About The Owner:

As the owner and Manager of Vintage Frills, Jennifer Kelly has a plethora of retail experiences. Her love of retail was cultivated in a small Roseland Community resale store called The Sleep Shop where her mother worked and raised her from 12 years old. Jen would eventually grow to become a teenaged cashier in a family-run thrift store. She slowly worked her way up to fast fashion companies like Old Navy and Forever 21 but realized her passion was in luxury when she worked a Seasonal job at Coach. After years working various roles in operations, she ultimately landed her dream job at CHANEL. Unfortunately, the company had a bit of a glass ceiling, so she ended up leaving and searching for her “forever home” in other luxury retailers such as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, GUCCI and Tiffany & Co. While working at these million-dollar stores, she gained priceless skills and practices that are now being applied towards Vintage Frills. Jennifer left luxury retail in 2019 to work at Uber Headquarters as a Team Lead for Driver Escalations. In 2020, 70% of Uber staff was laid off via email and Zoom, including Jennifer. Afterwards she decided she would return to retail - but on her own terms. She spent her quarantine time creating a business plan for Vintage Frills. What started as a mobile shop (a pink short school bus known as The Vintage Fleet) became a brick and mortar when she discovered an empty storefront on N. Milwaukee, already perfectly separated into "cubbies" like her business plan mentioned. This storefront was used for outpatients as a medical procedure center and had different "rooms" built in. Jennifer saw this as her dream shop because she wanted "color-coordinated cubbies" to separate the vintage to create visual delight and shopping ease. Vintage Frills has since gone on to win "Best New Retro Shop" by Chicago Magazine for 2022, among other notable accolades. Today, Jennifer is using her knowledge in the fashion realm to scout out and curate unique vintage merchandise for Vintage Frills, which sees customers travel from far and wide to shop her affordable options in a fun, exciting atmosphere.