Ten years of Abernathy's awesomeness: An interview with Becca & Red
Downtown Davenport's badass beauties on 'Psycho hose beasts,' epic 80s jean jackets, and more
I can think of few places or people who add as much color, quirkiness, and character to downtown Davenport — and really to all of the Quad Cities — than Abernathy’s and its owners.
For the uninitiated, the shop (located at 432 W 3rd St.), specializes in vintage clothing, handmade jewelry and art, antiques, oddities, home decor, and even custom corset fitting. It’s a place that could reliably hook you up if you found yourself needing some sexy lingerie and a small set of animal bones on the same day. And not only is it delightfully weird, but champions weirdness: you can boldly declare yourself a member of their weird empire by donning the word on anything from a pair of their socks to a trucker hat.)
Nicole “Red” Perez and Becca Nicke, who met as teenagers while working at a shop in Red’s hometown of Le Claire (Iowa), have now owned the business for more than a decade — a span of time that included relocating un der duress, when downtown Davenport was suddenly underwater in 2019, (leading to Abernathy’s making the New York Times). They celebrated this anniversary last fall by hosting a rockabilly show at the Racoon Motel, complete with go-go dancers. (A show which my friend and I attended, but left after a few minutes because it was too loud. Which in truth means we’re too old. But whatever — points for trying!)
I’ve always thought these women were cool, but after they granted me a chance to hang out with them and ask them everything I wanted to, I admire who they are and what they do even more. As anyone who has shopped there or followed their social media knows, they are smart and spunky and hilarious. It was so fun to listen to them crack each other up. (For about 90 percent of the responses, you can add this: [laughs], or more like, [cracked up super hard] at the end of the line.
If you too have long been a fan of these women, you’ll love getting their takes on:
- their iconic looks, their early forays into expressing themselves through fashion, and how women should/shouldn’t dress as they age,
- an epic vintage score, and their favorite fashion eras
- how they arose and stayed afloat after a natural disaster, and much more.
Oh, and, bonus! By getting to interview them, I discovered that we have a couple of crucial things in common:
1: small-town rural roots, (Becca is from Princeton, (Iowa), and
2: a love of 90s references.
(The shop’s name, in fact, comes from a Quentin Tarantino movie.) Stay tuned for the appearance of Wayne’s World item you’ll need to own — and, of course, for their responses to the Official Quad Citizen Quiz!
BECCA & RED: THE INTERVIEW
Let’s start with when you two met, and how that led to starting a business. How old were you?
Becca: We had just graduated high school and started working at a shop in Le Claire called 4 Miles 2 Memphis, which had vintage and handmade things — kind of like a grassroots version of our shop.
Red: We were making completely different things, but we were both makers at that point.
Becca: I think it was one of the first times that it became apparent that like, ‘oh! you could sell the stuff you make, and this could be your job.’ I mean, I didn’t actually make any income, but working there, and the owner of another shop, Aunt Hattie’s, inspired us to try to open our own business.
So, going back even farther, how did you get into becoming makers? Did you have an art class that was really inspirational?
Becca: Well, coming from a small town, I think the first time I started making stuff was through 4H. You could submit your crafts to the fair and get prizes. Both of us are driven by a little bit of a competitive nature — and some of the prizes were for money!
My mom is a very creative person, so she would be like “you should try this!” She’s into horses, and when we would go to horse shows, I’d glue together these little western pins and walk around with a cigarette-girl box and sell them.
I made all sorts of things. My mom would make me practice sewing straight lines when I got home, but my great-grandmother taught me to sew by hand. Sewing was the one thing I took to the most, but I like to do a little bit of everything.
Red: I was just, like, this… typical sad teenager. [laughs]. Music played a giant influence on my life. I hung out with a bunch of punk rock kids, and we were always making something of our own to be different from everybody else. I did a lot of weird collage and jewelry making, trying to find old things and make them into something.
Becca: I started repurposing, too, when I was able to start driving myself to Michael’s or the Salvation Army, and found that thrifting stuff was way cheaper. We couldn't even afford fabric from the fabric store, so thrifting something and then turning it into something else was my biggest source of inspiration as a teenager.
