News & Events

Revolutionary Downtown
Wednesday, August 26, 2009

STEUBENVILLE - It's about art. It's about finding a good look that suits your personal sense of style. It's all about looking good on a budget.

Those themes run throughout Cara Monigold's new store, JourneWear, 141 N. Fourth St., next to Frank and Jerry's Appliance downtown. And talking to Monigold, JourneWear also is about a new downtown of small shops ready to serve new clientele.

Monigold, who grew up on state Route 213 and remembers shopping downtown as a child with her mother at places including Treasure Island and Denmarks, said she got the inspiration to open the store after living for awhile in Columbus.

JourneWear buys, sells and trades clothing for young men and women, with the target customer between the ages of 14 and 35 years old.

"When I lived in Columbus, you could go to stores where you could buy, sell or trade there," she said.

The concept is a little different from consignment. A customer can just come in to buy. Or if the customer has clothing to bring in, they stop by the store, and while Monigold evaluates the customer's clothing, the customer shops the store's racks for a new look. The customer can then sell their clothing to Monigold for 30 percent of the value in cash, or get 50 percent of the value in trade on the fashions they want to buy from JourneWear.

"This is huge on the West Coast, but there's nothing like it here," Monigold said.

She's a respiratory therapist by trade, continuing to work full time at Acuity Specialty Hospital at Trinity Medical Center East, but said she's thought about opening a business for the past five years or so. She recalled thinking about putting in a buy-sell-trade store downtown but was on the fence. Then, one day while downtown with her children, daughter Parker, 2, started going down Fourth Street, looking in the storefront windows.

"We looked at this store. And then, I read a story in the newspaper about the revitalization downtown. It was like the clouds opened and it was the right time to do it," she said. "The downtown buildings have amazing architecture. Look at the ceilings and the details on these buildings."

Monigold said she didn't think her store would work in a suburban center.

"I definitely thought that it belongs in an old, historic building," she said. "And to me, there is nothing like the sound of high-heeled shoes on a hardwood floor echoing off a high ceiling."

She and daughter Sierra, a sophomore at Steubenville High School, who comes into the store to work after school, describe the purpose of JourneWear as a place where clothes are recycled, repurposed and revalued. Sierra remakes T-shirts brought in by customers to change them into a new look. Her mother said that's the same concept that makes Urban Outfitters work, taking vintage looks and mixing them with modern looks to come up with unique styles.

"You should own your clothes instead of your style owning you," Monigold said.

The concept goes right down to the store furnishings. The garment racks are not new ones. Even the store mannequins were purchased from a used fixtures store in Pittsburgh, sanded down and painted gold. Monigold credits help from her family supporting her in opening the store. Her father Tom, a laid-off Severstal Wheeling employee, built the easels for displays in the store and did paint work and other jobs in getting the store prepared.

In the vintage glass display cases are accessories and jewelry, including items made by Monigold, an artist friend from Columbus and local artist Jen Adams of Tiltonsville.

Look to the walls and a visitor will see artwork from local artists and artists from the Columbus area. Monigold said interested artists can bring in their works for review and if Monigold determines they fit the store's mission of new, unique and different, the artwork will be hung and put up for sale with a small commission fee to the store if the artwork is sold.

Monigold expresses a belief that her shop, as well as other recently opened stores downtown, represent the new downtown, a place of small shops that offer something unique.

"I'm hoping to be part of a mini-revolution down here. I hope we can develop a cool shopping area that attracts younger men and women," she said. "Downtown is not scary. It is not what people think it is. It is interesting. And with my store and the children's consignment shop and the book store that have opened and the coffee shop that is coming and the hot dog shop, we have the beginnings of a cool little shopping district.

"We have three main vessels to get here, Routes 7, 22 and Route 2. Downtown is unique in that sense. There are about 14 small colleges within 40 miles of here," she said. "And college kids don't have the money to shop for new fashions. They can recycle their clothing here, get a new outfit that fits their style and still have money in their pocket. That's also good for families with children."

JourneWear is open from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 1 p.m to 5 p.m. Saturdays. The store is closed Sundays and Mondays.

For information, call JourneWear at (740) 282-6303.

(Giannamore can be contacted at pgiannamore@heraldstaronline.com.)