Fashioned by Grace: How One Woman Seeks to Change Orlando's Vintage Scene
Image Courtesy: Kendra Michael
When veteran stylist and vintage collector Kendra “Summer” Michael moved to Orlando from Rochester in 2018, she experienced nothing short of a culture shock. Struggling to fit in with the lush layering and vintage two-piece sets that gained her notoriety in upstate New York, Michael ultimately succumbed to the pressure of the laid back, heat-resistant Florida fashion.
“It was depressing,” she said, reflecting on letting go of her beloved vintage sets for sweat pants and tank tops. “It was like I had to find myself again. My identity is built around that style and we don’t have a moment for that style here.”
But when Michael found an ad for the Florida Vintage Market on Facebook in 2023, she was shocked to find the local vintage fashion scene had been under her nose the whole time.
“I had never heard of it,” she remembered. “I had never seen anyone talk about it, I didn’t really see any resellers in the [thrift] stores. I did not know it existed.”
Michael skipped church that day— something considerably controversial for a devout Christian— to attend the Milk District market at Etoile Boutique and connect with the community.
Michael’s vintage collection, Rekendl Vintage, sat in storage for four years until she decided to become a vendor with the Florida Vintage Market. An amalgamation of eclectic pieces with an emphasis on the 1950s to 1980s, Michael had been collecting and selling since 2013 under the name Blue Vintique before her rebrand. While remaining under the radar, Michael used her collection to style her clients— predominantly in the gospel and secular music scene. At the same time, she operated a clothing manufacturing LLC out of Altamonte Springs and taught sewing lessons by word-of-mouth. In 2024, Michael had what she refers to as a “creative download” and decided to turn her collection into a physical boutique at her one-stop shop, Vintage Depot.
Stocked with industrial sewing machines, large cutting tables and all sorts of materials for tailoring, embroidering, alterations and manufacturing, Vintage Depot invited the public to check out the creative hub and boutique on Sept. 22, 2024 while co-hosting the first-ever Florida Vintage Market in Altamonte Springs.
Image Courtesy: Jessica Battisti
“We have so much to offer the community,” she rejoiced. “We’re a hidden gem. People were so shocked when they walked into this space and just saw all that we had to offer.”
Since then, Michael has used her creative space to sell her collection by appointment and market her resources to the public. She continuously cements her place in the community— offering a work space, leading specialized sewing classes and facilitating free sewing days on the weekends.
“For resellers wanting to upcycle unsold inventory or fashion lovers seeking a vibrant community, we’re excited to support your creative path,” her class sign-up website reads. “Sewing is a beautiful art that’s becoming rare, and together, we can keep it alive in our homes and communities.”
Michael credits her attendance of Orlando Technical College’s (OTC) sewing program in 2019 with inspiring her to teach sewing, and hold sewing lessons. With OTC closed for the pandemic and seemingly never reopening, Michael sought to become that program for her community, calling it the “Vintage Depot Sewing Academy.”
Image Courtesy: Jessica Battisti
“I just want to be the person I needed when I was growing up,” she said. “If I could be the person you need as a big sister or to an entrepreneur or a creative, that’s just who I am. Everything I do is built off of serving and helping people because I grew up in a world where I didn’t have a lot of guidance.”
Joking that she is “trauma bonded with the ‘90s fashion,” Michael’s knack for style has always been ingrained in her identity. For Michael, style is not only a testament to her individuality, confidence and entrepreneurial spirit, but a sign of resilience, self-defense and survival. Growing up in the foster care system in Bradenton, Fla., Michael and her brother were adopted by their maternal great-grandmother when she was 7. Introduced to the church by her family, she found the strictly bible-based sermons mundane. To stay awake, she began people watching, awakening her admiration for the vintage church-goer style.
“I saw the older ladies coming in with their clothes on and they would have on their two-piece sets, fancy design stockings, lace gloves, costume jewelry, clip-on earrings, broaches, everything,” she said. “I would look forward to the different women that would come and I was like, ‘I’m gonna dress like that when I get older.’”
However, the beginning of Michael’s fashion journey was born out of hardship. Sexually abused by her aunt’s partner when she was 12, Michael adopted a loose-fit, tomboy-ish style to shield herself from victim-blaming. During this time, she adopted her persona Taz, after the “Looney Tunes” Tasmanian Devil — representative of her fighting spirit and interest in sports like basketball and boxing.
