Meet Isabel Osgood-Roach of Worn Ware / Queer Mall

Today we’d like to introduce you to Isabel Osgood-Roach.

Isabel, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in Portland, Oregon, where my parents co-own a women’s clothing store that my dad and grandma opened 45 years ago. It started as an arts-and-crafts imports store and eventually transitioned into selling clothing and jewelry mostly made in the U.S. I’m an only child, so I’ve always had an intimate view into what it’s like to own and operate a small business. Traveling – usually with my mom, dad, grandma, and grandpa – was a very formative element of my childhood. I developed an awareness of a much larger world and reveled in the colors and energy found in public markets in places such as Mexico, Peru, Turkey, and Morocco where my parents did business. I won the lottery (literally) to be in a public Spanish Immersion program in Portland from kindergarten through senior year of high school. Being able to communicate confidently in Spanish continues to be one of my most meaningful personal skills. My parents actually met in the public market in Oaxaca, Mexico, and they chose to give me a name common in Mexico – Isabel – out of respect and appreciation for Latinx culture (and they love Chilean author Isabel Allende). I left Portland in 2009 to attend Occidental College in Eagle Rock, where I was recruited to play Division III lacrosse.

At Oxy, I studied Critical Theory & Social Justice with an emphasis in Queer & Feminist Studies, studied abroad in Valparaiso, Chile, did (paid!) internships at the LGBT Center and Children’s Hospital and met my partner (now of seven years) the spring of my senior year. We moved to New Haven, Connecticut in 2016 where they were doing an MFA in Painting at Yale University. There, I worked for a non-profit, All Our Kin, whose mission is to train and support family child care providers in their work caring for infants and toddlers. I got to know folks who’d lived in New Haven their entire lives and whose only contact with the behemoth university was through the Yale-New Haven Hospital. Getting outside the Yale bubble – which likes to perpetuate racist and classist notions of New Haven – was powerful and illuminating. I was privileged to work alongside women of color small business owners and learned so much through our relationships.

In 2016, my partner and I lived in Paris, France for 11 months while they were doing an artist-in-residency at the Fondation des Etats-Unis in the 14th arrondisement. There, I worked freelance part-time and spent most days riding the metro around the city, observing the style, and visiting as many thrift and consignment shops as I could (yes, I pinched myself every day – the novelty never wore off!). I think this is when my love for secondhand clothes really came alive. When we moved back to Los Angeles, I continued to work from home for All Our Kin and spent my afternoons frequenting the many thrift stores in the vicinity of Cypress Park. My creative project – Worn Ware – was birthed during this time.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I just left my non-profit job of five years last month and am in a transitional period of figuring out how to make money in a more creative sector, which is definitely daunting. The experience of creating and curating Queer Mall last fall – in addition to reflecting on entering a new decade – led me to realize that LA is truly my home, and I want to do work that is grounded in my community. I think I was hiding a bit behind a work-from-home job that was financially secure, meaningful, and I was proficient in, but was no longer enlivening or utilizing my skills in the most impactful way. I had to convince myself that something else is attainable and embrace the unknowingness of what exactly that is. Positive affirmations – “I got this,” “this is the right decision,” “something great is going to happen” – have been helpful, in addition to the on the ground hustle of making connections and putting my intentions and hopes out into the world. I’m lucky that the part-time Social Media Manager position at my gym, the wonderful EVERYBODY Los Angeles, opened upright as my work schedule cleared. It’s been a fun challenge to create content that communicates to a large audience what makes it such a special space. I’m most interested in being involved with queer media – whether in the wardrobe department, diversity consultation, or otherwise – so this role has been a great stepping stone.

Please tell us about Worn Ware / Queer Mall.
Worn Ware is a project that I started in fall 2018 as a result of my aforementioned daily thrift practice. It started as a space to resell amazing thrift finds at very affordable prices to friends via Instagram. More recently, I’ve also started painting and dying thrifted clothes as an art practice. Because I prefer the experience of selling in-person rather than shipping out an item and hoping that the person is satisfied/the fit is ok, I’ve held several pop-ups in my backyard and sold at the Rose Bowl Flea Market. I found that it was really hard to get a critical mass of folks in my community to show up for the pop-ups – no hard feelings! – and that the Rose Bowl clientele was largely tourists or fellow vintage sellers who planned to resell what they bought from me. Queer Mall was born in fall 2019 from this desire to create a space where my northeast LA queer, POC community could convene to shop for clothes, art, apothecary, food, wellness services, and beyond in a safe(r), accessible environment. The first event in December was so successful – over 300 folks attended and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive – that it will now be a quarterly event.

For me as a vendor, all day I was thinking “these are my people!!!” It was truly thrilling to finally connect clothes that I’d spent so much time finding and hauling around (I always stop by thrift stores when I travel, so items were found everywhere from New Mexico to New Hampshire) and/or altering through painting or dyeing, to people who appreciated them. As the Queer Mall event founder, I take seriously the responsibility of curating a diverse, compelling vendor lineup and creating space for both new and seasoned makers to sell alongside one another. Queer Mall is unique in that there is no vendor fee to participate, which is virtually unheard of. Eliminating this financial barrier for artists and makers really opens up who can participate, as well as the prices that vendors need to charge in order to profit. The idea is to have everything for sale be about $100 or less. EVERYBODY Gym donates their SIBLING event space for the day, and we ask attendees for a sliding scale donation at the entrance. Proceeds go towards supporting EVERYBODY’s Teacher Sponsorship initiative, which covers all fees for folks underrepresented in the fitness industry to become certified to teach and train at the gym. Vendors walk away with 100% of their profits, and hopefully also some new friends and customers!

In addition to organizing Queer Mall and my vintage purveying, altering, and selling labor, I also have an interview-based practice, which I describe as “a space to explore style, identity, joy, shame, safety, visibility, power and beyond through photo-based interviews with wearers & sellers of clothes, emphasis on highlighting queer babes & lovers of secondhand/vintage threads.” I love talking to people about clothes, and with queer folks in particular there is so much meaning to mine at the intersection of style and identity. I think it’s really important as a vintage seller (and person in the world) to be aware of structural oppression and the ways in which sizeism, cissexism, classism, ableism, ageism, and other factors are always present. My priority is always figuring out ways to push back against those forces in order to create a truly inclusive, welcoming shopping space.

Pricing:

• Queer Mall entrance fee $5-$20

Contact Info:

• Website: wornware.us
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/worn__ware/

Image Credit:
Isabel Osgood-Roach

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