Photo courtesy of The Urban Gypsy Trunk Show Facebook event page.
Arts & Entertainment Editor, Savannah Rake, interviewed Elle Erickson — the “Urban Gypsy” — on her upcoming trunk show set to take place at 13 Bricks Clothing on May 1-3.
Savannah Rake (SR): Can you describe the idea behind Urban Gypsy for those who haven’t heard about it before?
Elle Erickson (EE): I guess the idea is to kind of provide a setting where shopping is fun. I’m trying to get people to step into just a positive, whimsical, fun atmosphere and have, well, just have kind of a shopping party. [I want to] give them a guilt-free shopping experience but then more. I like clothes, but really the clothes are just the excuse to get the people to me to share my other passions with them so we can be silly together. The clothes are kind of a side thing.
SR: So how did you come up with the idea?
EE: My friends actually took me to a thing, I don’t know I guess you call it a pop-up, a girl was doing in the Charlotte area. She had it in her house and it was kind of like the clothes and nothing else. Just these racks and racks of clothes and I was like “oh I can totally do this,” but also make a festival meets shopping kind of thing. It’s kind of what I do.
SR: So did you always love fashion?
EE: I really like fashion. I really like the hunt of it. I like finding fun pieces… more than I think I like fashion itself. It’s fun to find the pieces, I pick all of them out myself. I kind of was always doing that, but now that I do the trunk shows I can pick out everything I see, it doesn’t have to fit me which is nice.
SR: Is it just you, or do you have a “band of gypsies” following you around?
EE: [Laughs] well it’s just me going from city to city, but like I’ve collected the people along the way. So now when I’ve been somewhere a couple times, like say I’ve gone to Knoxville three or four times, I have a connection with a tarot card reader that I’ll call up. So I’m getting more and more of my gypsy crowd, my carnival; my group of people that I can call upon to join the circus with me. But as far as setting up and stuff, yeah it’s just me.
SR: Why Savannah? What’s making you choose to come to Savannah this time?
EE: Well, I’ve been there this’ll be — I think — my third or fourth visit to Savannah. I love, love Savannah. I love that ground. I was so impressed with the energy of the show, I think a lot of it was SCAD that brought in the funky people. It seemed like people really got it in Savannah and really appreciated it. Like my first show that I was there, I think it was my record show ever. I was just blown away by the appreciation and the styles I saw.
SR: You mentioned the prices, and I saw on your website that they’re around $4-$10. How are you able to keep them so low?
EE: I know, right. People keep telling me I should raise them so I can afford to buy organic food [large laugh]. I like to keep them low because I get them low and I feel like it makes it exciting for people. And they can have the experience of having guilt-free shopping. Most of the [items] are $4-$10 but there are more. So not everything is $4-$10. I think the average is $6.
SR: I really like the name “Urban Gypsy” so I’m really curious, how did you come up with that?
EE: Thank you. I am really into marketing and branding and coming up with ideas for businesses, and some of them I don’t actually follow through with. But I really like names and stuff, and for some reason that name was just in my head for maybe like four or five years before I even figured out what I was going to do with it. … I get to float around to different cities and it’s awesome to get to travel for my work and do something I really love.
The trunk show will include a chair massage, music, tarot card reading, henna art/body painting. The event will take place on Friday May 1 from 2-10p.m., Saturday May 2 from 12-8 p.m. and Sunday May 3 from 12-7p.m at 13 Bricks Clothing, on 633 East Broad St. For more information about The Urban Gypsy Trunk Show visit the Facebook event page, the official website or follow them on Instagram @urbangypsypopup.
