Re-Enhabit brings style back 

Welcome to Re-Enhabit. There are mid-century dining room tables set with collectable dishes, aprons in retro fabrics and vintage concert T-shirts, paint-by-number artwork on the wall, and community radio playing on a 1960’s record player with a tube driven amplifier. 

If any of it looks familiar, you’re in the right place. The new store in downtown Portsmouth is meant to have a nostalgic appeal, according to owner Jodie Curtis who held a grand opening on June 22.

The items in the store have a history, provoking memories and stories from customers. The bottom of one of the chairs for sale has a couple’s name written in pencil, a date in the 1970s and the phrase, “Love the one you’re with.” Curtis has been collecting vintage goods for years and hopes to put these things she loves back into use. 

Curtis, who was laid off from her previous employment in sales, also knows first-hand that second-hand shops have wide appeal when the economy is weak. “I know middle class America is the silent victims in this economic crunch,” she said.

With the cost of housing, transportation, and food so high, along with the unemployment rate, people are trying to get more for their money. “If they’re going to buy something, it’s not just to have something but to feel something,” she said.

The store has a similar style to Urban Outfitters, a national chain that sells a vintage look, but the goods are actually old for the most part. The mid-century modern look, or roughly 1940s through 1970, is trendy again, even for those who don’t remember it. The clean lines and minimalist style have been back in for some time.    

Curtis said she doesn’t want to contribute to putting much more new stuff in the world and its landfills, but rather to refurbish, recycle and reuse it. She said the environment has long been a passionate issue for her. “I have kids and I want this planet to be inhabitable,” she said. Her daughters help out on the sales floor.

The store also supports up and coming artists. The artwork currently on the walls near the front of the store is by N.J. Anderson, a Boston area artist who created the Re-Enhabit logo. Curtis hopes this will become a rotating exhibit in conjunction with the city’s Art ’Round Town monthly event. There are also hand-made accessories such as jewelry, wallets and bags, and original designs silk-screened on T-shirts.

“It’s whatever I really love,” Curtis said, “and the fact that other people love it too makes it even better.”