California, along with selling online. I try to sell every weekend during the AZ market season. I am a vendor at The Mint Market, Pickers Playground, Phoenix Flea, and First Friday, just to name a few! I love meeting customers in real life and have so much fun t the events I do. I go through inventory very fast during the market season (oct-may)! I love that I have given myself the opportunity to do this full-time right now.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
A lot of my friends work regular jobs and they can turn off their laptops at 5 pm, and I am striving for that kind of structure. Sometimes it feels like I am working around the clock, whether it’s editing videos at night or making writing descriptions/listings for my Depop shop. I am always thinking of new ways I can improve my shop and my brain never stops thinking about that.

Another challenge I have is scaling the business since each item is unique.

Sourcing! I try to find new ways and places to find vintage clothes and am always looking to buy in bulk from people who are clearing out their closets.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I sell mainly women’s vintage 90s and y2k (easy 2000s) vintage clothes. I’ve been vending at a lot of markets recently and have noticed that there is a large community for men’s vintage sellers and customers. I think since the pandemic and resurgence of early 2000s Women’s clothing making a big comeback, the community for women has started to evolve and has really opened up space for women sellers and I am super happy to see that!!

I love vintage clothes so much because each piece is unique. Vintage clothes, although older, are often much better quality than clothes you can find in stores today! It is also sustainable/better for the environment than shopping in fast fashion. Here are some haunting facts about the fashion industry:

“The fashion industry is responsible for around 10% of humanity’s carbon emissions. The equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes is burned or dumped in a landfill every second (UNEP, 2018) Approximately 60% of all materials used by the fashion industry are made from plastic”. https://www.genevaenvironmentnetwork.org/resources/updates/sustainable-fashion/

I think we all need to be more thoughtful with what we are buying. I want to celebrate people’s sense of style in a way that is not detrimental to the environment. If we all shopped for vintage or thrifted clothes we could really help the environment.

We’d love to hear what you think about risk-taking.
I am proud of the dedication and courage it has taken for me to do this full-time. I took a year off last year and was working full time in tech and moved to Hawaii (another dream of mine!). But I missed selling so much that I quit my job and moved back to phoenix just to make Hills10 Vintage work. I love what I do, from sourcing vintage to social media to attending Pop-up events!

Starting a business is always risky, but I did not necessarily have anything holding me down at this point in my life. I am in my twenties, don’t have kids or a mortgage and I figured this is the best time to take a risk.

I also know I have a good work ethic and generally do believe that I can do anything if I set my mind to it and am consistent.

Pricing:

• I try to stay very reasonable with my pricing.
• $15-$200
• my average price is $30

Contact Info:

• Website: depop.com/hills10vintage
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hills10vintage/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Hills10vintage
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@hills10vintage