22-02-2025
Local resale store is reopening under its original owner
WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL)— A long-time resale store in Wichita Falls is reopening thanks to the efforts of its original owner.
Back in 2002, Dodie Robey bought Upscale Resale to bring boutique style fashion to Wichita Falls on a budget. After selling the store years ago, she recently bought it back to keep it from becoming yet another Wichita Falls business to close its doors.
'There's no reason for another one to close,' Robey said. 'And it was something I had a passion for, and I loved it for so many years, and I just wanted to get back into it and build it back up to the great place it was when we owned it before.'
Upscale Resale is a store that focuses on contemporary boutique style fashion, but since it's secondhand, the normally expensive fashion is available for a much lower price.
'I love getting a good bargain, and so that's why I love resale. Because you can get really great things at really good prices,' Robey said.
Bargain hunting for clothes has become more common across the country as high-end fashion becomes more expensive. For many Americans, finding the fashion items they can afford, forces them to turn to secondhand stores like Upscale Resale, or Fashion Garage, a store co-owned by Janet Ehling and Connie Bennett.
'We're all about telling, showing people that you can wear vintage every day,' Ehling said.
Resale has become so popular that as of 2024, Capitol One reported approximately one-third of clothing and apparel purchased in the United States was secondhand. In coming years, predictions only have that number growing.
Connie Bennett believes high-fashion's wasteful tendencies are part of the reason many shoppers turn to secondhand stores.
'They see the waste and also the durability,' Bennett said. 'That vintage has been here for 25 plus years and it's still, some of the pieces look like they just are brand new.'
So, whether it's keeping the secondhand industry alive in Wichita Falls, or keeping another local business from shutting its doors, Robey and Upscale Resale are back.
'As long as the Lord gives me good health, I'm just going to keep on going, because I love to do it, and I believe that's what I've been called to do,' Robey said.
It looks like neither will be gone any time soon.
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