Vintage Meets Modern At Lucy Loves, A New Store Opened By Fairfax Funky Flea Co-Founder

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — To find Lucy Loves, the new vintage store in Old Town Fairfax, you'll need to navigate a narrow alleyway between the Executive Press and Eastwinds buildings on Main Street and climb a set of tiger-skin covered stairs to the second floor.

Inside, the shop is filled with an eclectic collection of old clothing on hangers, coffee cans, books, milk bottles, and porcelain figures interspersed with handmade pottery, jewelry, rugs, and other items created by local vendors.

"My sign out front says vintage handmade and modern, because it is a lot of small businesses selling handmade things," Lucy Loves owner Sharon Buttram told Patch in early July. "But we also have small businesses selling vintage items. I feel like the store is were vintage meets modern, where we're trying to make vintage items feel modern."

Lucy Loves grew out of Buttram's experience of co-founding the Fairfax Funkly Flea with Kathy Hackshaw. The Funky Flea draws about 50 vendors to an open area behind city hall one Saturday a month from April through November.

At Lucy Loves, 16 vendors display their work and Buttram pays them a commission for the items she sells.

With a background in banking and education, Buttram is relatively new to launching and running her own business.

"At the beginning of the pandemic, I left a corporate, nine-to-five job, because I was in education and the schools shut down," she said. "We were doing after-school enrichment. I was just kind of floating for a while, trying to figure out what's next for me and found something that I love to do."

Buttram and Hackshaw enjoyed shopping at estate and tag sales together and loved buying old things.

"We have way too much stuff between us," Buttram said. "And our kids are like, 'We don't want your stuff.' Like a lot of people in our position were like, 'Well, what are we going to do with all this stuff? We should try selling it.'"

In 2021, the two budding entrepreneurs took their idea to the City of Fairfax, who partnered them with the parks and recreation department to co-sponsor the flea market.

"It was like the perfect project to start to the pandemic, because it was outdoors and a lot of our vendors are people who left other jobs and started their own passion projects," Buttram said. "They started making jewelry and picking clothes and reselling things, so it was just the perfect time."

After two successful years running the Funky Flea, Buttram was approached by someone with the city who wanted to know if she were interested in opening a brick and mortar store, with the goal of bringing more retail to downtown Fairfax.

"Once they planted the seed, it was like, 'I think that's what I want to do,'" Buttram said. "I've met so many great vendors through the flea market and my networking through the flea market that I thought I could do that."

All that was left to do was to find the perfect spot for the new business, which Buttram with the help of a friend who owned a the second floor space at 10414 Main St.

"I think this is going to work out great, because it's small, it's manageable, as far as the risk I'm willing to take on in my business," she said. "But, if we found a bigger location, we can always grow into it."

Only one question remained to be answered: Who is Lucy?

"My grandmother," Buttram said. "My grandparents lived in Tennessee on a farm and they moved up to Baltimore during World War II to be part of the war effort, working in the steel mills. My grandmother worked in a factory in Baltimore, and then had a rooming house. ... They were just very down to earth, very thrifty, but also really hard working. I just wanted to pay homage to my grandmother."