Gently Used is the story of a vintage clothing store, the women who work and shop there, and the garments that come through the door. Violet Turner, the owner of Hourglass Vintage, has a knack for finding the beauty in worn and broken things. She loves knowing the history behind each item in her store, from a Chanel blazer to a Bakelite cocktail ring. When it comes to her own life, though, the tattoo of a phoenix on her arm reminds her never to revisit the bad decisions of her past. When Violet’s talent for ignoring unpleasantries creeps into her business practices, the store’s solvency begins to suffer. Meanwhile, a strange man has been lurking outside the shop. Little does Violet know, he has news that could unravel the life and security she’s built for herself in Madison, Wisconsin--a city as eclectic and defiant as she is.
Amithi Singh, an empty nester and shop customer, approaches the past much differently than Violet. Since she immigrated to the United States with her husband at age nineteen, Amithi has held onto the customs of her native India and endeavored to pass them on to her only daughter. It’s strange, then, when she gets rid of her treasured collection of saris, scarves, and jewelry with a reluctant heart. She sells the items to the boutique, bit by bit, and while she’s there, she learns of the store’s troubles. She wants to be useful in some way, but after decades of child rearing and housekeeping, fears she has nothing to offer.
College student and sales clerk April Morgan has a few ideas about how to make the store more profitable, if only she can push past Violet’s pride and get her to listen. While Violet hatches extravagant schemes, April prefers to focus on the store’s balance sheet. Numbers are the only constant in April’s life. Halfway through an unplanned pregnancy and still mourning the recent death of her mother, she feels like everything else is uncertain. To make matters worse, her baby’s father has called off their engagement. The 1950s wedding dress April had planned to wear now hangs limp on a rack in the back of the store.
Hourglass Vintage is a place where past and present mingle, and the lives of people with little in common overlap behind the register and among the aisles. It’s a place where anyone might show up--a drunk ex-husband, a drag queen, or the neighborhood witch. And if Violet, along with her co-workers and customers, cannot come up with a plan to get the store’s finances back in the black, it’s a place that stands to fade to memory along with the secondhand fashions on the sales floor. Knowing Violet, the plan--if she can come up with one in time--is bound to be unconventional.
