Entertainment
New Thrift Store Ethical Bodies x the Good-ish Is for ‘Fat Bodies’
Four clothing enthusiasts came together to create the ultimate one-stop-vintage shop for bigger bodies.
Maura Hampton, Tricia Stoecklin, K Scott and Erica Hallmann created Ethical Bodies x the Good-ish (2218 South Jefferson Avenue) by combining their separate online, pop-up thrift stores into one brick and mortar in south St. Louis. It opens Saturday with a sizable grand opening celebration.
The store in the McKinley Heights neighborhood will focus primarily on clothing for bigger bodies, size large and up, but will still offer size-inclusive pop-ups.
“It is a very niche thing that we’re doing,” says Stoecklin. “I think it’s because we all live in fat bodies. We’ve all experienced that, no matter when that fatness came. Having a sense of community is one of the biggest things that I think we were wanting to create.”
The women want Ethical Bodies x the Good-ish to feel as though you were shopping with your best friend.
“I feel as if a lot of fat people don’t get that opportunity to be in a space where they’re at their friend’s house and they’re like, ‘Oh, can I borrow a shirt?’” Hampton adds. “We don’t get that opportunity. So when they come in here, I want people to be like, ‘Oh, cool, like, let me just try this on.’ I want them to feel like they’re just hanging with friends.”
The idea is to provide not only clothing but an enjoyable shopping experience for all those who have ever felt left out in the fashion industry — especially bigger-bodied individuals who have fallen victim to society’s idea of what plus-size clothing is.
“It’s just so amazing hearing people when they come in and telling us this is a space where they’re liberated, where they’re free to be themselves, where they walk in and know there’s going to be things that are going to fit them,” says Hallmann. “Things that are actually going to be attractive, not just this thing that gets marketed especially in first-run fashion so much of the time” — bulky, sack-like garments with floral sashes and a little cold shoulder action.
“Love cold shoulders, sometimes but my shoulders don’t need to be out all the time,” says Stoecklin. “There’s other cool parts of my body that are just as great.”
She adds, “I also think there’s trust here because it’s a shared lived experience. You look like me, so you understand what it’s like because it’s different. Garments are made differently, depending on being plus size or straight size, and you can tell when a garment is not made by a plus-size person because it feels like there’s just added fabric, and you can’t just do that because our proportions are different, the way our bodies move is different.”
click to enlarge PAULA TREDWAY Ethical Bodies x the Good-ish will celebrate a grand-opening celebration on Saturday, March 23, and Sunday, March 24, from noon to 4 p.m.
To ensure the ultimate shopping experience, Hampton, Stoecklin, Scott and Hallmann not only made sure the dressing room was tall and wide enough for people to comfortably move around, but they also installed a fan to keep guests cool while changing between outfits. There’s also lounging space with a funky, purple couch and ottomans if needed.
“I really hope that we can create a one-stop shop for people to be like, ‘Oh, I can get necklaces but then I also need the necklace extender,’ and then they don’t have to order it on Amazon,” explains Hampton. “They can get it here, they know this is where if you live in a larger body, if you come here and you can get the things that you need.”
They’ve also taken the time to make a universal size chart, meshing the two companies sizing together even while updating the vintage sizes to today’s.
“On the clothing tag it says a large, but we’ve measured it to our size chart and maybe it really measures to an extra large or a 2X, or it’s a medium and we’re like, ‘Get this out of here,’ or vintage medium might actually not be a medium but an XL,” Hampton explains.
The idea for the shared store began after the two pop-ups continuously saw each other at thrifting events and markets.
“Maura and I had sort of been at the same events and kept seeing each other in passing,” Hallmann says. “But I think the first time we really had a longer conversation was at Fast Lane Vintage Market, and I remember us talking about how we happen to be the only vendors that had inclusive sizing.”
Hampton launched Ethical Bodies four years ago online.
“It really stemmed from me going to pop-ups and never being able to find anything in my size and the love of thrifting and the love of the hunt,” Hampton says. “So, I had a stockpile of things in my closet that someone needed, but maybe were a little too big or a little too small. I had a friend start a shop during COVID and she kind of inspired me and the rest is history.”
She quickly brought in Stoecklin, whom she’d met six years ago at a blogger event.