How did you get the technical skills to do things (besides sewing) that you know how to do?
Red: I’m just like, ‘I can do anything! Or ‘We'll figure it out!’ It's a very MacGuyver-y type thing. I don’t actually know how to make jewelry, but I do it. We are delusional enough to think that we can do anything we wanna do.
Becca: [laughs] It’s a willingness to just … try.
Red: My mom is also a crafter. She sews and can make wonderful things. So, being around that kind of pushed me to learn new things.
You now sell other makers’ stuff in your shop. But for the vintage items, do you still do the finding or acquiring?
Becca: I couldn’t stay away from the hunt of finding stuff — even when I’m tasked not to. That’s probably in my blood, more so than making things.
We work really closely with our next-door neighbors, Doodads [estate sale company]. Their sales are really fun. There’s a lot of adrenaline when you’re with a bunch of people and you’re all trying to rummage — it’s that competitive spirit for sure. Those are what I do on my day off.
Now that we’ve been here for so long, people have been coming to us for awhile, bringing us stuff they have to sell. It’s usually when a parent or a loved one has passed away and the family is cleaning out a closet. That’s how we find some of the coolest stuff. And that’s my favorite, because you might get to hear a little story about where it came from, who wore it, what year it was made, things like that.
What’s your favorite vintage era? To look at, wear, or find?
Red: The one I’d want to wear would be 70s/80s rock n’ roll type wear. Leather and studs, big flared pants.
The way that bands’ t-shirts were designed in the past, there’s just something about the feel of the fabric. We call them my ‘shitty shirts.’ I have a lot of shitty shirts. They have the most holes, and they’re the thinnest pieces of clothing you can find. I gravitate toward that feeling. But my favorite to look at and to find would be 40s.
Becca: The 40s and 50s are my favorite. The women’s clothes are so soft and feminine, almost idealistic of what you think women were. The 60s and 70s are nice because everything’s polyester — it’s still wearable!
You both have such cool, trademark looks. Do you ever have moments where you’re like, “This is a lot of effort,” and you just want to dress really lame?
Red: Actually, I’m always like, ‘I could be cooler.’
Becca: I have those days. My kid plays hockey, and when I go [to games], I wear the hockey sweatshirt and the black leggings. Realistically, there’s a lot of yoga pants in both our wardrobes. I wore Ugg boots the other day.
Red: Yeah— and I was like, ‘What the hell is going on here?’ [laughs]
Becca: [defending herself, laughing] I bought them at a thrift store. And they’re warm!
We all receive such strong messages about needing to look a certain way. Do you remember some early choices, where you were first like, ‘I want to look different’?
Red: I was 11 or 12. I had a friend who had an older sister who I thought was so cool, and I went over to her house and dyed my hair orange. When I came home, my mom was like, “...that was a decision.” But that was kind of the tipping point. Converse sneakers at all times, with Weezer shoelaces and tube socks. I bought old man trousers from the thrift store. I would cut them and sew them to make them as tight as possible, because I couldn’t afford Tripp pants, like the plaid ones from Hot Topic. I would wear those with some baseball team’s shirt. I remember for a square dancing class, I took multiple pairs of pants and made them into a skirt. I wore some weird shit as a kid.
Becca: I made things I saw at Hot Topic, too. We did a lot of back-to-school shopping at Farm & Fleet. So you could get a black hoodie, and then I’d go and buy a patch and safety pin it on. It (the patch) was so small! [both laugh]. But I was like, ‘This is how I’m gonna get the Linkin Park sweatshirt my parents wouldn’t buy me! I’m gonna make it ma-self.’
So, as grown women who are no longer in our teens and twenties, what’s your advice about still trying to dress in a way that has personality — that makes you feel cool and confident?
Red: That whole thing of ‘once women hit 40 they have to chop their hair off’ — and wear grandma clothes — that is not a thing anymore. I don’t believe in that. You’re still the same person, whether you’re 20 or 50.
Becca: You’re probably cooler.
Red: You’re probably f-ing cooler! I don’t think we can fit in those boxes anymore. I think that was a weird, traditional….
Becca: Misogynistic?
