Boutiques offering ‘fashion on wheels’ roll through Oakland

Fashion on wheels put a spin on the typical fashion boutique as it rolled into Oakland this weekend.

After receiving a call from Only in Oakland, an organization designed to stimulate business and cultural events in the neighborhood, three business owners parked their fashion trucks on Oakland Avenue on Friday afternoon. They created their mobile shops, about the size of a recreational vehicle, to sell merchandise for customers on the go. All three mobile clothing stores started operating last summer.

The owners all sell clothing and accessories straight from the interior of their trucks. Mobile clothing stores, known as “fashion on wheels,” imitate the model of increasingly popular food trucks to travel around offering fashion. Originating in California about four or five years ago, fashion on wheels is beginning to appear in more locations around the country.

Jackee Ging, owner of Style Truck, lined racks of clothing along the sidewalk while the rest of the merchandise remained inside the truck. Her target customers are women and girls on the go, who are then able to walk into the truck and explore the products.

“It’s a new concept, so it’s like planting the seed,” Ging said of her new business.

Ging’s Style Truck boasts her company’s slogan, “Have Fashion, Will Travel.” Similar to an old-fashioned ice cream truck, the mobile shop is outlined with purple stripes, and the business logo is printed on the side with a cartoon purple truck carrying the business name in black, bold letters.

Ging, originally from the South Hills, stumbled upon the idea while reading a magazine about a year ago that featured fashion trucks and founded her fashion truck company this past July. Since then, she has been busy traveling to private parties, corporate events, charities and locations around Pittsburgh, such as the Strip District and Bloomfield.

Before she owned the truck, Ging brought retail racks to locations such as Jergel’s, a restaurant in Cranberry Township, and Treesdale, a residential community in Gibsonia, Pa. Last Christmas season, she gained more success and knowledge of the business at the holiday market in Market Square, a public space that hosts vendors Downtown.

With a background in marketing and advertising, she has worked with entrepreneurs in the past and visited a fashion truck in Boston, where she fell in love with the idea.

“I’m independent, so it’s nice to set your own schedule,” Ging said. With the support of friends, she has been running her business on her own. 

Another boutique on wheels, known as Broke Little Rich Girl, offers women’s clothing and accessories from New York, California and locally made labels. The truck was parked right on the curb with the back door open, allowing customers to walk into the boutique with the help of a few steps. 

“Some of the pieces you can’t find anywhere else,” Sam Lugo, the owner for this truck, said. 

Lugo’s truck was decorated with pink stripes that crisscrossed on each side of the truck and featured her logo, which includes the name of the business in black cursive against a pink background.

The inside of the truck, which formerly hosted bread, resembles a retail store with clothing hanging on racks, jewelry, purses and belts displayed on decorative chests. It even contains a dressing room located inside. Lugo puts small vases of flowers around to decorate the atmosphere.

Lugo began her business in about July as well. She continues to work part time at a financial institution, although she said she would not give details about the institution because of confidentiality issues. She first got the idea for Broke Little Rich Girl when she spotted a fashion truck in Chelsea, N.Y. She thought about opening up a boutique, but soon realized that she didn’t want to have a store that waited for the customers. She wanted to be the one going to them.  

“I want to do this,” Lugo, who is originally from New York, said when she saw the business for the first time. “It’s the best decision I’ve made.”

Lugo’s destinations, like those of Ging, are also mostly in Pittsburgh, including the intersection of 23rd Street and Penn Avenue in the Strip District, as well as home parties and festivals. She said Shadyside has proved successful and plans to expand into suburbs such as Cranberry.

Her main goal is to create awareness and expand with more trucks to cover more locations. So far, she’s only taken her business two or three hours outside of the city.

According to Lugo, being at a college campus also strengthened the business by bringing in a lot of students throughout the day.

“I got a lot of girls between classes,” said Lugo, who often sets up in Oakland.

Cailey Breneman has a slightly different idea in terms of her fashion business, known as Roadie.

Since she started Roadie last June, Cailey’s business has mostly been located in parking lots rather than on the streets. 

“This is actually the first time I’ve parked on the street,” said Breneman, who also runs her business on her own.

Breneman said she usually parks her truck in restaurant parking lots and makes a party out of it by bringing a DJ, although one did not accompany her when she stopped on Oakland Avenue. She frequents Bar Marco in the Strip District, where she offers women’s and men’s clothing and accessories. She also hopes to sell houseware in the future.  

Bayardstown Social Club in the Strip District is another one of her common locations.

“Shopping is boring, so I wanted it to be fun,” Breneman said, whose clothing line has more of a vintage twist to it. From vintage leather jackets to bohemian-looking dresses, her style choice runs unique to the others. 

Instead of the more modern styles the other trucks have to offer, Breneman offers clothing and accessories with distinct patterns and a more antique style. With a focus on the outside of the truck, she places her merchandise on tables in addition to using clothing racks and putting some products in baskets. 

Her goal is to start traveling on the road to more southern locations and eventually make it to the west coast.

She’s had the idea for years and wanted the flexibility of traveling, so the fashion truck business proved ideal. With an older and smaller RV that simply has an outline of the United States painted on the side, Breneman’s vintage style is reflected in more than just her merchandise.

“My grandma owned a vintage clothing store when I was young, so I grew up in this world,” she said.