“We were both doing the plus-size blogger fashion blogger thing for a really long time. I was like ‘Ooh, I got to know her,’” Hampton recalls. “And she’s been my best friend ever since then. And then we started doing pop-ups and then we just never looked back.”
As for Hellmann, she started the Good-ish in 2018.
“I had been thrifting, and it’s very similar, picking something that somebody has to have, even if it doesn’t fit me. After a lot of encouragement from different people in my life, being like, ‘You should make this a business, you should do this’ I finally did start selling and doing pop-ups.”
After meeting her partner, Scott, in 2021, the two set off on the business journey together.
“I went to our first ever May’s Night Market, and I was like, ‘I’m just gonna help out.’ But I ended up being like, ‘Oh, yeah, this is cool,’” Scott admits.
After being around the same events, they decided to team up to host the Big Body Bash at 2nd Shift Brewing last October, which turned out to be a huge success.
With that success still ringing, Hampton went on the hunt for a brick-and-mortar location — and found herself in one of the storefronts carved out of the historic former McKinley Theater.
“I had seen the space posted and was like, ‘Let’s just do a little drive by,’ and then I saw how big the space was.” Not being sure she could handle that much square footage on her own, she reached out to the Good-ish.
“We got the keys on February 15 and turned it around in a month,” Hallmann says.
The store is now stocked with vintage clothing, accessories and home goods, all carefully sourced from their families, friends, estate sales, other thrift stores or donations.
“I’ve also recently started dabbling in the consignment field,” Hampton says. “There’s a form attached to my Instagram that’s for donation or consignment. I think that’s going to help us keep it stocked.”
To celebrate, Ethical Bodies x the Good-ish will be hosting its grand opening Saturday, March 23, and Sunday, March 24, from noon. to 4 p.m. with art by Lu Ray, libations by Saint Louis Hop Shop, coffee from the Spilt Milk Cafe and tarot cards by Naa-Dodua on Saturday; and jewels by Kuzaa Jade, infused lemonades from We Make Delicious and beer tastings with 2nd Shift Brewery on Sunday.
Ethical Bodies x the Good-ish will be open Thursday and Friday from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, visit Ethical Bodies’s website and Instagram (@ethicalbodies), or visit the Good-ish’s website on Instagram (@thegoodish).
Email the author at [email protected]
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Saint Louis Art Museum will go back to the past this summer — with two fan favorites making encore presentations at its beloved Art Hill film series.Those films, Back to the Future and Meet Me in St. Louis, were voted on by fans. The sci-fi comedy classic will be screened on July 12 and the Judy Garland musical on July 19.Both programs begin at 6 p.m. with food trucks curated by Sauce Magazine. Parking is free and so is admission to the films, with seating on a first-come, first-served basis. People are invited to pack their own picnics if they prefer. The films begin each night at 9 p.m. Keep an eye on Saint Louis Art Museum’s Facebook, Instagram and slam.org for details in the case of inclement weather. But if the weather cooperates, you’ll want to plan to meet your fellow film fans in St. Louis — and make that the Saint Louis Art Museum while you’re at it. Subscribe to Riverfront Times newsletters.Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
My neighbor told me she plans to cut down her tree and my heart stopped. The tree in question is an enormous Japanese maple that covers her yard and spills into my own. In the spring, it splashes a rich red across my bathroom window, and the tree has become such an integral part of my home that I can barely imagine life without it. Besides, I am still smarting from the loss of the mimosa tree at the end of my block. The silky, pink blooms sprung to life each May and stuck around until August, perfectly complementing the mint green paint on the adjacent garage. It was cut down without fanfare last year. I imagine my neighbors enjoy the unobstructed space for their patio table and lawn chairs, but when I look at their yard, I only see what’s missing.
The prospect of losing the maple with Arbor Day just around the corner flooded my mind with memories of other trees that have touched my life. I grew up in a pecan-orchard-turned-subdivision in Arlington, Texas, where the tree branches reached across the road to form a green tunnel that shaded your car as you weaved through the neighborhood. Visitors commented, but I never noticed. I wasn’t what you would call “outdoorsy.” I was a suburban girl, more inclined towards a trip to the mall than a walk in the park. What I did notice were the grocery bags full of pecans that my family harvested each year from the tree in our front yard alone. My dad even had a contraption for picking up the nuts without bending over—imagine a slinky on a broomstick and you get the picture.
