Dressed to impress in secondhand treasures

Published 1:30 am Friday, May 29, 2026

Heaps of clothing — nearly 1,200 pieces — crowd an upstairs room in Andrea Mansfield’s Greenbank home awaiting the opening of her new boutique in Langley. Unseen among the blouses and trousers is the promise of individuation.

Little Gemme, a pop-up shop selling carefully curated secondhand clothing, is opening this summer from June 6 to Aug. 30 on Anthes Avenue. Mansfield, formerly a life coach but a lifelong lover of fashion, wanted to create an inclusive environment at her queer-owned boutique where everyone can explore their personal style.

“It’s so much bigger than clothes,” Mansfield said. “What we put on our body is an expression and production of who we are.”

Much of Mansfield’s sourcing took place on the mainland at thrift stores, estate sales and in friends’ closets, as well as online. She sought timelessness, and clothes fitting what she considers the “quintessential Pacific Northwest” style: casual, yet chic.

Excessive trendiness is rather unfashionable to Mansfield. Trends move quickly, encouraging overconsumption and leading to unnecessary closet “turnover,” she explained. Plus, the synthetic fabrics which dominate fast fashion are environmentally harmful to produce, and she finds them personally uncomfortable to wear.

Mansfield prioritized sourcing clothes made from natural fibers, like cotton and linen, for Little Gemme.

“It wears nicer, it washes nicer, it feels better on your skin,” Mansfield said.

Selling secondhand serves to eliminate existing fashion waste, too. Enough clothes exist to dress the “next six generations,” The Guardian reported in 2023, and Mansfield finds that many of these pieces are in good condition, if slightly outdated or in need of a little tender loving care.

Little Gemme offers more than just sustainable shopping. Mansfield believes her life coaching experience may be beneficial to customers, and she finds owning a boutique similarly fulfilling. Often, helping people figure out how to dress is as meaningful as helping them figure out who they are.

“I know the questions (to) ask, I know what to listen for, I know those signals that tell me this is so much bigger than putting on a shirt,” she said.

Mansfield’s knowledge of fashion’s transformative power is informed by personal experience. Early into her 15-year career as a life coach, she did not put much thought into what she wore. Then, her self-image “completely changed” when a stylist friend of hers revamped her closet.

“I think it definitely has had an impact on the way that I’d get dressed even now,” she said. “I’m in my 40s now, and I think the last time I felt this free with my fashion was when I was in my 20s, and I cared a lot less about what people thought of me.”

Mansfield grew up outside Seattle and lived in Portland most recently. Little Gemme used to be an online store with clothes available for purchase through the live shopping marketplace app Whatnot. A “major life transition,” including the natural end to her life coaching career, spurred Mansfield and her family to sell everything, uproot and travel before moving to Whidbey. The island satisfied their desire to live in an “outwardly queer-friendly community,” she explained.

All that remained of Little Gemme were the domain name and a “dormant” Instagram account, Mansfield recalled; the future of her business remained unclear. But while chatting with her hair stylist during an appointment in February, Mansfield spontaneously inquired about the availability of business space nearby.

“I found myself saying, without any conscious thought, ‘Would you ever consider a secondhand pop-up next door?’ And she was like, ‘Yeah, completely.’ I was like, ‘Oh no, what did I just sign myself up for?’” Mansfield recalled, laughing.

Nearly three months of preparation have flown by ahead of Little Gemme’s opening; set-up begins the week of June 1.

Mansfield hopes Little Gemme’s storefront can become a permanent fixture in Langley’s secondhand shopping scene, but either way, she does not “foresee this going away anytime soon.” She is in talks with renters about keeping Little Gemme open beyond Aug. 30, but the boutique could pop-up elsewhere if need be.

“I’ve always loved fashion, I’ve always loved secondhand in particular,” she said. “And right now, it seems to be having a really cool resurgence, just in a bigger way than it has before. So I want to be a part of that movement.”

Find Little Gemme in Langley at 225 Anthes Ave, Suite 102, online at littlegemme.com and on Instagram @little_gemme.