Red: …misogynistic time, that women had to look a certain way when they reached a certain age.
I always get, from having colored red hair, “What are you going to do when you’re old? That is such a stupid fucking question. I’ve been red since I was 18 years old. And I’m 35. I’m like: ‘I’m red ‘til I’m dead.’
I got asked once, ‘Are you going to get all those tattoos removed when you have a kid?’ And I’m like, ‘That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.’
Becca: It’s illegal to have tattoos as a mom! [laughs]
It’s hard, with misogyny and the standards imposed on us. But I think we also uphold them in our heads a little bit.
Red: Yeah. We’re responsible for that.
Becca: It’s kind of going to take dismantling how we think about clothes, how we think about ourselves. My biggest thing in my closet is, it’s gotta be a ‘hell yes.’ On any given day, I should be able to wear it. If it fits good, if I like the way it feels on me or I like the way it makes me feel, those are the things that make it a hell yes.
Red: I think people don’t shop like that. I wish they would. The feeling the garment gives you is what’s most important.
Becca: One of the things we hear most often in the store is “Where am I gonna wear this?” And I’m like, “To the grocery store!” There are no rules. What you can and can’t wear, that only exists in your head.
Red: If people are not looking at you, you’re fucking up.
Tell me about a legendary find, or a piece someone brought in that was really memorable.
Red: ….[thinks]… Probably that Metallica jacket.
Becca: Oh! That was super cool. We had a guy who... I’d bought some of his mom’s stuff prior. She had this incredible collection, all 1970s Gunne Sax by Jessica McClintock dresses. She had great stories about how as a single mom in the 70s and early 80s, every time she’d buy a new dress, she’d go to Von Maur here locally, and it was always a big to-do because she didn’t have a lot of money, and it was like the one thing she did for herself.
So I bought that stuff from her, and then a few months went by and her son came in and was like, “I have all these band shirts that I’ve been holding on to.” He had awesome ones, like Pantera, Metallica, a lot of Motley Crue… and he had his denim jacket that he’d put together when he was in high school with a giant Metallica back patch. He’d written it in pen…he drew one of the characters from The Lost Boys…
Red: ….there were girls’ names on it.
Becca: We just sold it like a month ago.
Is there anything still out there that you’re dying to find?
Becca: [thinks]. Band t-shirts are my new challenge.
Red: And I don’t want to re-sell them — I want to keep them. I really want a Dead Kennedys t-shirt.
You have an Etsy shop, and I know you set up at different places. Is the store still the main seller? Have things grown since you moved to this location?
Becca: The majority of our sales are from the store, but our Etsy has gotten better this year, mostly because of this new line we started called “Raised by Movies.” It’s movie-replica jewelry.
Red: Our first one was from Wayne’s World. We call it the “Psycho Hose Beast.” In the movie, Stacy [Lara Flynn Boyle’s character] wears the necklace that spells out “W-a-y-n-e.” You see it the most when she’s giving Wayne [Mike Myers] the gun rack. We’re coming up with the ideas and then [as we’re trying to re-create the jewelry], looking at tiny little super-pixelated pictures from movies. These are all movies that Becca and I have either watched together or have some sort of tie to.
Becca: Our most popular one right now is the one Drew Barrymore’s character wears in The Wedding Singer. That’s the one we’ve gotten the most feedback on, from people saying ‘I’ve been looking for that necklace since the movie came out!’ We had one woman buy three of them, for her and her two sisters.
Red: We had somebody buy it for their wedding anniversary, because they were having a ‘Wedding Singer’ impersonator come and sing the songs. People from all over the country are buying these. It’s just kind of crazy.
Are you taking custom orders for those?
Becca: We haven’t. The more we post about it on social media, we do have a lot of people being like, ‘Oh, if you made this, that would be really cool.’ But we’ve both decided we don’t want to make them for any movie, we just want to make the movies we think are really cool, or that have some meaning to us.
We still need to talk about the flood of 2019. How were you able to bounce back from that? It still stresses me out thinking about what it was like down there during that time, and how drastic it was. Was there ever a point when you were just like, ‘This is it, we’re done?’
Becca to Red: Remember that? Remember feeling that way?
