Come Around Again

Vintage is having a moment, and in Tulsa, that moment lives on 11th Street. At Tulsa Vintage Company, timeless pieces and hands-on craft prove that what’s old can always feel new again—clothes, neighborhoods, even entire city blocks. Two years in, TVC isn’t just reviving classic denim; it’s helping revive an overlooked corner of the city.

Much of TVC’s ethos is about savoring the American spirit of craftsmanship. Picture classic denim, vintage workwear, varsity sweaters and the kind of hats your dad would have worn in the ’70s: broken-in, softened by wear and carrying their own story. Like many vintage shops, Tulsa Vintage Company celebrates preservation, and a stylish sensibility that never fades.

Now two years in, co-owners Julee DeLong and Mike Clark have established TVC as a purveyor of vintage treasure, and a curated boutique in a city with relatively few style-driven retail options.

“I’ve been thrifting since I was a kid—I’ve always loved hunting for treasure,” Julee recalls. “Back then I’d dig around in the woods, or go ‘junkin’ at antique stores. I wore my parents’ clothes from the ’70s, and as soon as I could drive, I was stopping by the thrift store every day. That’s when the obsession really started.

“When I lived in Jackson Hole, there was an auction up in Montana—clothes from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, mostly. For whatever reason, I decided to bid on the whole lot, and I won. Suddenly, I had all these clothes and nowhere to put them.”

But the right spot would come in time, and by chance. After moving back to Tulsa to search for a storefront, hosting vintage pop-ups around town in the meantime, Julee and Mike had nearly given up on their brick-and-mortar dream. With Mike working full-time and Julee running a fine gardening business, the vision of finally opening a shop felt far away … until one day Julee spotted an empty storefront on 11th Street.

“I’d bought her a work truck,” Mike remembers, “and one day she drove it around the corner and saw this spot. She called me to come see it, and hours later we’d signed the lease.”

The buildout took eight solid months of long nights and no-break weekends to fabricate the space to their standards. “We did everything ourselves,” Mike recalls. “I built the dressing rooms and fixtures, stripped the wood paneling to expose the concrete walls—it was a labor of love.”

Today, the space is unrecognizable compared to the empty box it started as, vibrant with custom design elements and hung wall-to-wall with classic clothes. TVC welcomes a steady flow of visitors each week, all hungry to scour the racks for new additions. For Tulsa’s most style-obsessed vintage hunters, visiting the store is a weekly ritual. The racks refresh daily, with hundreds of new pieces stocked on average each week. But patrons are equally likely to drop in for a vibe check; it’s not uncommon for visitors to spend an hour or so shooting the breeze with TVC’s shop-managers-turned-welcome wagon, Calee Rigdon and Cara Cox, who are happy to make recommendations on store inventory and local haunts in equal measure.

On any given Sunday, the store feels more like a creative salon than a shop. Step inside and you’ll find artists, touring musicians and local tastemakers lounging on the couch, parading looks for feedback or debriefing the previous night’s Mercury Lounge romp over shop mimosas. In this way, Tulsa Vintage Company is more than a store; it’s a hub for style, scheming and indulging in the lost art of visiting. 

Like most vintage stores, TVC plays the hits: ’70s statement pieces, classic tees and sneakers and enough partywear to outfit an entire throwback gala guest list. But around these parts, the real draw is denim. 

“Denim is our number one seller,” says Julee, adding that that’s by design. “People know they can come here for true vintage denim, but also for ’90s classics and western wear. We try to offer something for everyone—different body types and ages. My favorite trend is t-shirts, forever and ever, but also flannel and hats. For me, that’ll never die. I grew up wearing my dad’s flannels, and he always wore Levi’s 501s, cowboy boots and a tall trucker hat—so that’s in my DNA.”

“People are absolutely amazed whenever they come in searching for something unique, only to have Julee style them in the perfect piece. For a lot of folks, she ends up giving them one of the greatest shopping experiences they’ve ever had.” –Mike Clark

Beyond denim, TVC stocks ’90s prepwear and statement jackets, buckles and bolos, as well as one-of-a-kind pieces whose mileage proves that quality craftsmanship will always outlast any fast-fashion trend. Hands-on restoration makes TVC especially unique; every piece is washed, mended, patched, steamed and occasionally reimagined using salvaged vintage materials. The result is classic fashion that somehow always manages to feel brand-new.

Vintage has always had appeal for shoppers seeking quality craftsmanship, but it’s found new resonance today among Gen Z and style-obsessed Tulsans searching for sustainable, expressive ways to dress. Against the backdrop of fast fashion’s waste and sameness, TVC offers timelessness, personality and enduring quality. Here, thrifting isn’t just about affordable shopping, but the art of collection and preservation—an obsession for statement-makers as essential as expression itself. 

“People are absolutely amazed whenever they come in searching for something unqiue, only to have Julee style them in the perfect piece,” Mike insists. “For a lot of folks, she ends up giving them one of the greatest shopping experiences they’ve ever had.” 

Just as TVC makes old garments feel fresh again, its corner of 11th Street has found new life too. After years of underutilization, a bevy of recently established vintage and thrift shops has helped the east end of Cherry Street reimagine itself as “Vintage Row.” 

“The vintage scene in Tulsa is exploding,” Julee says. “When we came into the area, we were flying solo. We wanted to build a community, and once we got in and more shops started opening, we started talking to our neighbors about organizing as ‘Vintage Row.’ We were constantly having to direct people for where to go next, and just felt like we needed something like a roadmap. And now we have one! It’s been really great, and kind of feels like family.”

With TVC as an anchor, Vintage Row is now 12 shops deep, with Polly Hester, A-List, Vintage and Reclaimed, Harrington Rose, Love Me Two Times, The Racks and many others populating the map. 

Together, Mike, Julee and their shop-keeping neighbors have organized a corridor where Tulsa’s past and future collide, proving that with care and vision, even the oldest treasures can always feel new again.