Community Highlights: Meet Andrea of Eighteen West Boutique & Vintage

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrea.

Hi Andrea, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Before this, I was a maker. I made chunky knit blankets and did events and markets for 4 years. I had thought about owning my own brick and mortar, but it was expensive. The next best thing felt like putting my items into stores dedicated to vendors. I quickly realized that this option was very expensive. I began to focus my energy into buying and selling vintage, which was another love of mine. During this period an opportunity fell into my lap for a brick and mortar store. It was exciting and terrifying and exactly what I needed. I had the opportunity to sell my vintage and host Make and Take classes for other small businesses. Being in that space helped me grown and mold the idea for the space I’m in today. I decided that not only did I want to share my love of vintage, but add Boutique clothing. This idea grew into adding other small businesses, but in a way that it benefited them without being a financial burden. When I moved into downtown Seville, I turned all my ideas into a reality. I have vintage items and boutique clothing and we house only small women owned businesses! Supporting the small women owned community was the dream I didn’t know I had until it became a reality.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Oh most definitely this has not been easy. If it was easy, everyone would do it! Moving into the space I’m in now was definitely a struggle. To rebrand and reinvent what this was to what it is. To grown and thrive. Like most small businesses some months are harder than others and it makes you wonder if what you’re doing is worth it in the end. Spoiler alert…it is!

We’ve been impressed with Eighteen West Boutique & Vintage, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We sell vintage wares, new boutique clothing and house women owned small businesses. We have 27 local women owned small businesses, and if it’s not something we get local we wholesale from other women owned small businesses across the country and one from Canada. In total we have 46 women owned small businesses, 27 of those are local and 5 of those are from here in Seville. Housing only women owned small businesses is the thing I am MOST proud of!

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Being a genuine person. Connecting with my customers in a way that makes them look forward to coming back in to chat. Treating my vendors with respect and kindness and rooting them on any way that I can.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: eighteen_west
• Facebook: Eighteen West Boutique & Vintage