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Stan Williams has always seemed attracted to cultures and places that seemed like a world away.
Like beginning his study of French in sixth grade, a study that lasted until he graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He now makes himself read a book in French every several months and considers it priority to visit France each year.
Like falling in love with items that have had two or three previous owners, his favorite being a Christmas tree made entirely of 1940s vintage jewelry, complete with lights, that he leaves up in his Manhattan, N.Y., apartment year round.
Or, his love for amusement parks and roller coasters.
And, moving from Missouri, where he’d lived his entire life, and moving to New York in pursuit of a journalism career.
Williams, 44, is a 1983 Truman High School graduate who recently published “The Find: The Housing Works Book of Decorating With Thrift Shop Treasures, Flea Market Objects, and Vintage Details” a book filled with glossy photographs and anecdotes of designers and stores across the United States who decorated their spaces with thrift shop, flea market and vintage items.
Flip to pages 156 and 157, and local residents will find a special treat. Luticia Clementine’s, a home-design store on the Independence Square, is featured. At Sharleen Reeder’s store, in business since 2003, Williams will sign copies of “The Find” from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday.
Growing up in Independence, Williams attended estate sales with his grandmother, who purchased “mystery boxes” filled with unknown items for $5 – or maybe even less, Williams said. They would then dig through the boxes, searching for treasures like 24-karat gold-trimmed plates. It’s just stuff to some while it’s treasures to others: a ceramic dog, a funny throw, board games, puzzles with all pieces still intact. “When I went off to university, pretty much all of my utensils came from garage sales. We picked out the best of the worst-looking knives, the pots that didn’t looked too burned,” Williams said. “It was more of the thrill of finding something that seemed luxurious, something that seemed glittery or sparkling or different.”
During the early 1980s and the post-punk era, Williams dressed in all-black, “very severe,” with his winter coats purchased for $1 at thrift stores. He wore $2 combat boots, and 25-cent sweaters completed his dark attire. Believe it or not, he said, Williams had “masses and masses of hair” that he styled really big. “Eraser-head hair,” he called it.
Stan Williams has always seemed attracted to cultures and places that seemed like a world away.
Like beginning his study of French in sixth grade, a study that lasted until he graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He now makes himself read a book in French every several months and considers it priority to visit France each year.
Like falling in love with items that have had two or three previous owners, his favorite being a Christmas tree made entirely of 1940s vintage jewelry, complete with lights, that he leaves up in his Manhattan, N.Y., apartment year round.
Or, his love for amusement parks and roller coasters.
And, moving from Missouri, where he’d lived his entire life, and moving to New York in pursuit of a journalism career.
Williams, 44, is a 1983 Truman High School graduate who recently published “The Find: The Housing Works Book of Decorating With Thrift Shop Treasures, Flea Market Objects, and Vintage Details” a book filled with glossy photographs and anecdotes of designers and stores across the United States who decorated their spaces with thrift shop, flea market and vintage items.
Flip to pages 156 and 157, and local residents will find a special treat. Luticia Clementine’s, a home-design store on the Independence Square, is featured. At Sharleen Reeder’s store, in business since 2003, Williams will sign copies of “The Find” from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday.
Growing up in Independence, Williams attended estate sales with his grandmother, who purchased “mystery boxes” filled with unknown items for $5 – or maybe even less, Williams said. They would then dig through the boxes, searching for treasures like 24-karat gold-trimmed plates. It’s just stuff to some while it’s treasures to others: a ceramic dog, a funny throw, board games, puzzles with all pieces still intact. “When I went off to university, pretty much all of my utensils came from garage sales. We picked out the best of the worst-looking knives, the pots that didn’t looked too burned,” Williams said. “It was more of the thrill of finding something that seemed luxurious, something that seemed glittery or sparkling or different.”
During the early 1980s and the post-punk era, Williams dressed in all-black, “very severe,” with his winter coats purchased for $1 at thrift stores. He wore $2 combat boots, and 25-cent sweaters completed his dark attire. Believe it or not, he said, Williams had “masses and masses of hair” that he styled really big. “Eraser-head hair,” he called it.
He went to visit a good friend and his girlfriend in New York in 1987. His parents had bought his plane ticket to Manhattan as his college graduation present. It was a fluke, Williams said, but he stayed.
There was no time to be scared, as the young journalist – without money – got a job writing a weekly column about pharmaceuticals for a chemical newspaper, as well as working full-time in a bookstore. Ron Clemons, Williams’ journalism teacher at Truman High School, inspired Williams’ career in journalism, as well as thinking about the world outside of Independence and Kansas City.
With few financial resources, Williams’ weekly treat was shopping at flea markets. Twenty years later, Williams left his job as editorial fashion director at Maxim magazine and partnered with Housing Works to publish “The Find.” With seven Housing Works thrift shops locations, the upscale charity store earns $10 million annually for homeless and low-income people living with HIV and AIDS.
“The goal of the book was I didn’t want it to be preachy. I wanted people to go into atmospheres and feel like they were really there – like the floors were creaking underneath their feet and they were experiencing the same thing that people would experience if they were there live,” he said. “The beautiful thing about the book was that not one person said ‘No.’ I have to be honest; it was kind of this magical thing, the way it all came together.”
Williams’ dedicated “The Find” to his parents, Jean and Jerry, thanking his mother for teaching him and his sister how to pour and paint candles; sew simple creations and create extravagant Christmas ornaments with beads and Styrofoam. His father, Stan writes, proved that a little paint or varnish is all a piece of tired furniture needs to look brand new.
“He’s always been real creative and imaginative. The wheels are always turning in Stan’s mind, and he’s always thinking of something,” Jerry Williams said Wednesday afternoon in his Independence home. “He took a gamble quitting his job and writing the book, but it was worth it because it was what he wanted to do. We’ve always encouraged our children to try whatever they’ve wanted to do because if you try and fail, at least you know.”
Thrift shopping toolkit
Thrift and vintage shopping requires a toolkit, according to Stan Williams, Independence native and author of the new book “The Find.” Consumers should keep these four items in handy as they make their way through flea markets, thrift stores and vintage shops in search of “the find”:
- Tape measure. This allows customers to measure furniture and other large potential purchases before hauling their home, only to find out they won’t fit in their living spaces.
- A camera. Photographs allow buyers to send digital snapshots to friends, family or decorators for their advice before making the purchase.
- Dry dust wipes. These allow customers to look at the true beauty of furniture or other finds.
- A design notebook, filled with budgets, wish lists, fabric swatches and other creative inspirations for future shopping trips.
Source: “The Find”
