Ground Floor: Antiques are in Cedar Rapids woman’s DNA

CEDAR RAPIDS — 'For better or worse, I am my father's daughter,' says Abigail Rawson, who recently opened a vintage clothing store in Czech Village called Rawson's Daughter.

'My father is an antique dealer,' Rawson said. 'I grew up doing antique shows with him and traveling around the country with my parents. It's all I ever knew.'

Rawson said her new shop has been a work in progress since she was 18. That's when she starting collecting vintage clothing and selling it to friends out of her closet.

'I always wanted to own a shop,' she said. 'I thought it would be a women's clothing shop, but I guess my parents' love of antiques trickled down to me.'

When she outgrew her closet, Rawson expanded her vintage clothing sales online to eBay and Etsy, as well as to flea markets and pop-up stores. She hadn't been planning to open a permanent retail location until she saw that an old bank building on a corner in Czech Village was for rent.

'It was very spontaneous,' she said. 'I saw the space on Saturday and signed the lease on Monday. That was the end of January. I spent three weeks here day and night.'

Rawson's Daughter opened on Valentine's Day.

A vintage clothing collector for the last decade, Rawson already had most of her inventory before she opened.

'I just had to make sense of the collection and curate the space,' she said.

Rawson said she got a lot of her inventory from estate sales or from people who bring their vintage clothing to her knowing she is a collector.

'My favorite part is hearing the history of the garment,' she said. 'It's especially fun buying from the individual who wore it, who can tell me how and where it was worn.'

Rawson's collection includes Civil War-era dresses (kept in storage to protect the fragile textiles) and Victorian ladies garments, but she said she is partial to post-World War II clothing from the 1940s and '50s.

'Women after the war were very feminine again,' she said. 'Skirts were fuller, heels were taller.'

In addition to vintage clothing, Rawson's Daughter sells vintage housewares, handmade jewelry and home decor, and what Rawson calls 'oddities' — which could be anything from skeletal reproductions to old shoe forms repurposed as bottle openers.

'It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I want people to walk in here and say, 'Wow, look at what this woman is selling.''

AT A GLANCE

Owner: Abigail Rawson

Business: Rawson's Daughter

Address: 99 16th Ave. SW, Cedar Rapids

Phone: (319) 560-8223

Email: rawsonsdaughter@gmail.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/rawsonsdaughter

Know a company or manager who has been in business for less than a year that would be ideal for 'Ground Floor'? Contact Francie Williamson at francie.williamson@thegazette.com