In the hours before Lindsey Kupper opened Gilded Chaos last August, the space was filled with vintage clothing mostly hung, decorations mostly placed, and conviction in full force.
“I turned 40 and I said, ‘F it. It’s now or never,’” said Kupper. “‘Life’s going so fast—if I don’t do it now, I’m never going to do it.’”
Kupper had been collecting vintage clothing for two decades. She’d amassed a killer collection that, in recent years, honed in on Americana and workwear. It grew as she ran her old fashion blog, JuJouStyle.com. It grew as she held stylist positions for major brands, including Hallmark Cards, J.Hilburn, and Dr. Oz. And it grew as she ran Kulture on 39th, the former boutique thrift shop under the Red Racks umbrella. Now it was on counters and hung on racks in the spot that previously housed Mid Coast Modern in Westport.
This was always Kupper’s end goal.
“Fifty percent of this is the love of vintage and sharing it with the community,” she said, “and the other fifty percent is not having anyone tell me what to do. It is so important to me to have that freedom. I’d rather be broke trying something and feel free than be clocking in for a paycheck every day.”
As Kupper spoke, her dog, Maddie—a brown Australian shepherd with a fuzzy flank perfect for patting—snored at her feet. The chillest of Kupper’s five rescues, Maddie was once a recurring character on her mom’s fashion blog. Now, at 14, she was preparing to resume the role she held at Kulture on 39th: shop dog. Her current task was holding down the rug.
“It’s probably no surprise that pets are as important to me as vintage,” Kupper said. “So I really, really, really want to create a space where we can do pet adoptions all the time.”
By day’s end, Gilded Chaos was open.
The Next Month
On a Thursday afternoon in early September, new faces streamed in and out of Gilded Chaos. Kupper greeted each one and let them get lost in the racks. Maddie watched them from the floor, waiting to delight them upon discovery.
One visitor hadn’t been in since the space held Mills Record Company, now at 4045 Broadway. She came in because the folks across the street at Wonderland, another vintage clothing shop, sent her.
“It’s fantastic,” Kupper said. “Everybody is so helpful—and, we’re all just like, ‘Have you been into Wearhouse? Have you been into Wonderland? Did you pop in to Pop?’ We all definitely try to help each other. And that’s huge, instead of just being on your own.”
The visitor found a pair of overalls she’d have bought in a heartbeat, but they didn’t quite fit, so Kupper said she’d stay on the lookout for her.
Owning Gilded Chaos was helping slow life down for Kupper. And though there’d been trial and error, Kupper says she was able to pay rent after her first week and had made enough for the bills and then some. She was planning Gilded Chaos-branded merchandise—something with the big possum head in the shop’s logo.
The store’s aesthetic had flourished, too. Photos and posters and clocks covered the walls. A neon eight-ball glowed inside a vintage television, the visual centerpiece of the checkout counter. But the layout, designed to feel open and easy, had stayed largely the same.
“I mean, Maddie makes it difficult, but I’m not moving her,” she said.
Kupper, of course, was in talks with pet rescues about hosting adoption events.
The Westport Embrace
As winter approached and eventually set in, the embrace of Westport grew warmer. Gilded Chaos co-hosted a sewing class with Wonderland in November, and Kupper went on KCTV5 in October to promote the various vintage clothing shops in Westport.
“I love being part of Westport’s vintage row,” Kupper says. “We all really love and support each other. It’s always a little overwhelming when you first open a shop, but we’ve found our place and we’ve really been able to settle in.”
The shop has regulars now, and they post their jackets, sweaters, and overalls on Instagram. Kupper loves seeing the things she collected out in the wild. The next step is the possum-forward merchandise, which you can pre-order by direct message on Instagram.
On Dec. 14, Maddie turned 15 and celebrated her birthday at Gilded Chaos. Pleasant Hill Animal Shelter brought puppies in for adoption.