With its pink velvet damask sofa, mid-century record-player console and metal floor lamp shaped like a palm tree, Coco Cameo looks as if it’s been zapped in from the swinging ’60s.
That’s the idea, says owner Jessica Stanis, who opened the vintage fashion and vinyl boutique last December, hoping to sell retro duds while fostering an old-fashioned sense of community.
“I’d been collecting records and vintage clothing for a few years,” says the shopkeeper, who lives in the Hillwood neighborhood of Falls Church with her husband and their 4- and 7-year-old daughters. “I filled up a storage unit with vintage. Many of the clothes weren’t even in my size. It seemed like I needed to open a store.”
On the day of my visit, she’s wearing a circa-2000s Robert Cavalli dress in an earthy print, as a 1990s LP by Japanese jazz pianist Ryo Fukui moodily wafts from the stereo.
Stanis has retail in her blood: Her parents, George and Rita, ran Stanis Furniture stores in Merrifield and Chantilly from 1974 through 2007. She remembers serving cider at the family showrooms over the holidays and doing face-painting for kids during special events. “I grew up seeing a great example of entrepreneurship,” she says.
And yet, she initially didn’t envision herself as a business owner. She spent 16 years in management at Carine’s Bridal Atelier in Georgetown before deciding to strike out on her own.
“I’d been moving toward buying all of my clothes used, as a tiny thing I could do for the environment,” Stanis explains. “I noticed that every time I wore my thrifted pieces, I got a lot of compliments. It was fun!”
Coco Cameo manifests that joy. Tucked inside a low-slung 1964 office plex on West Broad Street (also home to TINT Makerspace and The Neighborhood Barbershop), it’s a place where old meets new. The moniker is a reference to a happy childhood memory—a family vacation in a Vermont hotel where staffers left cameo-shaped chocolates on the pillows. It’s also the name of the fictional “it girl,” a redhead with a passion for fashion, who stars in the boutique’s retro logo.
To create a hip and playful interior that matches the merch, Stanis tapped Silver Spring, Maryland, designer Shannon Claire. “I wanted a mood that would get people off their sofas and into my shop,” she says.
The designer’s cheeky response includes orange and pink striped wallpaper, leopard print chairs, fuchsia curtains and wood paneling. A throwback tiki bar serves as a checkout counter while mid-century furnishings—a brass bar cart, a pink circular shelf—display shoes and accessories. Claire describes it as a “vintage bubble that feels like a 1960s Palm Springs living room.”
For collectors, the boutique is a veritable time warp, stocking a curated mix of men’s and women’s clothing, shoes and bags from a range of eras. I spy a diaphanous peach 1930s evening gown, a circa-1970s men’s T-shirt airbrushed with a Trans Am, and a pair of black-and-white Manolo Blahnik lace-up heels from the early aughts that scream “Sex and the City.”
A smattering of small vintage housewares—“Mad Men”-esque cocktail shakers, hobnail white pottery, ceramic ashtrays—are provided by Nicole Nasiatka of Glass Fox Vintage. Stanis and Nasiatka have been friends since they were 16.
Stocking the store is a labor of love and a constant adventure. “I source things everywhere,” Stanis says. “If there’s a yard sale by the side of the road or a flea market, I pull the car over. I’ll go to big vintage clothing fairs. When I travel, I try to find great thrift stores or vintage places in other cities.”
On a recent trip to Miami, her fab finds included a fringed boho suede jacket and a slew of 1990s miniskirts.
Toward the back of the store, a wall of bookcases displays dozens of LPs for sale, from the The Smiths’ iconic 1986 album “The Queen is Dead” to Chappell Roan’s 2025 single “The Giver.” The audiophile nook is especially popular during monthly meetings of the Little City Vinyl Club, the Falls Church record lovers’ group Stanis founded in 2020.
“I love thinking about the past lives of these records and these clothes,” she says. “I hope the store makes people feel connected to the past, too.”
Washington, D.C. home and travel writer Jennifer Barger writes the Substack newsletter The Souvenirist about the intersection of retail and travel.
