07/27/2022
To my wonderful community,
I know over the past three years you have tolerated a lot of my writing—all of those times I tried to reach through the wall of captions to hope, change, celebrate, problematize, and get dressed with you. Today, though, I am sharing my last love-letter caption with you. I will be closing Locals Only Collective as it is, and this will be my last week at the shop. I apologize for the sudden announcement, but I want you to know two things:
First, I am heartened to announce that I am handing the shop over to two new and enthusiastic owners. They are excited to continue serving the community with old clothes and compassion. Keep following this page and stay tuned for updates, the shop’s reopening, and—of course— killer vintage.
But before I go, I want you to know how grateful I am to all of you. The closeness I feel with my neighborhood and my internet community is one that not many get to experience in a lifetime. This connectedness and relational purpose is something I fought for everyone to feel through my shop’s existence and its ethos. And yet, I’m often afraid that it’s really me who has gained the most. It’s hard to describe what I’ve witnessed, what I’ve seen and done as someone who merely sells discarded clothes on a dusty downtown’s corner.
I have shopped and eaten and worked and played where I lived. I have felt known and seen by everyone from my neighbors to the people who make my meals. I have witnessed what money can do when it is used locally and intentionally. I have received endless gifts of a thoughtfulness so raw and human it defies any skepticism. I have learned and lost and gained what feels like thousands of friends.
I opened my shop to try to create a little place for people, a little world of comfort and hope and forward movement. Instead what I found was that world already existed. I simply had to share it with you, as you all have shared it with me.
Thank you for letting me be here, for a time. I am leaving with hope and gratitude and more love than you know.
Always,
Emily