Shamed by her family, she was sent to Rochester to live with her biological mother at 13. Although under tragic circumstances, her move to New York allowed her to embark on a long journey of self-discovery.
Image Courtesy: Kendra Michael
Before committing to her career in styling and reselling, Michael’s life took many creative turns. As a teen mom, she graduated from the School of the Arts in 2006 and later ventured to Atlanta, where she explored songwriting and modeling. Returning to Rochester, she briefly attended community college, worked as a banker and dabbled in acting, all while developing her creative skills and identity.
Michael’s love of creativity first blossomed through makeup artistry, wig-making and lash installations. Over time, her personal need for thrifting grew into a passion that became the foundation of her styling business.
“A lot of my creative expression and my businesses were me using my gifts to make them work for me out of survival mode,” she said. “I’ve always been around that make something out of nothing energy.”
Michael began styling under the name “Summer Rayne,” her confident and feminine persona, after moving back to Bradenton in her adult life. Feeling out of place in Bradenton, Michael moved back to Rochester in 2012.While selling and collecting vintage in Rochester, she began working as a makeup artist, continuity supervisor and stylist for the Rochester based TV series “The Church” in 2016, where she was offered a major promotion. However, she left the job after her intuition, which she credits to God, called on her to leave Rochester and eventually move to Orlando.
That experience, which she said she felt in her “secret place,” was similar to one she had as a little girl when she had to say goodbye to her mother before she went to prison. That internal voice told her what her true purpose was — to serve others.
Growing up in the Church of Christ in Bradenton, Michael felt conflicted in her identity. Knowing she was meant to help others, she felt she couldn’t apply this sense of purpose to her religiosity because women were not allowed to preach.
“Knowing my purpose was to serve people and share my story, the only way I saw that being done from my mind was in a church setting,” she said. “It didn’t dawn on me…until that day I declined that promotion.”
Inspired by Bible verses Psalm 139:13-16, Michael presented her styling services to her Orlando church as “Fashioned by Grace.”
“It really means not looking like anything you’ve been through,” she said. “That’s why I give people so much grace.”
Image Courtesy: Jessica Battisti
Today, she would describe fashion as her “ministry,” her own unique way of providing service to others. Currently one of Michael’s purposes is to act as a resource and mentor for the young vintage resale scene in Orlando. Drawing from her own years of experience, she emphasizes the importance of seeking guidance to anyone looking to break into the business.
“Seek out mentorship,” she said. “Find somebody that’s doing what you wanna do and try to reach out to them, talk to them. It doesn't make sense to try and reinvent the wheel.”
Michael also suggests picking up sewing and upcycling to give new life to items that have been in rotation for months. She credits these skills as a major advantage she had as a stylist and reseller in New York.
“It's more so getting out of the box of ‘I’m gonna thrift this stuff and sell it,’” she said. “You might have to do a little bit more.”
Michael aspires for a vintage community built on strong relationships and mutual growth. By hosting markets at her studio, she hopes to foster a sense of community and collaboration.
“You have to be friendly in this community and that’s what I’m trying to build with Vintage Depot,” she said. “Not even just being a vendor but also as a person that sews, as a person that’s trying to launch their own brand, as a creative, as an entrepreneur, as a student. I’m trying to build community so we can be a resource to each other and not a block.”
“I wanna be able to pass you the baton and we keep running this race together.”
Connect with Kendra on Instagram @vintagedepotcfl and @kendramichael_ for updates on Vintage Depot.
Strike Out,
Orlando
Written By: Jessica Battisti
Edited By: Nina Rueda & Hollis Humphrey
Jessica Battisti is a Journalist for Strike Magazine Orlando. An aspiring entertainment journalist and food critic, Jessica's love of music, art and fine cuisine, companied with her passion for storytelling, has landed her where she is today. When she's not producing content, you can find her exploring dowtown Orlando's culinary scene, digging for gold at your local vintage markets, working on a painting or playing with her cat, Teddy. You can connect with Jessica via email at jessicabattisti24@gmail.com or on Instagram @jesswritesneats.
