About Us

Last updated: January 2026

Our Story

Recovering Hipster started as a single overstuffed rolling rack outside a Capitol Hill garage sale and turned into a storefront on East Colfax Ave because Denver kept asking for more. The idea was simple and a little stubborn: instead of chasing trend cycles, go find the pieces that already survived one — the rayon florals from a closet in the '90s, the Fair Isle cardigan someone's grandfather actually wore skiing, the suede varsity jacket with a name stitched inside the collar. Every one of those pieces tells you something a factory tag never will.

We opened our doors on East Colfax because it's Denver's original strip for the unexpected — record shops next to diners next to whatever's happening that week. It felt like the right neighborhood for a shop built entirely on things that already have a history. From day one, the mission was never to be the biggest secondhand shop in Denver. It was to be the most honest one.

That honesty starts with how we source. We don't buy in bulk from bins sight unseen. Every garment that comes through our door — whether from an estate, a closet clear-out, or a trade with a regular customer — gets looked at, measured, and graded by hand before it's steamed, tagged, and hung. If a piece has a repaired seam, a small stain, or fading that changes how it should be worn, we say so in the listing. If it doesn't meet our bar, it doesn't make the rack, full stop.

Our Mission

We believe secondhand shopping works best when it's treated with the same care as buying new — real measurements instead of vague size labels, real condition notes instead of glamour-shot photography, and real garments instead of anonymous "vintage-style" reproductions. Every single item we sell is one-of-a-kind. When it's gone, it's gone, and that scarcity is the point: you're not buying a size, you're buying a specific object with its own thirty, forty, or sixty years of history.

We also believe in keeping good clothing in circulation instead of in a landfill. Rayon, wool, and heavyweight denim from decades ago were often built to outlast anything made today. Fast fashion has trained a lot of shoppers to expect a garment to fall apart after a season; the whole point of the racks at Recovering Hipster is proof that it doesn't have to be that way. Our job is just to get these pieces back onto somebody's body instead of letting them sit folded in a donation bin.

What We Carry

Our racks are organized around six categories, and we keep the range tight on purpose so every category stays curated rather than crowded:

• Vintage Dresses — 1960s–1990s rayon florals, velvet party pieces, and ditsy-print prairie midis, each measured and graded before it hits the rack.
• Vintage Knitwear — Fair Isle cardigans, cable-knit fishermans, and merino crewnecks with the density you stopped finding in new knits somewhere around 1995.
• Vintage Outerwear — wool overcoats, suede varsity bombers, and denim truckers built for a Denver winter and already broken in by someone else.
• Vintage Denim — high-rise straights, mom jeans, and hand-cut shorts, sorted by true measured waist, not by the number stamped inside forty years ago.
• Vintage Tees & Jerseys — faded single-stitch tees, ringers, and sports jerseys, soft from real wear and graded honestly for holes, fading, and print cracking.
• Vintage Skirts & Separates — corduroy A-lines, pleated midis, and matching sets that let you build a seventies silhouette without committing to a full dress.

We intentionally stick to garments. You won't find shoes, barware, candles, or framed prints here — just clothing, chosen and graded by people who actually wear it. Keeping the category list this focused means we can actually vouch for the condition of every single item, instead of spreading ourselves across housewares and hoping for the best.

Condition Grading & True Measurements

Because every piece is used and one-of-a-kind, sizing by the number on the original tag doesn't work — a "size 8" from 1975 fits nothing like a size 8 today, and manufacturers' size standards have shifted repeatedly across the decades we source from. Instead, we lay flat-measure every garment (chest, waist, hip, and length, as relevant) and publish those numbers directly in the listing alongside an honest condition grade, from gently worn with no visible flaws, to well-loved with visible character like fading or a professionally repaired seam. Our goal is that you know exactly what you're getting before it ships, sized for the body you actually have rather than a label from decades ago. If you're ever unsure how a garment will fit, email us your own measurements — we're happy to compare them against the piece before you buy.

Meet the Team

Recovering Hipster is run by a small crew of vintage-clothing obsessives who spend their days off doing exactly what they do at work — digging through estate sales, following leads on family collections, and steaming out sixty years of storage creases. We're not stylists dressing mannequins for a catalog; we're the people who actually wear this stuff, which is why fit, fabric weight, and honest condition matter as much to us as they do to you.

Community & Sustainability

Every garment we resell is one less garment manufactured from scratch, and one less garment sent to a landfill before its useful life is over. We see that as the quiet, practical version of sustainability — not a marketing claim, just the natural result of what a secondhand shop does well. We also work directly with Denver locals who bring pieces in to sell or trade, which keeps good clothing moving through the neighborhood instead of getting boxed up and forgotten. If you've got 1960s–1990s pieces gathering dust, reach out — we're always looking.

Our Promise to You

We stand behind every piece we sell. If a garment doesn't match its description or arrives in worse condition than graded, we'll make it right with a return or refund — see our Return Policy for details. We ship every order within 1–2 business days of purchase, offer free shipping on orders over $75, and answer every email within 1–2 business days, because a shop built entirely on trust only works if we're easy to reach and quick to respond.

Visit Us

Recovering Hipster is located at 2940 E Colfax Ave, Denver, CO 80206, right on East Colfax. Stop in to dig through the racks in person and try things on before you buy, or shop the exact same curated inventory online any time — what you see on the site is what's actually on the floor.

Contact Us

Questions about a piece, a fit, or an order? Reach us at support@recoveringhipster.us or (720) 639-6549. We're a small team and read every message ourselves.

Questions? Email support@recoveringhipster.us — we reply within 1–2 business days.