BJ Alumbaugh combines art experience with love for mid-century design at Restrospect
If you’ve been to Happy Holler anytime in the last five years, hopefully you’ve stopped by Retrospect. The storefront is hard to miss, with enormous colorful window lettering reading “Vintage, Collectibles, Furniture … “ and a collection of fun chairs and signage being sported on the front sidewalk.
BJ Alumbaugh started selling mid-century furniture years ago in a shared booth at Retrospect as a side effort to his art and design career. After years of mentorship from former owner Tree Griffin and fellow shop vendors, Alumbaugh has taken over the ownership of Retrospect and is excited for the new challenges ahead.
“Tree has built an amazing business and shop here,” he says. “We’re definitely keeping the name. I hope to build on the successful elements of the store. Like the eclectic nature – that’s a valuable component. Everyone here is a little bit different. Everyone brings their own clientele, and those people might discover something they didn’t know they needed in another vendor’s collection.”
Vintage shops are one of the last few places where you can go shopping for one thing and leave with something else you didn’t expect. Most new boutiques and nostalgia shops are heavily curated, but the variety you can encounter at Retrospect is unlike most other stores.
Retrospect is a well-known shop in the area, but Alumbaugh tells me, “We still have a lot of people that it’s their first time coming in. Happy Holler is really growing, lots of businesses coming in. It’s sort of an extension of downtown moving outward.”
Though his personal style leans toward mid-century design and nostalgic elements from his childhood, Alumbaugh expects to maintain the eclectic mix for which Retrospect is known. “That’s helped inform me as to what’s desirable, especially outside of my style,” he says. “I can look into people’s booths and know how that person came to have something, to value it, versus something comparable of the same era.”
Our conversation veered toward our own nostalgia: the ‘80s, ‘90s and Y2K. Alumbaugh already has curated a glass case full of rare T-shirts and sneakers with price points worthy of serious collectors. “I get to curate things I coveted as a kid,” he explains. “I wanted Air Jordans. That’s my nostalgia.”
We love to see the things that we cherished become things that will outlive us. That’s the business of the nostalgia shop. When you think of the economics of it, you’re pricing based on the wistfulness factor. But on the topic of expense, Alumbaugh is adamant about keeping Retrospect a “destination for affordable vintage.”
“I love that it’s not pretentious,” he says. “It’s a welcoming environment. Yes, we’re elevating this stuff, but we’re not making it unaffordable. We hope to get people interested and promote enthusiasm for vintage.”
Griffin, Retrospect’s former owner, is a longstanding member of the Knoxville community who, thankfully, won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. She’s working on her new project, Treehouse Glampground, for which we’ll have more details in spring. In the meantime, Alumbaugh says, “Tree will still be part of the store. She’ll be working here. She’s still my mentor for the business aspect, as well.”
When the weather gets warmer, Retrospect will bring back the Retro Flea, an outdoor extension of the shop where independent vintage and craft vendors can sell to the public. In the meantime, you can keep up with Retrospect on Instagram and Facebook.
