About

Well hello there! Welcome to the official website for BUTCH WAX VINTAGE! So glad you're here.

Butch Wax Vintage is an online high-end vintage boutique based in lovely San Diego, California, established in May 2010. We aim to please, catering to our lovely clients, and bringing you the best in truly unique and high quality vintage finds. We specialize in vintage from the 1920s to the 1980s and aim to sell modern day WEARABLE sizes from size 2's to 22's! Vintage is for all sizes and body types!

Butch Wax Vintage is a one-woman operation. The model / photographer / graphic designer is also the owner, Amanda Suter. Everything having to do with Butch Wax Vintage, every itty bitty aspect, is done solely by her. She started collecting vintage at the age of 13, her first job at 16 was in a vintage boutique, Shake Rag, here in downtown San Diego. Butch Wax Vintage was started on Etsy and our own website. Around 2013 BWV discovered Instagram, and the rest is history. In 2020 we relaunched our new and improved website for selling, hope you're enjoying it!

We have been featured in numerous publications including Vogue Magazine, Lucky Magazine, various tv shows, and have a wide colorful clientele that includes many celebrities, performers, and designers.

Quality and satisfaction are key. We take pride in shipping your purchases promptly and always packaged very nicely. The "Butch Wax Babe" philosophy is this: Don't be an era snob- take inspiration and learn for all decades. Fashion is meant to be self expression and fun! Make it your own and OWN IT. Life is too short for boring clothes!

If you have Amazon Prime, please check out season 3 of The Vintage Voyageur- Butch Wax Vintage is featured on episode 1!

You can also find us on Instagram and Facebook!

 

How It All Began...

Everyone wants to know how Butch Wax Vintage started. Well, here we go...

Having loved vintage for many years, I had been working in the most prestigious vintage boutique in San Diego for the past 6 years before starting my own online en devour. When the shop closed after 30+ years to go purely online, I still worked for the owner doing all of the web duties and modeling. I have loved and collected vintage clothes since the age of 13, but working for this business really installed a great amount of vintage knowledge in me and I'm so very thankful for that. I learned about all of the eras, fabrics, styles, etc. and began to have a very keen eye. Also, I myself wear vintage everyday, so I know what styles I personally like and what styles are in demand.

So, one day while still working for said business, I took a chance and started listing some of my own personal vintage goodies on Etsy, merely to free closet space and make some extra income. The first thing that I sold was bought for the Martha Stewart Show! The rest, as they say, is history. My Etsy page took off, I started working very hard on it, picking for clothes daily, I had to quit working my regular job, and I took the full on leap and made this my solo income/career. And nope, I don't regret a single day of it. My only regret? That I didn't do it sooner!

Everyday when I wake up I am so thankful that I get to do what I love for a living. I get to work with one of my true passions, vintage clothing. I love "the hunt," I love to dig for treasures, I love the idea of finding something that you can never find again. I am constantly surprised at how lovely my online customers (or clients, as I call them) are and how enthusiastic people are about vintage clothing. It truly warms my heart to see people get really excited about these wearable gems like I do. I appreciate every single order and every word of mouth recommendation so so much.

 

A Little About Amanda...

Hi all! I'm Amanda, owner of Butch Wax Vintage! As mentioned above, I have been a huge fan of vintage for years- the age of 13, to be exact. My first job at 16 was at a vintage store in downtown San Diego called "Shake Rag." After that, I was a makeup artist for most of my early 20's, working for Christian Dior, NARS, and Guerlain. Having missed vintage, I began working at a high-end vintage boutique here in San Diego called "Wear It Again Sam," where I would work for almost 7 years before quitting to pursue Butch Wax Vintage.

Besides hoarding, ehem, collecting vintage, guess what? I have numerous other interests! I am featured as a real life mermaid on a beer bottle label- Star Island Single of Smuttynose Brewery. I am a retired dancer, I sing in a band, I work to travel. I enjoy making art in various forms and I try to encompass that in my business any way I can. And last but certainly not least, at 40 I became the mama to the most beautiful little being, Romeo Lilac.

And lastly, the kitty cat on our logo, yes she is based upon an absolutely magical real cat. Our beloved blue bengal, the incomparable Miss Iris, that we lost due to cancer the summer of 2020 after 15 great years of adventures together. She loved a good big ol' pile of crinolines and naturally, leopard print. She will forever live in our hearts.

And to help carry the torch of the queen model cat Miss Iris, we recently adopted a new blue bengal baby... the ever-so-wild Little Lola! And yes, her middle name is Iris.