Previously Worn Roles — a sentimental archive of vintage clothing
Previously Worn Roles
Some roles end.
Some just get recast.
Hi, we’re Meg & Mal.
Two sisters, a lot of color, and closets full of pieces we bought for the look and kept for(ever) the memory.
Previously Worn Roles is our way of letting go, gently.
Every piece here has played a part.
Now it’s ready for its next role… maybe in your story?
Pull up a seat.
Join the Callback List.
And if you’ve got a character or two hanging in your own closet, send them our way.
The cast is always growing.
♡ Meg + Mal
Scene 1 · Our Story
A Clothing Store in Moline
and a closet that came west
Our grandpa’s family owned The LaRose Shoppe in downtown Moline, Illinois. Upscale clothing. Prom dresses picked out on pedestals in front of three-way mirrors. Purses monogrammed in gold.
But to our family it was so much more than that. Our mother and our two aunts grew up in it. Our dad even worked there — for a VERY short time, right after our parents got married. Stories for another day…
Though the family moved to San Diego in 1977, we still grew up surrounded by the store. Not just the stories, but the clothes. Endless driving gloves, embroidered dress and jacket sets in unreal colors, intricate stitching, fringe and velvet, lace, leather and so many scarves. Many of these things still have the original tags. Keeping special things runs in the family.
Good clothes create good stories.
Verdelle
Our original style icon
Our grandmother Verdelle passed this love, this appreciation for style and clothes, on to her three daughters, each with her own amazing style. They are the reason we look at garments and see people. Not just a piece of clothing — a character, a story, a possibility.
Style isn’t about newness. It’s about recognition — a sense that something belongs to a person, a place, a moment in time.— Verdelle
Then There Were Two Sisters
Meg + Mal
We grew up around clothes. We grew up around stories. And apparently, we grew up documenting the evidence.
There are a LOT of photographs.
Some of the outfits came from LaRose Shop. Some came from everywhere else. Some we wore once, wore constantly, or probably should have kept. And some of them… we have absolutely no explanation for.
Selected Filmography
A Life, in Genres
- The Little Girl Years
Two sisters. Questionable bangs. Strong wardrobe opinions developing.
- The La Rose Years
A family history of clothes, now making its way into the next generation.
- The Teenage Years
The outfits got better. The photographic evidence got worse.
- The Travel Years
Good clothes. Strange locations. No explanation.
- The ‘Real Job Now’ Years
Structured blazers. Sensible heels that were never once sensible.
- Present Day — The Archive
Stopped keeping everything. Started releasing it, with the story attached.
Why PWR
At some point, we realized we weren’t interested in selling clothes just because they were old. We were interested in the ones that still had something to say. The great pair of jeans. The jacket with the perfect shape. The dress that somehow survived. The piece that makes you think: Oh. I know exactly who this is for. That’s what we’re doing here. Finding good things. Finding their stories. And giving them another part to play.
Because the best things don’t necessarily need to be kept. Sometimes they just need to be passed along, or recast.
Who Walks In Here
This is for the keepers. For people who kept the concert tee, the moto jacket, the slip dress — not because they’ll wear them again, but because throwing them out feels like firing a character mid-season. You don’t keep vintage for the fabric. You keep it for the second act.
Every piece here had a life before this.
So did we.
Meg & Mal