Enjoyable—not quick—style with a maximalist aesthetic at Launch

Alaisa Barone grew to become the proprietor of Sebastopol’s beloved Launch Recycled Clothing greater than a 12 months and a half in the past when she was simply 24 years outdated. She dropped at her new enterprise her love of style and thrifting and her skilled abilities as a seamstress.

“I had always wanted to thrift for a living and have some type of business, but never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that it would actually be able to happen—especially not a whole store,” Barone mentioned.

Launch was opened in 2002 by native recycled clothes entrepreneur Shana Barrett (lately of Lucky Roots Clothing). She bought it to Nica Rice, who ran it for a number of years till she transferred possession to Barone in January 2025. Each proprietor put their very own private stamp on the place.

Barone has taken the appear and feel of the shop in a brand new, bolder course.

“I love color, I love saturation. I just want people to see something interesting at every turn. I know everybody has different tastes, and I think that minimalism is kind of rearing its head a little bit right now, but I’m so the opposite. I’m a maximalist at heart.”

In phrases of the clothes, she mentioned, “I feel like it reflects a lot of my personal taste and my personal style. I love like really unique and weird and quirky clothing.” But the shop carries a complete vary of things, together with manufacturers like Anthropologie, Free People, J.Crew, and denim from Citizens of Humanity, Mother, and Paige. The aesthetic is youthful, colourful and joyful.

“I want this to be a store that anybody can go in and find something from men’s to women’s, to crazy festival wear to really nice high-quality basics. My focus has been, I think, less on brands and more so on expanding the demographic that I can reach.”

“For me, as a plus-size person, I’ve always found it really hard to find clothes at curated thrift stores. Like, there’s not like a ton of options just out there period for cute plus-size clothing that has nice quality fabrics. So that was a really big thing that I wanted to incorporate into the business model was a plus-size section for anybody of any size to be able to come in and find something that is super cute and unique that they’re not going to find somewhere else.”

That mentioned, a lot of the retailer will not be plus-sized. Barone mentioned she carries every part from extra-small to 4xl.

Right now, along with all of the blended racks of clothes, there’s a complete wall of gorgeous linen put on. As the season modifications, that’ll change to different attention-grabbing pure materials: silk and cashmere.

Where does she get her garments?

“Everywhere,” she mentioned with fun. “I buy from the public on weekends. So on Saturdays and Sundays, people can come in and bring in like two or three grocery-sized bags of clothes in good condition. We do have specific brands that we’re looking for, plus natural fibers are always good, and ’90s and Y2K vintage. When people ask if I take vintage, I tell them I take sexy vintage, like the really cute stuff that is timeless. So I get a portion of clothes from the public, and then I also source clothes from thrift stores all across Sonoma County.”

“I’ve always loved thrifting,” she mentioned. “I started thrifting with my dad when I was a kid, at the time when it wasn’t cool to get clothes secondhand from Goodwill.”

Barone, who grew up in Petaluma, mentioned she spent the primary 12 months getting on high of the enterprise a part of working a small enterprise. Now that that’s working easily, she has extra time to do what she actually loves, which incorporates upcycling (i.e., utilizing her stitching abilities to enhance or add a brand new inventive contact to a chunk of clothes). This is a part of what offers this retailer its handmade attraction.

She mentioned that typically she finds a phenomenal however broken merchandise when she’s thrifting — like a high-quality cashmere sweater with a gap in it. “Something that would otherwise probably go to the landfill because nobody’s gonna buy like a sweater with holes in it. So I take it, and I darn it and add flowers and make it look unique and fun, and then sell it here.”

Sometimes this upcycling is extra dramatic.

“Like I’ll take two items and make it one item,” she mentioned. “I’ve been really passionate about eliminating as much waste as possible, and using all the scraps that I accumulate to make garments and accents out of all this material that I have left over…I want to get a really nice collection of upcycled items to start a portion of the store for specifically upcycled and repaired garments.”

Barone, who has been stitching since she was a toddler, additionally does common alterations for purchasers. Before she acquired the shop, she ran her personal cellular alterations enterprise. She has a big again room, seen from the shop, that’s utterly devoted to alterations. Right now, she mentioned, her enterprise mannequin is two-thirds retail, one-third alterations.

“Eventually, I want to get to the point where I can be making garments from scratch and selling my own designs,” she mentioned.

In the meantime, in case you haven’t seen Launch in its latest iteration, it’s nicely price a go to. Barone’s pleasure is contagious.

You can discover Launch Recycled Clothing at 961 South Gravenstein Highway (throughout from Fircrest Market). She additionally has a really enjoyable and playful Instagram.