Sometimes, I was taken outdoors against my will. On a camping trip when I was eight, my friend’s mom invited us to play a game. She took us into a field, blindfolded us and introduced each of us to a tree that we were to learn by touch. She then brought us back to the field, restored our sight and let us loose to find our tree. For the rest of the trip, I smiled each time I saw “my” tree and brought home a sketchbook filled with its portraits.
Growing up didn’t do much for my love of nature, but I did have a favorite tree at my San Antonio university. The campus was known for its sprawling live oaks donated by the Sears, Roebuck and Company in 1960 and its Champion Mexican sycamore that stood 70 feet tall. The tree I loved was not so fancy. I don’t even know what kind it was, only that it sat in a concrete grid behind the dining hall among eight other nearly identical trees. But this one was so perfectly symmetrical that it delighted the eye and stood out among its peers. So devoted was I to this tree, I did a photo shoot with it when I graduated, back when that required a real camera and actual film.
In Southern California, I met the jacaranda. The bright lavender blooms line the streets of Los Angeles and Orange County in the spring and the fall. They always reminded me of that Robin Williams movie What Dreams May Come, the sad one in which he ventures into his wife’s paintings after her suicide. Subject matter aside, walking among jacarandas feels like walking into a painting, and when its flowers fall it looks like purple rain.
I once attended a funeral for a tree in San Francisco. I never knew the tree, but my neighbors did and were devastated by the loss. My husband mourned a different tree. Perhaps you remember it? The Keebler Elf Tree in Tower Grove Park had a burly trunk with a tiny door-like opening that beckoned to those who believe in magic. Its branches dipped low to the ground and swept up again, inviting intrepid readers to perch and lose themselves in other worlds. Once it was marked for destruction, children’s drawings appeared like talismans on the fence that surrounded it. All that love couldn’t save the tree. Its legacy lives on, though, commemorated on Schlafly beer cans. Like so many Saint Louisans, my husband still misses that tree. He says “losing a tree is like losing a friend.”
Today is Arbor Day, a day to celebrate and plant trees. The first U.S. Arbor Day took place in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1872. Citizens planted over one million trees. If we attempted that feat in St. Louis today, where would we put them? Would we confine the trees to our parks and the Missouri Botanical Garden? Or would we use them to shade our parking lots, schools and homes and give some life to the luxury apartments popping up like weeds with no landscaping in sight? What trees have made your life better and what trees are worth fighting for?
I can’t stop thinking about the Japanese maple. Perhaps I pay closer attention knowing its days are numbered, but I hate to think this is the last season I will see sun dappling through its leaves. In my neighbor’s defense, the tree takes up her entire yard. In the tree’s defense, it is so, so beautiful. I guess I’m a nature lover after all.
The RFT welcomes short essays on topics of local interest. Contact [email protected] if you’ve got something to say.
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St. Louis’ 21c Museum Hotel was named one of the “41 Best New Hotels in North America and Europe 2024” by Esquire last month.
21c Museum Hotel (1528 Locust Street) opened last year in Downtown West in the city’s old YMCA building. While nodding to the building’s past by keeping the gym’s flooring, a renovated iteration of the YMCA’s lap pool (now the Locust Street Athletic and Swim Club), keeping the wood paneling and more, the hotel offers luxurious rooms, art galleries, a top-notch bar and incredible, immersive art throughout.
In its article, Esquire says, “It changes the way you think about art, hotels, and, hell, St. Louis itself.”
click to enlarge 21c Museum Hotel St. Louis The second floor hosts a large gallery space that debuted with a group exhibition, Revival: Digging Into Yesterday, Planting Tomorrow, that will be on display through June of next year.
The item also talks about the restored basketball court art gallery, which features artists Kehinde Wiley, Esiri Erheriene-Essi and Simone Elizabeth Saunders, as well as 21c’s free 24/7 museum, the restaurant Idol Wolf and the way history shines throughout the hotel. “Touches throughout nod to St. Louis’s former glory, including a magnificent Renaissance Revival pool, while the life that thrums through the lobby bar points to the city’s promising future,” the writers say.All that and one of the second-least expensive pricepoint on the list? We’ll take more press like this, please!
For more information on the 21c Museum Hotel read the RFT’s “21c Museum Hotel Dazzles in St. Louis’ Old Downtown YMCA Building” or visit 21c’s website.
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