Just as the sun began to set on Philadelphia and a warm glow saturated the spacious showroom, office had the opportunity to sit down with co-founder Shelly Horst to discuss the inner workings of one of the city's hidden gems.
So you guys shifted from a retail environment. What did you notice was the biggest difference in shifting from retail to something more creative? Do you feel that you both thrive more in this environment?
So our background is actually working for a large retailer, but we were both in creative positions, just within an organization. Dryw's background is in music and that involved a lot of creative direction and events. My background started out in visual merchandising — in-store visual merchandising, and then I transitioned and did some buying, and then I was on the trend forecasting team. So you can see how all of those come together with what we do with Room Shop.
I think that's what sets the space apart; it's not just what you see here, but you're doing so much more. How is it working together as a husband and wife duo? Do you think you both have similar creative processes or differences that actually balance out?
Both. It's been really interesting, especially through the pandemic, because it really was just us two. I think we found a good groove. We both have different strengths and Dryw oversees a lot of the financial aspects. He's a Virgo so he's meticulous with that kind of thing. We're both creative in different ways too. I'm very product-focused with my creativity, you know, color, assortment, design. I do the photography and art direction for styling as well. But in terms of the vibe of the studio and the interior design — that's Dryw. He designed that record cabinet. One day he was like, 'We need UV tie-dye curtains,' and I was like, 'I don't know...we'll figure that out.' He has really visionary ideas. He designed and worked with a builder to make the racks and the mirror — we collaborated with a Philadelphia artist and builder to execute that.
You said he's a Virgo — what's your sign?
I'm a Scorpio.
Me too!
I'm Scorpio, Leo, Leo. And I think that, especially with business, I project as a Leo. I'm introverted and I get energy from being by myself. But when it comes to the business, I can turn it on and act as an extrovert.
I get that completely. I know that you guys do small batch production, at least with the things that you make. Why is that something that you guys decided to implement?
Well, we started out just selling vintage apparel and accessories. From an energy and sustainability aspect, that was really hard because you spend all of this time on this one vintage piece — cleaning, shooting, fixing, selling, listing, measuring, and shipping. Vintage will always be a part of what we do, but from an energy standpoint, that became too much for me. So I was really looking to create a product that wasn't already on the market. And the giant scrunchies were sort of the kickoff of that. I started seeing hair accessories trending and I hadn't seen anyone do the biggest scrunchie. I was like, 'I'm going to make a huge scrunchie; we'll see what happens.' I made one out of the organza fabric and it was like — wow.
And I was going to follow up with that because obviously I saw the giant scrunchies — they're everywhere. That's the original thing that I saw that brought me to you.
That was the original thing about three years ago. We had just moved into this space; it was around this time and I wanted something for Small Business Saturday, for the holidays. When we started out, we were making everything in studio, and when that became difficult to do all on our own, we found local production. So we have a factory that we work with here in Philly.
That local aspect is great too.
Yeah. It's just across town. So I take fabric over there and take my designs and my patterns and they make a majority of what we sell. You know, there are still things that we make in studio. But it's nice because we can pivot really quickly. I can take something in and make 10 of them and see how people respond to it. And if it doesn't catch, then I've only made 10 — or if it does, I can react to that.