Enter the Whimsical World of Bliss Vintage

Rebecca Vicars, in a bright teal dress and purple gloves, stands in a colorful, crowded vintage clothing shop filled with patterned fabrics, hats, boas, and a wall with art behind her.

Rebecca Vicars, Bliss Vintage & Handmade

When Rebecca Vicars was a little girl in Kingsport, Tennessee, she dreamed of belonging to a world that felt and looked like Sesame Street. Her childhood was colorful: she spent days tinkering with scrap metal in her mechanic father’s garage, learning how to sew at her mother’s knee and searching for vintage finds with her aunt. By high school she was lugging her sewing machine to class and designing costumes for the theater department.

Today Vicars, known by her nickname Violet, is the proud owner of a little shop with a big personality at the corner of Bliss Street in Sunnyside, Queens—a childhood dream realized in ways that Jim Henson would surely appreciate. The aptly named Bliss Vintage & Handmade was born as a pop-up under the western Queens neighborhood’s landmark art deco arch, opposite the elevated 7 train, which is coincidentally designated in purple on the subway map. Its menagerie of locally made and sourced wares includes crochet gloves, small-batch Filipino hot sauce and, of course, vintage treasures, often rescued from fashionable New Yorkers.

“I try to keep the stories of the ladies with the pieces,” Vicars says. “All day I’m telling people, ‘This is from Cecilia. She was a performer. She lived on Central Park West. She loved leopard print, feathers, red leather and Bergdorf.’” One buying appointment particularly stood out: “I spent 10 hours in her closet. It was like Fran the Nanny’s closet,” she recalls.

A colorful display of children's books, with "A Magical Day in Sunnyside" featuring two girls on the cover in the center, surrounded by other brightly illustrated books.
Bliss Vintage & Handmade, a colorful, crowded shop filled with assorted books, toys, hats, trinkets, decorations, and various gift items displayed on shelves.

Curated with Care

Just don’t call Bliss Vintage a thrift store. Vicars has been sifting through estate sales since she was 12 years old. With her practiced eye, knowledge of fashion history and love of textiles, she often walks customers through the construction of a garment, noting that the quality of the construction and fabric are unlike the fast-fashion shops of today. Teaching people who are unfamiliar with the sustainability aspect of vintage is part of her mission for the shop.

Vicars has many means of procuring her stock in addition to private buying appointments; however, she doesn’t accept donations due to the small size of the store and her commitment to meticulously curating each piece, not only by year and brand but by story too. As Bliss Vintage has grown in popularity, her network of clients offers her tips for getting new items. Occasionally, bereaved New Yorkers looking for a home for their relatives’ possessions will invite her to look through their closets. Vicars keeps their stories and names attached as an homage.

“There’s something about helping people when they’re moving their loved one’s things on,” says Vicars. “It can be a really hard process, and I want to be of service.”

Vintage clothing is but one part of what makes this shop special to the neighborhood. Vicars also works closely with local artisans, sometimes even collaborating by recommending color palettes or textures she thinks her customers would like. Goods are displayed with a plaque that details the maker’s background, location and defining traits like “women-owned” or “not on Amazon” to encourage people to buy with intention.

“I wanted a place where I could trust that everything was thoughtfully sourced, where buying a gift for someone also means supporting a neighbor and, if possible, creating a local economy that allows people to pursue their dreams and shows them that their community will support them.”

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A person in a blue coat and striped beanie walks past "Bliss Vintage & Handmade" store carrying shopping bags. Colorful clothes and bags are displayed on racks outside the shop.

Take a Walk Down Bliss Street

Bliss Vintage’s permanent home is a cozy purple outpost on the cusp of the neighborhood’s Sunnyside Gardens historic district. While the shop is on the small side, Vicars’ fastidiously crafted displays make use of every nook. “Wherever you look, there’s another little world you can disappear into,” she says.

Its showstopping windows regularly slow down passersby who admire the scenes. (One of Vicars’ first jobs in New York City was designing the store displays at Bergdorf Goodman.) Some of her sidewalk dreamscapes percolate for years as she collects odds and ends before bringing them to life. Last year’s Valentine’s Day window was a neighborhood favorite: a cardboard scooter with vintage valentines spilling out of a bag. Friends and neighbors convinced Vicars to host a window reveal event for the holidays in 2023, and she was shocked at the turnout. This past holiday season, it was even bigger. Among her window plans for this year are a bird-themed tableau fashioned out of a collection of gifted feather hats.

Vicars sees her store as a functional piece of art that promotes connection and community. “Art connects us to each other and to ourselves,” she says. “Sometimes there’s this guy, I think he’s a plumber, and he’ll stop at the door but never comes in. He’s like, ‘I love what you do with your windows!’ It’s the best compliment.” The shop is partly in service to Vicars’ dream of creating a space that brings more creativity to the neighborhood while supporting her vision as a working artist in New York City. “It’s more important to me to inject that in a more egalitarian way where people get to have it in their daily lives,” she says.

A colorful display of Hudson soap bars arranged on a wicker shelf, surrounded by vibrant floral patterns and handwritten heart-shaped notes pinned to the blue wall behind.
Rebecca Vickers in a colorful sweater stands in a bright, cluttered store filled with clothes, toys, and accessories holding a sign that says "Bliss." The background is packed with vivid objects and vibrant decorations.

A Community of Creators

In the warmer months, customers are invited to enjoy a complimentary glass of something refreshing while sitting in the cafe chairs outside the shop. Rest there long enough and the ecosystem of this pocket of Sunnyside reveals itself, as regulars pop in for birthday cards, neighbors bring by their pups for treats and new clients file in, sent by the owner of the other vintage store in the neighborhood, Stray.

“The other business owners here really get it,” says Vicars. “If someone needs help finding something, we’ll refer them to another shop nearby. It’s all about keeping it local. There’s this understanding that if we uplift each other, it benefits the whole community.”

Vicars calls it a “microbusiness.” When Sunnyside Arts, an art supply retailer nearby, began selling sketchbooks, she discontinued hers. Stray and Bliss Vintage won’t carry the same brand of candles or greeting cards. Even within the store itself, Vicars makes sure that the artisans she features won’t be competing against each other.

Vicars dreams of expanding her space, creating even more room for community events and showcases while staying true to her vision. “This isn’t just a store,” she says. “It’s a way to show people that art and connection can change how we live, even in small ways.”

For more information, visit violetsvolition.com.

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