Vintage sizing can be a headache for even the most enthusiastic shopper, but for Olivia Jondle, 26, it’s nothing that a little sewing can’t fix. It’s this sentiment that paved the way for The Rusty Bolt, a brand that’s putting an inclusive spin on retro apparel and giving forgotten fabric a new life.
This weekend, The Rusty Bolt, featuring a range of jumpsuits, halters, pants and more, all made from vintage fabrics, debuts at May’s Place in The Grove.
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For fans of May’s Place, this is likely not the first time they will have encountered Jondle’s work, as she’s been a frequent vendor at the May’s Night Market since she started making clothes a year and a half ago. Her passion for sewing, however, goes back as far as her childhood. “I was always cutting up clothing. My mom hated that, so she locked up the scissors and enrolled me in a sewing class,” Jondle says. “I learned basic skills which I used for little DIYs and alterations to make clothing fit me because I have a very unique body shape. As someone who likes vintage clothing, I struggled to find stuff that was my style and fit my body.”
With this in mind, she drafts her own patterns, or does hybrids of vintage patterns, specifically ones given to her by her great aunt Nancy. “It was sort of a way to connect with the women in my family to recreate that style they wore in photos,” she says.
Her goal is to be “as body inclusive as possible. Vintage clothing is really tiny, and oftentimes it’s very fragile. But I can accommodate a size 16 and make them a vintage pair of pants that fit them perfectly. It’s all based on people’s body measurements, which is really great.”
Some of Jondle’s very first pieces were created with a bundle of vintage fabric she bought when she was in high school that had been sitting in her mom’s basement. She continues to upcycle bolts of material from local estate sales and thrift stores, with a desire to remain authentic to the prints and textures of the decade—one wrap dress sold this spring was even made from a vintage bed sheet.
“The fact that they have these beautiful colors and these beautiful patterns that might not be produced ever again is super fascinating to me,” Jondle says, adding that sustainability is also a motivator. “There’s already so much fabric in the world—there’s so much—so for me to go invest in fabric that’s new seems really, really wasteful.”
This conviction even extends to finding just the right ethical manufacturer for her clothing tags, which feature her ’70’s-inspired logo in red. “I really think it’s important as someone who is producing goods to be considerate how the choices I’m making are affecting other people in the world.” After extensive research, she finally settled on a tag company in Los Angeles.
Jondle’s path to fashion design wasn’t an easy one. The Iowa native had graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute with a degree in painting and was living in Oakland, California when a devastating car accident led her to change course. “I had a lot of time as I was recovering to analyze what I wanted out of my life and how I was surviving,” she says. “I was living hand to mouth, I wasn’t thriving, I wasn’t able to spend any time making anything, and it was really really frustrating. … I decided that I wanted to start fresh.”
She embarked on a journey that would eventually land her in St. Louis (where her aunt and uncle reside) taking the plunge as a full-time designer. Aside from The Rusty Bolt, where she often stitches custom work for fellow female talents, including local musician Cara Louise, Jondle also sews pocket squares and ties for another local women-owned brand, Lonesome Traveler.
At May’s Place, The Rusty Bolt’s wrap pants and shorts will be an exclusive offering, but shoppers will also be able to find a number of other curated pieces in her collection, including her ’70s style halter, ’90s style halter, sweetheart halter, pant and top sets, and jumpsuits. Look out for more May’s Place projects from Jondle later this summer.
