Just a Modern Guy

Greetings from Colorful West Virginia – Postcard – Dexter Press – 1963

Our friends at Create West Virginia, in preparation for the Create WV Conference, Oct. 20-22, have invited bloggers across the state to highlight “Creative Communities Under Construction,” by demonstrating local examples of the “new economy” in West Virginia.

I’ll begin by saying I’m an accidental entrepreneur. By that I mean my business is an outgrowth of my passion and appreciation for mid-20th Century design and art. My avocation made the leap to a business through dabbling in online sales, primarily through auction sites like eBay, beginning in 2001. The period of dabbling only lasted a short time and, after deciding to make a very small investment to acquire items specifically to re-sell, the modern lady and I established Purple Moon Antiques on our kitchen table. It was from there we cleaned, photographed, described, packed and shipped small vintage collectibles and objects d’arte all sold online.

And sell we did. We tapped into a huge market and, as time grew on, we began to specialize more and more into the niche market of mid-century modern design where our hearts were in the first place. Spending weekends hunting items down at flea markets, estate sales and long evenings readying the items for sale and shipment we saw very early that we had discovered a way to translate our “eye” for great design into a modestly successful business. We were among the first eBay sellers to truly “brand” our listings with a logo and we provided top-rate items and service. Our repeat business was huge.

Soon running out of storage space, and wanting to diversify, we made the leap to a booth in an antique mall where we continued to specialize in 20th Century design and began dealing in larger items such as furniture. After about a year in one mall we then expanded to another mall and continued to grow the Internet business by establishing our own website in addition to the online auction sales.

The growth, at times, was overwhelming. Every item we sold at one time or another was drug through our home and boxes, bubble wrap and stuff were everywhere and that situation, coupled with the running between antique malls when we were not out looking for items, made us realize we needed to get everything in one place. That decision led to the opening of The Purple Moon at our first location on Lee Street in downtown Charleston.

This new space enabled us to showcase our items. We arranged furniture into groupings as they would be in a home and properly accessorized the grouping. We demonstrated how to use mid-century modern home furnishings to develop an overall style and began introducing more original art into our mix of merchandise. The modern lady and I were committed to creating a space which was warm, inviting, clean and offered top-quality merchandise.

We were unsure if the market for this type of design was large enough in the area to sustain a store but we were pleasantly surprised at the demand and the reception we received. In addition to local customers, we have found a strong base of “out-of-towners” who stop by whenever they are in the area.

After nearly three years at that location we were still growing and had a broader and even more focused vision of what we wanted our design gallery to be. This resulted in the move this past May to our present location at 906 Quarrier Street into a larger and more engaging space. The new location has proven to be a good one and we have been able to even better showcase our vintage items and open an area specifically for artwork. Dubbed the Over the Moon Gallery, this space is now allowing us to feature 20th Century art as well as show work from emerging local artists.

As participants in the Downtown Charleston ArtWalk we have been able to build relationships with other art-related retailers and galleries and have explored ways to better market our downtown. Our own marketing efforts include traditional advertising in national publications and through online advertising on local media sites. The development of this blog last year has been a boon to people’s awareness of The Purple Moon but also, and more importantly, the design history of the mid-century modern style. All of these efforts continue to be backed up through social network connections on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.

The commitment we have to Charleston and West Virginia is strong. We learned much in establishing our business and learn more everyday. The growth of The Purple Moon has been the result of alot of hard work, a commitment to top quality, vintage merchandise and a strong sense of good design. We understand we have to keep moving forward and evolving in order to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

We never forget that we first and foremost are collectors and approach our business with the discerning eye of a collector – for collectors are our customers and they make all of this possible.

The Purple Moon is proud to be a very small building block in the construction of West Virginia’s Creative Communities.