Q & A: Donna Smith, Bohemian Trading Company

There is no wasted space in Bohemian Trading Company, a consignment store located on South Main Street. The front wall is lined with designer handbags while upside down Barbie doll heads and beer caps outline the shoe rack.

On one of the round clothing racks, a linen clutch bearing the phrase ‘Green Minds Think Alike’ catches the eye. To the tune of Donna Summers’ “Hot Stuff”, the storeowner diligently steams articles of clothing behind the counter. Near the cash register, a purple Post-it note decorated with a cartoon face decrees, ‘Let Us Reuse-Gimme All Your Shopping Bags’.

Donna Smith, owner of Bohemian Trading Company, talked about how saving green and going green apply to today’s fashion.

Smith sat down with Planet Blacksburg for an interview recently. What follows is a selection of questions and answers from that interview.

Q: Where are you from originally and how did you end up in Blacksburg?

Smith: I was born in Baltimore, Md., and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1966. I grew up in Cleveland and left…in 1982 and moved here. My mother lived here and I came here.

Q: What were your motivations for getting involved with Bohemian Trading Company?

Smith: Shopaholic. I was a shopaholic and still am basically. My husband saw the ad in the newspaper that the friends of ours who owned the Bohemian Trading Company previously were selling it. We weren’t aware that they were selling it and he said this was a great shopping fix for me to cure my…habit, shopping. So…we checked into it and everything worked out fine, so I bought it from them.

Q: Have you owned your own business before and what if anything did you have to learn or do to be a successful business owner?

Smith: Yes, I have owned two in-house businesses, actually. One, I am a feng shui consultant. And then I also owned Art Surfaces, which was a business for faux finishing, residential and commercial. And what did I learn? Just everyone’s different and how to handle people in different ways.

Q: And being a feng shui consultant, did you decorate the store yourself?

Smith: Yes, I did.

Q: What is the ultimate mission of Bohemian Trading Company?

Smith: Recycling…secondhand clothing, hand-me-down clothing all are one thing. And it’s not going into the landfill.

Q: Your store has a wide variety of designer items. What’s your favorite designer that you carry in the store?

Smith: Purse-wise I like Coach. I like David Yurman jewelry. I guess that’s it. I don’t pick out one…I mix them together. I don’t have a favorite. But with purses it would be Coach.

Q: Where do you like to shop for yourself?

Smith: (laughs) Here at the store! I do actually because I spill stuff on myself and then I have to go over to the rack.

Q: If you were to splurge on one fashion item, what would it be and why?

Smith: For myself? A purse. Because a purse can make you stand out of the crowd without speaking. You could have a plastic bag on your body and then carry a nice purse and you would get ‘Wows’.

Q: Bohemian Trading Company seems to promote affordable fashion. Do you think bargain shopping or economical shopping has become the trend?

Smith: Oh yeah! When I travel, I go to consignment stores and I go to thrift stores. And I see that there are a lot more people…coming from different backgrounds. Everybody is there. They go in with their Prada purses and they go in with their shopping bags. So, there are just different people.

Q: Thrift and consignment stores seem to have dominated the shopping realm for younger consumers. What is your take on this trend? What type of customers to you receive?

Smith: Well, I have seen a lot more young people come in here especially…college aged because they just recently found out about me. The high school kids love me. And the older people because of the fact that not only do they want to save money but they are used to things like this.

Q: Has the current recession impacted your business either negatively or positively?

Smith: Negatively. Because of the fact that every time you looked in the paper it was don’t spend money, die rich. So, for like three months I was really, really down as far as high on my inventory, low on my income because of the fact that everyone was afraid to spend money. But then after all of the politics and everything kind of died down, I saw more spending coming in. And a lot of the cleaning out of the closets, I think the sun coming out makes you get spring fever. So, I see a lot more clothes coming in. It’s starting to pick up.

Q: Not only can you save a little green at Bohemian Trading Company but one of your slogans is ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’. Would you characterize your store as part of the Green Movement that is so popular today?

Smith: Oh, yeah!

Q: What do you do to help promote environmentalism and sustainability?

Smith: I don’t have any bags. All the bags that I use as far as if you can take goods out if you don’t want to carry them out, people have been donating them to me. They have been bringing me their own personal bags. It could be a Kroger bag, a Wal-Mart bag, a Goodwill bag, a Victoria’s Secret bag. I said that when I finished my plastic bags…that I would not buy any more. And I haven’t.

Q: What do you know about sustainable fashion?

Smith: Well, I read a lot of magazines. I purchased some items as far as accessories from the Atlanta market. Going there two to three times a year helps me keep up with the fashion. I wish that much more of the community were aware of the fashion. I am on some of my things at least a year…maybe two years ahead of this area. I try to keep close to California, Florida and areas like New York. I try to keep up on the fashion.

Q: What do you foresee as the Bohemian Trading Company’s future?

Smith: The number one place to shop! It’s a great location.