Red: I remember we were standing in the parking lot of a place we’d looked at, after we’d been trying to find a new location. We’d just looked at a salon space, and we were like, ‘I don’t know about this property…’ and it was finally just like, [sternly], ‘Are we gonna keep going or not?’ And both of us just went: ‘Yeah. We’re gonna find a place.’ The ‘don’t’ was never really an option.
But yeah, it was a lot. It was stressful. Now I kinda look back at it and think we were crazy.
Becca: … I don’t think I let it sink into my brain, but maybe that’s how I process trauma. [laughs]. I think we both have an optimistic nature at heart that doesn’t really let us slow down enough to consider all the things that might not pan out.
Red: Look at all the natural disasters that have tried to stop us!
Becca: [laughs] I’d like to think that we’ve succeeded just because we’re optimistic and hardworking, but that’s not necessarily an honest portrayal. Because it’s hard. Every day is a little hard.
When we chose this spot, we made some compromises. But we made them at the time to just be able to keep going. And you know, the next problem will come up, and it will cause some discomfort, and we’ll have to pivot… and that just keeps happening over and over again.
Red: ‘We’ll figure it out, we’re gonna do it…we’ll be fine.’ We’re like, master bullshitters. To ourselves.
Becca: [huge laugh] It’s actually not been fine before, but we’ve made it fine. We trust ourselves enough to know that it’ll be okay. And if it’s not okay, then we’ll figure that out.
—
and now, DRUM ROLL…..
THE OFFICIAL QUAD CITIZEN QUIZ!!!
I’ll ask both of you each question, but if there’s one that one of you wants to tackle —
Red: We’ll fight. Fisticuffs!
1: In your opinion, how many “Quad” Cities actually are there?
Becca: Five.
Red: There's five, but …Quad means four. (Laughs)
Ok, so which one’s the fifth?
Becca: East Moline!
2: Biggest changes you’ve witnessed in the QCA:
Red: The amount of development since we were children is, like, insane. My husband is from a very, very small place in Montana, and he’s always like, “Why are you guys always building something new?”
Becca: I would say…. pride in the area. I just remember how when I was a kid, the cool thing to do was to leave, to not want to stay here. But I think genuinely, now people wanna stay here.
Red: And they wanna come back!
Becca: People do come back! A lot of people move to super cool places and come back here. Which is amazing.
3: What do you like best about Davenport in particular, or the Quad Cities as a whole? And what would you like to see change for the better?
Becca: What do I like best? Us! [laughs]
Red: I think it’s that, in a sense, there can be a strong sense of community and support.
Becca: [agrees]. You have to look for it. As far as change, I wish some people’s mindsets would change. Like, if you call this a shitty area, or say there’s nothing cool to do here, guess what: you’ve completely blocked yourself off to the cool things.
Red: Yeah. That’s a very ‘you problem’ there.
Becca: But if you want to do cool stuff, then your mindset’s gonna shift to where you do see the cool poster in the cool shop window. Or the Goth Christmas Party at the Raccoon Motel. If you’re open to cool stuff, you’re gonna find cool stuff.
Red: I think I’m guilty of that mindset from when I was a teenager, when all I wanted to do was leave. I didn’t leave, but I traveled around and realized this probably was the best place for me. And I started making friends and realizing there are literally not enough weekends in the year to do all the cool shit that’s offered here.
Becca: But I think, realistically, that’s probably the case for most towns.
Red: [to Becca] Maybe not where you’re from.
Becca: [laughs] I don’t know… are you into fish frys?
Red: …church potlucks?
Becca: We have people from all over the country — and all over Iowa — discover us through TikTok, and constantly, the feedback is like, ‘Finally, something cool in Iowa.’ I’m like, ‘…what? There have been lots of cool things in Iowa. But I’m glad you’re starting to see them.’
4: Complete this sentence: “The Sky Bridge
a) is fine just the way it is, dammit.” Or
b) should be connected to something, like_________.”
Becca: Now that the casino isn’t there, it’s kind of pointless. But it's fine the way it is. I mean, it looks pretty.
Red: It’s for silent discos!
