The Vintage Fox Tells the Story of Family, Charm, and Love of Everything Secondhand

A Peek Inside a Joyfully Whimsical Santa Barbara Vintage Store Staple

By Madeline Slogoff Fri Mar 21, 2025 | 02:35pm

You never know what treasures you’ll find at The Vintage Fox | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

Nestled in a baby-blue 1906 Victorian-style bungalow between Chapala Street and West Cota Street rests The Vintage Fox, a long-standing Santa Barbara vintage staple. With large white trim and alluring bay windows, the store surely catches the eye of passersby.

If you’ve ever driven by, you probably pointed out the window to admire the charming cottage. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of stepping inside, you will have been transported into the meticulously curated vintage world of owner Ashley Fox.

Between grand wooden tables, porcelain dishware, and eclectic statement jewelry, The Vintage Fox has something to offer for everyone, whether you’re redecorating your entire home or hunting for a napkin set for an upcoming dinner party.

The Vintage Fox opened as Fox & Goss Antiques on De la Vina Street a decade ago. When Fox’s business partner left in 2017, she changed the name, and then moved to the current location four years ago.

“I saw this little shop, and it had a ‘For Lease’ sign in the window. I said, ‘Don’t call, don’t call — you can’t afford it, you can’t afford it,’” said Fox, who stumbled upon the charismatic bungalow when she was on her way to D’Angelo Bakery to get a coffee with her dogs in tow.

“I called; I couldn’t afford it, but I signed the lease,” she said.

The house consists of four rooms, with each room maintaining a vastly different aesthetic, attesting to Fox’s tasteful, eclectic, and wide-ranging style. There’s a room with Victorian style, one with Asian influence, one with a California western style, and one that is an elegant mix.

A curio case corner at The Vintage Fox | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

“I use every inch of this property. I even have stuff for sale in the bathroom,” Fox said. “I always said my grandmother in Mississippi would roll over in her grave if she knew I was selling things out of the bathroom. But I’m gonna use every inch of this space, because the rent’s high.”

With a soft Southern accent, Fox revealed her hometown as Memphis, Tennessee, where she describes herself as itching to leave after high school. After graduating, she moved to New York City, where she worked as a fit model in the Garment District.

Fox’s time in New York was short-lived, as her mother moved to Santa Barbara when Fox was just shy of 21. Once Fox began visiting Santa Barbara, she fell in love with it and quickly moved out here.

She got a job at a law office downtown but became bored with Santa Barbara’s dull single scene. She almost left to move to San Francisco, but an opportune meet-cute at Joe’s with her now-husband, Dan, changed her mind. The couple married and have two grown daughters.

No two days are the same on the job for Fox. She empties out estates and sources from locals who come right into her downtown shop with vintage goods. “Every single day, there’s something new that comes in that shop,” she said.

She’s always loved decorating. When she was a teenager, “we had an upstairs room at our house in Memphis, and my mom would always tell this story, that I had this old antique wrought-iron bed that had casters on wheels. My mom would say, ‘Oh, Ashley’s redoing her room again,’ because she’d hear me pushing the bed around,” Fox laughed.

A variety of household items and treasures can be found at The Vintage Fox | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

China and decorative items at The Vintage Fox | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

Fox attributes her love of vintage to her mother. “We always had a ton of antiques in our house. We never had anything new. I guess a better way to say it is: I don’t know when I didn’t love antiques.”

Fox’s mother, whom she describes as having maintained the essence of a quintessential Southern belle even though she has not lived in the South for decades, has been helping around the store since the beginning.

She also gushed about the unwavering support of her husband and daughters in her business endeavors. Dan helps around the shop every day, whether by conversing with customers or wherever Fox needs him.

Fox’s daughters, both based in Los Angeles and frequent visitors, help out with the social media and technology aspect of the business, as well as estate sale sorting.

Fox maintains that her favorite part of the job remains interacting with people.

“I feel like I’m a really good steward of things, and I love that,” she said. “It breaks my heart to think that somebody handmade something or painted it and someone would just toss it away.

“That’s probably one of the main reasons why I stay in this business. So many things get wasted now, and it just breaks my heart how wasteful people are,” Fox said.

Her ability to let go of items has helped her to sustain a successful business model and operation. “One of the only reasons I’m able to have a shop is because I’m not partial to many things,” she says, then admitting, “but the things that I love the most that are hardest to not buy or not keep in my business are lamps and children’s chairs and dishes. I have a giant affinity for those things.”

Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

Vintage clothing at The Vintage Fox | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

The store has satisfied her inclination toward serial redecoration. Fox describes her “decorating mode,” which sometimes leads her to staying in the store until 10 p.m. when she is in her “flow state” of decorating.

Fox’s emphasis on repurposing goods has spanned between the store and her home life. She only buys secondhand, for everything from glass milk containers to bedroom dressers, and has completely ceased her use of plastic tableware and napkins.

After 10 years of being in business, Fox describes how things have changed: “The estate sale part has grown the most dramatically, and I think that this part of the shop has stayed small and manageable.”

Most notably, Fox explains how, “when I first started the business, I had to go and find things, and now I never have to go look for things.”

Between emptying out estates to sourcing day-to-day goods that have run their course, Fox maintains that her biggest impact on the Santa Barbara community is: “I am a way for people to find new homes for their things.”

Visit her shop and witness the vintage charm for yourself at 609 Chapala Street, open Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. See thevintagefoxsb.com.