Closet Transfer thrives as shoppers look for inexpensive but unique clothes.

Step into this “walk-in closet” and you’ll find a close-fitting, 1940s black velvet pin hat and a beaded evening gown, but also chunky, cabled wool sweaters and a full-length Burberry raincoat.

Winslow’s Closet Transfer in Winslow boasts what owner Carol Ingles describes as an “intimate relationship” with customers looking for apparel.

“They feel like it’s their closet when they come here,” Ingles said. “They bring things in and take things out.”

Ingles is about to mark a quarter-century in business. She opened the small consignment shop tucked behind Steamliner Diner on Bjune Drive in 1981, back when thrift shops were associated with older women on strict budgets.

Today that image has changed; many teenage girls, college students and even men browse her racks, too. Items such as jewelry, copper cookware and luxury linens share shelf space.

“The whole concept of consignment and thrift shops has taken a flip – it’s very ‘in,’” Ingles said. “Twenty-five years ago you might not say where you got (a second-hand clothing item), but today you boast about it.”

Ingles has seen customers delighted to find a pair of designer jeans normally priced at $100-$150 new for just $20.

“It’s like you just caught Santa Claus under the tree,” assistant manager Amy Rapp laughed. “There’s fun and satisfaction when somebody comes in for something special and you get them outfitted… they’re happy and relieved.”

Ingles keeps high standards for the clothes she takes, and plenty of quality has come through the door. Many are current designer and vintage pieces, but the store has also seen a Vera Wang evening gown, a full-length sable coat, Prada shoes and Coach bags.

Rapp found the shop within a week of moving to the island in 1989 and has been a steady customer of the shop since then, coming on staff a few years ago.

Closet Transfer’s devoted buyers and sellers are impressive; the number of consigners recently topped 5,000.

Customers who move away still send items to the store from as far as New York and Arizona. And as items come in, Ingles and Rapp call customers they know are looking for something special.

Although thriftiness is still a consideration for their customers, Rapp says she hears a lot of customers say they simply like that clothing is being recycled.

In fact, Ingles got the idea for the store when she was looking at the still perfectly good clothes her then 7-year-old daughter had outgrown, and thought of how others might use them.

“I think there’s a lot of waste,” Ingles said. “I like the whole recycle concept.”

She sees the attraction of secondhand fashions, in that “when you buy (expensive) clothes…you feel like you have to keep it forever.”

In her shop, clothes at a fraction of the cost are still “stunning,” she said, and every piece is “original, unique.”

“Some people don’t like retail because everything looks the same,” Rapp said. “They find it more fun to shop here.”

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Hangers on

Closet Transfer is located at 562 Bjune Drive SE. In addition to the retail store, Closet Transfer can help people moving or cleaning out closets decide what to keep or consign. Hours are “10:30 a.m.-ish” to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Consignments are by appointment only; call 842-1515 for more information.