About
Time travel is possible...
..and the objects of our collective past tell our stories. Throughout human history we have used our desire to dress as a way to communicate to the outside world what we feel internally. Clothing has been used to signify cultural, social, and political movements. It has been used as a weapon to separate and other, as well as a tool to commune with like minded individuals. It has the power to attract or repulse with a single glance, and its meaning changes from group to group. Fashion helps us mark the passage of time, with certain ways of dress belonging to set periods. While style might not be consistent as the centuries and decades pass, our ability to use it to inform our perception of the past remains constant. Connecting with vintage objects opens their magical ability to melt away the decades separating us from history. At Passage Keeper, fashion is a language that we love speaking, and we're here to help foster that connection with you!
Nice to meet you,
We’re Kari and Jake, the duo behind Passage Keeper and Worn! We live and work out of our home in Asheville, North Carolina with our dog Devo. Everything we source is hand picked by us - from anywhere we can find it! We’ve found vintage in dumpsters, been welcomed into people’s homes, and try to never leave a stone unturned. We have a deep appreciation for history and DIY culture. We strongly believe in using what is already in existence to make something new, and most often learning how to do something yourself.
Jake’s formative years were immersed in music, and it is through this lens that he first connected with vintage clothing. For the Vestal Middle School talent show, he and his band were to perform “I Fought The Law” and needed stage clothes. The bassist’s mother took them to her friend’s appointment only vintage shop in downtown Binghamton, New York. Boomerang, the owner and ex-boxer, met them outside, removing the padlock on the blacked out shop doors. While ushering the group through the tight, towering aisles of the dark and overflowing shop, he reminisced about clearing out department store back stocks in the 80s, Japanese denim buyers of the 90s, and the frustration of only finding one shoe while holding up a 70s trainer from a lofted cavern within the store. Nearly two decades later, he’s still chasing the magic of that experience. Some of his favorite vintage pieces to source are: OG-107s, pieces with original repairs, and anything customized. He loves to include original artwork in our orders, piece together shipping boxes, and the thrill of the hunt.
Kari has lived in Appalachia her whole life, and North Carolina for the majority of it. Fashion has been an avenue through which she has viewed life since she was a child, where one of her earliest memories is fawning over her favorite pair of flare jeans that had a pink cat appliqué down the leg. Her first exposure the world of vintage was time spent at her Ukrainian grandparent’s home, a shrine to the late 1960s, with a grandfather who kept countless objects and boxes of mysterious items from days gone by stacked around the house and basement. Her love of vintage grew as she escaped teendom online via Tumblr in the early 2010’s, and discovered a world that encouraged thrifting. She has a deep love for the intersection between fashion, music, and pop culture - and it’s power to transform history. Some of her favorite vintage pieces to source are: anything that has a handmade touch, pieces that reference former decades, and small labels with an interesting story. She loves to research pieces, make content for our platforms, and connect with people when sourcing.
You can visit our sister shop Worn in person at Atomic Furnishing & Design, located near the Biltmore House, at 124 Swannanoa River Rd, Asheville, NC.