Traveling Vintage Expo Comes to Austin

By Ale de la Fuente

Reporting Texas

Time Travelers Vintage Expo stopped by the Palmer Events Center in Austin for a one-day-only event last Saturday, where featured vendors from all over the country sold vintage clothing and home goods.

“We have a little bit of everything,” owner Sarah Frick said. “It’s in the name ‘Time Travelers,’ so we have all decades.”

Based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Frick began with a small, 14-vendor pop-up market and since then has worked with hundreds of vendors, allowing some to quit their day jobs and buy vans to travel across the country to sell their goods.

“I still haven’t even processed,” she said. “People have completely changed their lives because of our show.’”

Sarah Vega, owner of Viva Vega Vintage, started collaborating with Time Travelers in 2022, driving two hours from Arkansas to Frick’s vintage show in Oklahoma.

“We had a phenomenal show,” Vega said. “We were hooked, and we’ve been on the circuit with them ever since.”

Along with her husband, Justin Callahan, she plans to follow Time Travelers all year and set up shop at all 16 expos on the tour.

“Each city has a different vibe and what they like,” she said. “Us being from Arkansas, we are bringing totally different stuff eight hours away that doesn’t normally have it.”

Kelsey Reynolds, owner of Evil Wicked Mean and Nasty, personalizes her clothing finds by chain-stitch embroidering designs onto the garments with her 1934 Cornely A sewing machine.

“I’ve only had this machine for about two or three years and have been bringing it around places stitching for people in person for about a year,” Reynolds said. “People really love it.”

Originally from Dallas, Texas, Reynolds worked at a tattoo shop for four years. Her flexible schedule allowed her to dedicate more time into building her company, doing custom commissions and attending vintage shows.

“I’m obsessed with it,” Reynolds said. “I can’t stop.”

Austin is the fifth destination out of 16 locations on the tour, and although the city is home to dozens of vintage shops, Frick enjoys going to cities that may not get to experience the niche vintage community.

“Austin obviously is a vintage mecca,” she said. “But we love going to those cities that maybe don’t get to shop vintage as much. So, those are always fun too, to kind of get to bring our show to people that don’t get to shop it as much.”

And although many factors weigh into planning these shows up to a year and a half in advance, Frick’s vintage seller background holds a soft spot for the vendors she hosts and the community she builds. 

“They become friends, they travel together,” she said. “They’re awesome. They make this show as magical as it is.”