Growing up I struggled quite abit with the fact that I had a bad to non existent relationship with my Mom. Just after graduating high school, I met a guy & fell in love. It turned into an extremely toxic, abusive relationship which lasted years until I hit physical/mental breakdown. I was having constant panic attacks & finally opened up to my Dad. I didn’t feel safe in California anymore so he set me up to move w/ Family in Indiana to figure things out. $50k in debt, completely unstable mentally, physically & financially with no job, no friends there & no clue what I was gonna do. Hell of a time, quite literally.

Flash forward 10 years, my Mom & I have mended our issues & now have a great relationship, I just opened up my third shop location in San Diego County & I am back to singing & performing, the reason I decided to start my shop. My point in saying this is, that was the worst time of my life, which in turn pushed me forward with perseverance to never be in that position again. Keep fighting through failures & never give up on your dreams. Some of the greatest failures can give you just the right amount of determination needed for the tasks at hand.

My name is Rachel Jennings & I started Crimson Collective in May of 2017. I sell vintage & modern, men’s & women’s clothing, shoes, accessories & home goods. Growing up I dreamed of having my own shop that had everything I love. I envisioned it being a music venue that has a coffee shop & vintage clothing/record store. I wasn’t sure where to start but had studied fashion & worked retail jobs & figured clothing was the way to go first. I bought a clothing rack & started selling on instagram. I now have 3 shop locations in San Diego County. My home base shop space is located in down town Oceanside at Goblin Shark Emporium, an immersive art & shopping experience. I expanded with my second location last summer in Encinitas, inside Consignment Classics Antique Mall. This January I opened my 3rd location in Sea Hive La Jolla, which is a vintage men’s shop. Being a musician myself, I tend to cater to musicians, artists & creatives that are looking for something unique. I also like to have a good mix of sizes & styles that offer a bit of something for everyone.

I always knew I wanted to work for myself. Every job I’ve had, I took on leadership roles & would quickly rise to management positions. With management, I typically made less than in sales & had to take on a lot more responsibilities. This lead me to deciding if I’m to put forth so much of my time & energy into something I want it to be for myself. When I decided to start my shop, I was working as merchandising manager for Sun Diego Surf Shop & worked part time at Gypsy Den, a clothing boutique in Oceanside. When I wasn’t working there, I was working on my own shop. I was out sourcing product, pricing inventory, working on social media marketing & doing pop ups. I did this all while trying to do music at first. I quickly realized, I had to put one on hold so both wouldn’t suffer. I knew to support my lifestyle of music, I had to get the shop going on it’s own. I was finally able to step away from working for others about 5 years after starting my shop. It’s now been about 2 years of solely focusing on building the shop. Within this last year I was able to open two more locations in San Diego.

This past October I decided to stop doing pop-ups & shift that time to focus on music again. I am excited to be singing alongside some of the best musicians in San Diego. I am currently singing in Hippy & The Goods & working on a project with Singer/Songwriter Jess Roberts of another San Diego Band, Spit Vipers. A big goal of mine is to finish an album of my own. I still have much to accomplish toward my dream of music & music venue but in the words of Bowie “I don’t know where I’m going, but I promise it won’t be boring”

I had to decide which avenue to start with. My dream of Music Venue/ Coffee House/ Vintage Clothing/ Record Shop is indeed a hefty one. Like I mentioned prior, I had worked retail forever & decided to start with that. I grew up thrifting & knew all the hot spots. When your selling used, cost of buying is minimal compared to most business startups. I bought a clothing rack, filled it with thrifted finds & started selling on instagram. The more I sold, the more I was able to buy, pour back into the shop, grow & expand. This all weighed heavily on me, specifically of how am I to get the capital & the wherewithal to stand up to naysayers, which came from surprising places such as teachers, bosses, friends & family. If you have a dream, there’s a purpose. Don’t let any negative comments derail you.

I started doing pop up shops every other Wednesday night at Booze Brothers Brewery in Vista at their Back Porch Showcase. This is a night where local musicians come & get to play a few songs each. I would also set up at their Makers Market events & made great connections to some of my favorite local small businesses.

After about a year or so of pop ups, I got a 5×10 vendor booth at Lucky Street Antique Mall in Oceanside. I was there for a couple years & was able to expand into a few large booth spaces. I started to look into shop spaces of my own & was very lucky to have crossed path’s with Kelly King who has very similar wild ideas. She opened her dream of Goblin Shark Emporium in Oceanside, May of 2022 where I sell my finds in the front half of the store. Wouldn’t you know, she too has a dream of a future music venue. Excited for what the future has in store for us.