Ali Siegel, a career marketer with more than 20 years of experience, was working on site for a client in San Francisco two years ago when, during a visit from her husband, David Kerins, she told him what she had been feeling for a long time: She wasn’t happy.
Over cocktails, Siegel then proceeded to pitch Kerins on an idea for a passion project that aimed to build a consignment collective curated by select purveyors who rent rack space.
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“I love clothes and fashion but it was always more of a hobby,” says Siegel. “In the agency world I was an account person, but fashion and style were ways to express myself creatively. I was traveling so much and it was my favorite way to explore a city. I fell in love with resale shopping and wanted nicer things I couldn’t necessarily find on the shelves in St. Louis.”
Consignment collectives have existed for decades in Europe, she says, but it’s been less popular in the U.S. She wanted to bring the model to St. Louis, and Kerins agreed that it was an idea worth pursuing together.
Set to open on July 31at 200 S. Kirkwood in Downtown Kirkwood, Forty Elephants will offer women’s/femme clothing and accessories from 30 different vendors at one time, resulting in an eclectic and ever-changing mix of vintage and modern name brands, as well as niche sellers who deal in specific items, like denim or cashmere.
“We want to be as seasonal as possible,” Siegel says.
The customizable system allows each consigner to select an available time window and rack size. Forty Elephants currently offers three different options: a full rack (50 hanging items plus five accessories) for $50/week or $135 for three weeks; a petite rack (20 hanging items plus three accessories) for $35/week or $95 for three weeks; and luxury cases that hold goods such as purses, shoes, and jewelry subject to availability with no rack reservation required. The shop keeps extra inventory on hand from the consigners in order to replenish the racks as items are sold.
Rack rentals are limited to one month so that buyers are always seeing something new. The fee holds the space and consigners keep 80 percent of their sales with 20 percent going to the shop. Each rack is marked with a small frame noting the consigner’s name and social media handles. Siegel and her team are available to assist consignors with pricing, if needed.
Siegel, a native of St. Louis, spent the past several months networking and sourcing consigners, from antique mall booth sellers to popular local Instagram vintage purveyors. Some of the shop’s inaugural consigners include: fashion content creator Rebecca Domyan; personal stylist Andrea Loeffler; size-inclusive vintage sellers The Good-ish; local vintage purveyor MAXIMAL; DeLux, a design and luxury practice by female attorneys at Lewis Rice; and Meltdown Labs, a Brooklyn-based jewelry designer with St. Louis ties.
“I find the St. Louis small business world very collaborative and inviting,” she says.
Siegel and Kerins leaned on their professional and personal relationships while developing the store’s marketing, as well as its physical space. The creative director of Siegel’s agency (she is the co-founder of Blacktop Sailor Creative Collective) designed the branding. Architectural firm Eddy Design Group helped lay out the 2,500-square-foot storefront; its president, Cara McKedy, is a college friend of Siegel’s.
The store’s interior design finishes and furnishings were selected by Siegel. She chose Sherwin-Williams’ “Loyal Blue” as the store’s dramatic backdrop, and wrapped a back wall in a paper that shows a map of 1800s London–Siegel and Kerins’ favorite city. Hardcore Anglophiles, the couple named the store for The Forty Elephants, a notorious 19th century female gang of thieves known for pillaging posh shops and chic homes around London.
“That’s what we want this store to feel like,” Siegel says.
The space is accented with layered Persian rugs and vintage suitcases that nod to Siegel’s love of travel. Two large dressing rooms are decorated with velvet curtains, gold-framed floor mirrors, and rich floral wallpapers from Lust Home and Soicher Marin Studio.
Siegel and Kerins are delighted to see their vision come to life. While Siegel is the face of Forty Elephants, working the floor and handling vendor relations, Kerins operates behind the scenes managing the business.
“It’s fun for us,” says Kerins. “We met in high school folding jeans together at Old Navy. We’ve worked together on projects, but we’ve never built something together.”
