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Meet Ani Trejo Barrington of Two Wolves Vintage

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Ani Trejo Barrington.

Ani, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was 14 when my obsession with thrifting began. At the time, living in San Antonio, the focus was on t-shirts, old school Reeboks and saving money. I didn’t realize that I was laying a foundation for a sustainable, affordable lifestyle, much less a small business. In college, I was without a solid thrift scene in the college town I lived in and with the closest vintage shops being in Austin, vintage felt out of reach and expensive. I started working in retail and wearing clothes from outlet shops and Target that were cheaply made and inexpensive. It was one of the few times in my life where I look back at old photos of myself and think how the person in those photos doesn’t accurately represent who I was and certainly not who I am now. It wasn’t until I got to Dallas for grad school that I was able to engage with the scene again and experienced some of the best thrifting of my life. I started flipping high end brand items and running a fashion blog made up of thrifted clothing. Once I finished grad school, I jumped into a stable job that was going to lead me to a stable career, but my partner and I were both unhappy in the city. We found that we were happiest when we were in Colorado and when the opportunity arose for him to go remote, we made our way here as fast as we could. I left behind a stable career and within four months of living here, I got pregnant, couldn’t find a job and struggled with what was here for me. The mountains weren’t enough and after having my child, I struggled with postpartum depression and the sense of losing myself altogether. My cousin, Vanessa, had moved from Texas just weeks before my son was born and she saw how much I was struggling. One day after spending hours full of honest conversation and tears, I told her I needed an outlet so badly and we started to dream up a vintage business. After weeks of business meetings and photoshoots, we started an Etsy page and an Instagram. Within a few months of the start of the business, my family and I decided to take a three month trip in our travel trailer. We had always toyed with the idea of doing something adventurous like this and the time finally made sense. We traveled to 8 states, six national parks and another country (Canada), and I built up an incredible stockpile of vintage clothing at every stop we took. By the time I arrived back in Colorado, I was ready to level up. I applied for the Womxn of the Future markets, held by Stephanie Yu and Jenny Bazetta (two of my favorite humans) and joined a co-op that was just launching thanks to our shop owner Peri Bolts. With these two connections, our baby business became a full blown angsty teenager, ready to liberate themselves and others from the shackles of fast fashion and join the ranks of womxn who were ready to make a change in this city. The constant throughout this process has been the support of womxn Vanessa, who pushed me to take this on in the first place, but additionally, people like Stephanie of Mae Green Vintage who in most worlds would be seen as competition, were the first to make sure I was applying for Denver markets like Old School Cool & Bonfire. All of these womxn have become a trusted community and I know that the business wouldn’t be what it was without them. In the process, I’ve found that having a space in a storefront and markets are where I get the most energy because I love making connections with people and I love seeing pieces find their match. What started as an outlet has become my greatest passion and I am humbled to be in the growth process with so many phenomenal humans who continually champion one another.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
One of the greatest struggles have come from my attempt to balance being a stay at home mom while trying to run this business. My attention could never be laser focused in the way that I was used to giving it all. I struggled with guilt for wanting to work while taking care of him. The amount of difficult conversations between myself, my partner, my cousin started to mount as I was trying to navigate what I could handle. I hadn’t gotten to a point where it made sense financially to put my child in daycare until this summer to really give myself the chance to see the business flourish with my child in part time day care. We’re only a month in, but I already feel a weight lifted because I’m able to focus my attention fully on the business while he is away and then focus fully on him when we’re together. The second greatest struggle was watching my cousin Vanessa struggle with her health. She has battled Lupus since she was a teenager and I have watched her warrior through it. She and I are so much more than cousins. We are sisters. It’s why we started the business together. We knew we could trust one another, but when things started to intensify with Two Wolves, her illness also began to intensify. When she had to travel back to Texas, after months of not feeling right, we anticipated that she wasn’t doing well, but it was so much worse than we knew. She wasn’t able to come back to Colorado for months and for those months, I was so sad, so lonely and so lost without her presence. All of 2019 has felt like an uphill battle for personal reasons and because of Nessa’s health. Thankfully, she is back now but isn’t at the same level of energy or health that either of us are used to. She is still able to help with the business when she can and we have had to navigate that balance, but more than anything, I’m just so happy to be back in the same city as her where we can hold each other up and make sure to love each other well.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Two Wolves Vintage – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We are best known for carrying women’s vintage clothing that is size inclusive and affordable. Nessa and I are entirely different body types and we wanted to sell clothing that represented those different body types. Most vintage seems to be made exclusively for a size 25 waist, but that’s not true. There is just more searching required to look for clothing that fit a myriad of body types. Affordability is incredibly important to us. We take into account the time that we take to a source, clean and mend clothing and then price it. Growing up, vintage always felt unattainable because of the way that vintage shops priced the clothing so high. For everyday clothing, especially, we want people to feel like they can afford our clothing. 90% of our clothing is priced this way and about 10% is priced higher due to their rarity or handmade quality.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We want to continue to grow in influence as we both have a passion for writing and inspiring others. We recognize that we sell vintage, but more than that, we want to be a part of a larger shift in peoples perspective as they come into the knowledge that buying second hand purchases are better for the environment and better for small businesses. We will continue to do markets and root ourselves deeply at Eclectic Co. Where we find that we are best connected with our customer. We are excited to continue dreaming up what the next level is for us as we grow.

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Image Credit:
Tiffany Kirstie Photography

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