New Wiscasset Way of life Store Goals to Present Merchandise Rooted in Craftsmanship

Owners Michael DePerno (left) and Andrew Fry stand behind the counter of the newest location of their clothes and vintage retailer, Plain Goods, at 54 Water St. in Wiscasset. DePerno and Fry stated their imaginative and prescient is rooted in timeless design, moral manufacturing, and respect for craftsmanship. (Christina Wallace picture)

A historic home in downtown Wiscasset is now the house of Plain Goods, a life-style retailer providing clothes, leather-based items, and vintage furnishings rooted in timeless design, moral manufacturing, and respect for craftsmanship.

Located at 54 Water St., the Wiscasset retailer is the second location for house owners Michael DePerno and Andrew Fry, seasonal residents of Waldoboro, who launched Plain Goods’ first location in New Preston, Conn., in 2015.

“Our store is a reflection of all the things that we care about and see value in things of beauty, but also functionality,” DePerno stated. “Quality is key, so our intention is to have people buy things they love and to keep these things for years to come.”

The store provides a curated mixture of males’s, ladies’s, and youngsters’s clothes, in addition to sneakers, luggage, vintage furnishings, and classic equipment. Many objects come from their personal label line, produced in small factories in Europe and by native craftspeople in Maine and past.

“We believe antiques have a story,” DePerno stated. “You can see it in the patina of things, in the quality of how things were made long ago. That sense of substance and timelessness is at the backbone of what we do.”

DePerno, having 35 years of expertise as a shopkeeper of shops in New York City and California, felt the energy of the model got here from his and Fry’s two distinct backgrounds.

“The merging of our two worlds and our two talents was about Andrew’s marketing background for fashion brands … and my experience with being a shopkeeper and with being an interior designer,” DePerno stated. “We very much are drawn to the same things and we have a very similar point of view about how we live, about how we dress, about quality. And so it was a very seamless and very easy partnership to create.”

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For the pair, having a model that emphasised high quality over consumerism was a necessary side of their enterprise enterprise. Fry stated that the relationships they’ve with completely different producers and native craftspeople are rooted in small, thought of manufacturing and have been cast by private experiences.

“A lot of these partnerships are rooted in longstanding, personal relationships in our respective fields,” Fry stated. “They are from comings and goings, either through the store or through friends.”

Since its inception, the Plain Goods model has been acknowledged in publications reminiscent of Vogue, Wall Street Journal Magazine, Architectural Digest, and extra.

DePerno and Fry stated they’ve been longtime guests to Maine and have not too long ago begun the method of restoring a saltwater farm in Waldoboro. They stated they had been drawn to Wiscasset’s character and neighborhood spirit. When they noticed that the historic downtown storefront was obtainable, they seized the chance.

“I think the community as a whole is very appealing,” Fry stated. “But also, there’s such a concentration of creative people that is compelling.”

DePerno and Fry stated they plan on increasing their personal label assortment, which can embrace the continuation of their very own sweater line from Scotland for the upcoming season, and bringing in additional knitwear and youngsters’s clothes from Italy.

Plain Goods is open 11 a.m. to five p.m. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and Sunday by likelihood or appointment. For extra info, name 882-1438 or go to plain-goods.com. Plain Goods may also be discovered on Instagram at @plaingoodsshop.