What’s old is new again at 774 E. 185th St., where Antoinette Teasley has set up shop as Wardrobe Replay. The recently opened 1,400-square-foot shop carries an array of secondhand clothing, shoes, handbags, home décor, art and miscellaneous items—all of which have been carefully curated by Teasley, reflecting brands from Coach to Anthropologie to Adidas.

“I wanted to reimagine the experience of thrifting and secondhand shopping, so I’ve created the shop to feel like an upscale loft,” says Teasley of the high-ceilinged space. “I’m very particular about what I put into the store—it’s almost like I’m a personal shopper, and I’ve collected all of these things to present to my customers.”

Having spent six months renovating the space, Teasley opened Wardrobe Replay in late February 2021. Teasley has been dabbling in consignment since 2018, when she began hosting pop-up shops throughout the Cleveland area. But after she got laid off from her full-time job at KeyBank in 2020, Teasley decided to go all-in with a brick-and-mortar endeavor.

“I’ve always been a go-getter, and I believe successful businesses are born in hard times,” says Teasley. “When I lost my job due to COVID, I decided to take a leap of faith and open my own resale shop.”

For Teasley, the choice felt like a return to herself. Since graduating from The Ohio State University in 2009, she worked in the banking and finance sector, and also spent six years serving in the U.S. Army (first in the National Guard, then in the Army Reserve). After a cancer diagnosis of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 2019, Teasley started to crave a more creative path.

“Having been in the military and corporate America, where you have to dress a certain way, I always felt like I was restricting my creativity,” shares Teasley, who lives in Shaker Heights. “After surviving cancer and facing the pandemic, I knew it was now or never. I didn’t want to leave this world before I had made my mark.”

Now that Wardrobe Replay is up and running, Teasley is exploring what comes next. She is currently part of the StraightLine Entrepreneur Initiative through the Women’s Business Center, and she’s also working closely with the Greater Collinwood Development Corporation to maximize opportunities with the surrounding Waterloo Arts District. In the future, Teasley plans to transition from a for-profit business model to a nonprofit to be able to offer art instruction and programming to the community.

“I’m full of visions for what this can be,” says Teasley. “This is just the tip of the iceberg.”