Becca: And we have done a vendor craft show in there. I think it's a perfectly good space if you utilize it creatively.
Red: Also: put a casino down there again. [Becca laughs]. That would be fine.
5: Would you now, or have you ever, worn John Deere as a label? And if so, what was the item?
Red: I’ve never worn it…
Becca: … but we’ve sold a lot of it. I bought one thing, and I paid too much for it…and I don’t know if we still have it. But it was this really cool ringer t-shirt from the 70s that has every John Deere logo on it and says ‘Moline’ and ‘Rock Island’ on it. That would be the one piece I would wear, if I were to wear anything. I mean, the company pioneered agriculture, and it’s from here. That’s cool!
6: How many degrees of separation are you from John Deere? (The company, not the man.)
Red: I worked for a lawyer at a real estate company that relocated John Deere employees.
Becca: My husband currently works for a company that’s contracted by Deere.
Red: We’re all John Deere employees, whether we like it or not.
7: Best bridge:
Becca: Arsenal!
Red: Arsenal.
Becca: It used to be — when we were down by Great River, across the street from us — that if the span was open, you got a discount on beer.
8: Favorite standing structure in the QC:
Becca: I always loved the Chief Black Hawk statue, but…that’s not standing anymore.
Red: Probably the Blues Brothers statues. They always remind me of a certain time in my life.
Becca: Being drunk in the District?
Red: Being drunk in the District…. underage!
9: What’s your favorite meal available in the Quad Cities?
Becca: Miss Phay’s.
Red: I was gonna say Miss Phay’s! But I will say, Me & Billy’s shrimp and grits will always take it for me.
Becca: Also, Mantra. I was just walking to the convenience store, and just the smell of Indian food in the air was almost hypnotizing.
Red: People sleep on that place, and they should not.
10: Something you’re willing to cross the bridge for, even though it might take a whole five minutes:
Becca: I really love Awake Coffee Company, which is downtown Rock Island [close to the Centennial Bridge that leads into Davenport]. There are times where I’m like, ‘I’m already in Iowa. I have to go further into Iowa, but real quick I’m gonna go to Rock Island, then come back to Iowa because I want Awake.’
Red: The people who only go to one side of the river are weird. They’re the real weirdos here. Get over yourself! Drive a little!
11: Business(es) you’d like to see get a boost from QC consumers:
Becca: Allied Barber & Supply. It’s an awesome men’s grooming shop here on Third Street.
Red: Doodad’s. Jennifer [the owner] works so hard, and she supplies all of us. Go in the shop and you will find something
12: Places (or anything) you think others should know more about, or that might surprise people who’ve never visited:
Becca: We’ve been handing out these flyers we made that highlight of all our favorite vintage places in the Quad Cities. We have people come here from all over, and we tell them there’s two up on the hill, plus Envied…[thinking, counting] … We have five vintage clothing stores within, like, a two-mile circle. I think one reason the Quad Cities suffers a little bit is that we’re multiple cities that are so spread out, so we have this disconnection from each other. But realistically we’re small enough…I mean, Fred & Ethel’s is probably only 5 miles away. So that’s six. On the hill, there’s 563 Vintage, and a co-op called Hilltop Closet, which are right across the street from each other. [\The owners of those shops are both young men. It’s cool to see other young people getting into this — I’m not saying we’re young people anymore! [laughs]. But younger. Younger than us.
13: Best QC legend or local lore, and whether or not you believe it:
Red: We were told that the upstairs of the original Abernathy’s was an abortion clinic.
For real??
Becca: Also, upstairs in the building that has ½ Nelson and the Mead place, somebody said there’s an original Walt Disney signature on a central column. He used to work for a company in the Quad Cities.
He did?
Becca: Yep
Red: Probably John Deere!
The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative is a diverse group of journalists, columnists, former or current media professionals, novelists and other writers covering everything from food to politics to humor to Iowa life to poetry. Please consider picking a few you’d like to support (including me!) by becoming paid. It helps keep us going.
I think I might have gone to high school
with the guy who had that Metallica jacket!
Great stuff as always Alison! I need to get over there w my daughter sometime...those women sound like a hoot!!!