Cream Vintage a Designer Consignment Shop in Newburgh

 

Cream Vintage, a curated vintage and consignment shop located in the heart of the city of Newburgh, N.Y.

 

Amal Ishak is no stranger to retail success.

 

Her shop, Cream Newburgh, is widely recognized as one of the most successful retail shops to have recently opened in the Hudson Valley with an established, stylish presence on Liberty Street, in Newburgh.

 

Amal’s success there is owed to her incredible sense of style and an eye for the latest trend.

 

She takes this talent and as a buyer, Amal heads to wholesale showrooms on the east and west coasts scooping up the hottest outfits and dresses for every season which she then brings back to Liberty Street.

 

Customers find the latest gorgeous party dress, classy cocktail dresses, and special occasion dresses.

 

Her Instagram feed features Amal and her staff in perfect head-turning looks, such as curve-hugging women’s jeans, adorable jumpsuits, cute rompers, and fun tops.  The outfits are fabulous and affordable and her huge following on Instagram often simply places orders online.

Opportunity in Newburgh

 

Liberty Street in Newburgh offers the kind of charming 19th-century storefront retail spaces once upon a time found all over Manhattan’s Upper East and West Side and Village years ago and in countless upscale towns like Ridgewood, N.J. and Chappaqua, N.Y.

 

These chic, affordable neighborhood spots where the owner knew you and your style offered just the right outfit for every occasion, be it an office event, a wedding, a night out with friends.

 

Skyrocketing rents, however, put many of these places out of business.

 

Inspired by a dinner in Newburgh at The Liberty Street Bistro (located a street over from Cream, opposite Washington’s Headquarters) Amal fell in love with, consecutively, the restaurant, its location on Liberty Street, and the city of Newburgh.

 

She had to be there and so the rest is history: she came, she saw, she most definitely conquered.

 

Here’s the thing, though, running a successful retail shop that’s enjoying strong growth both in-store and online would probably be enough for most, but not Amal.

 

Instead, she discovered another opportunity as she worked with her clients.

 

Amal Ishak models an animal print romper featured at her second Newburgh store, Cream Vintage, an on-trend consignment shop

Customers wanted Vintage treasures

 

“Customers would ask me ‘where’s a vintage store around the area?’ And I know a lot of people would go to Beacon for vintage stores so I was like, ‘you want a vintage store?’ I’ll give it to you this side of the river.” She recently explained.

 

But, when you think of a typical thrift store, you might think kinda musty, a little funky? Not at a shop that Amal is running.

 

She envisioned a trendy consignment shop with a boutique feel offering top-notch customer experience, and a wide range of merchandise, both at the very high end as well as at lower price points.

 

Cream Vintage is a consignment shop that offers items from $9.99 to $1,500 and does so in order to attract a wide range of customers and in order to give everyone an opportunity to own fun pieces.

 

Exterior view Cream Vintage on Liberty Street in Newburgh’s East End Historic District

Shoppers can find shirts for $9, cool sweaters for $10, amazing jackets for $40 all displayed next to a Stella McCartney bag for $500, a pair Christian Louboutin for $700, and a Louis Vuitton bag for $1500.

 

Sourcing Vintage Merchandise

 

The hunt

 

Amal: “So, the vintage? I hunt for it. We have places that are basically vintage wholesalers that we go to, and it’s an all-day affair. I usually take the girls (her staff: Annie McCurdy and Morgan Fracasse) and we all pick out whatever we like, and then we meet up and go through everything we like, and buy it and we bring it into to the store.

 

About consignment pieces

 

“And, the consignment – a lot of our customers bring us their stuff. And we do the same thing. We inspect it, we go through it. Even for the vintage, I want it to be trendy.”

 

“It has to be something that is in season, something that is like…well if nobody’s going to wear it, I am not going to get it, just because it’s vintage. If you can’t wear it, and it’s not cool, I don’t want it.

 

“But, we also try to be open-minded. Everybody has different tastes,” she notes.

 

An FIT graduate  helps oversee the designer consignment shop

 

Annie McCurdy is Amal’s person, her right hand at Cream Vintage.

 

When Amal got the idea for the consignment shop and decided to run with it she got it up and running in short order, with lots of help from Annie who has a passion for vintage clothing.

 

We wondered, did FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) which Annie attended shape her decision to work at Cream Vintage.

 

Annie responded: “Definitely, I feel comfortable and qualified to sell these higher-end goods because I spent so much time learning about the construction, and value, of designer goods.

 

“There is a difference between them and fast fashion for example and going to fashion design school got me really familiar with the brands.”

Annie McCurdy studies Hermes’ Iconic Orange Boxes and vintage Hermes scarves which decorate the display case at Cream Vintage and Consignment NBNY

“When it comes to like pricing – I’ll research. I’ll look up how much an item goes for, the condition, and if it’s seasonal. We like to accept things that are seasonal.

 

“I feel very confident and comfortable on cost. If people are, like, why does this cost this much, I can say, well I can look up how much it retails for, and then I explain this was handmade in the mountains of Italy. I go in depth if it’s necessary.

 

“I grew up being a thrifter. So, I was always digging around The Salvation Army, always at the Goodwill, just to see what gems I could find.” Annie recounted.

 

The environmental angle of thrifting

 

Annie believes that vintage and consignment shopping has a solid future because she thinks consumers are becoming more conscious of their spending and conscious of being less wasteful.

 

By buying consignment, the consumer gives that garment a second life, rather than putting it in a landfill.

 

This, she believes, explains why consignment is on the rise, and why vintage shopping has been having a boom. She likens it to a treasure hunt.

 

Annie also likes to see old styles coming back and sees an endless cycle where trends resurface styles, often interpreted in a new way, giving further life to garments.

 

We wanted to know where shoppers who come into the store are coming from?

 

“People are coming from all over! There’s a lot of people from Newburgh, Marlboro, Highland Falls, Salisbury Mills. Monroe. Pretty much everyone who’s on our side of the river, and east, who find out about us. We put the word out and people will come lengths to shop here, it’s really cool,” she said.

 

How can I consign?

 

For those looking to consign, Annie outlined the process:

 

“We prefer to set up appointments usually on Wednesdays, which is the day we set aside for consignments. And, you can send us an email or a DM on Instagram, and you just let us know when you want to come by, and we can have you come in and we look over your stuff.

 

“We will give you a time slot, or there’s a range of two hours for you to come in, and we’ll take a look at your stuff. If we’re interested, we’ll have you fill out a form, which explains our process, and we get your signature.

 

“It’s a 50/50 split unless you want to use in-store credit, then you get 60% of what is sold,” she explained.

 

Annie described a very personalized experience. If you are interested in consigning you may contact Cream Vintage and Consignment NBNY at creamvintagenbny@gmail.com.