CLEVELAND — Daruny Mounthanivong is a first-generation Asian-American who learned at a very young age how to cut cost while shopping for clothes. Time spent in thrift stores and second-hand shops with her family sparked Mounthanivong’s fashion senses, and that spark hasn’t gone out.
“I would use the items from the thrift store, cut them up and that’s how I fell in love with fashion design, and that’s why I went to go study for design,” Mounthanivong said.
Going to college for design and working as a stylist and in various roles at fashion stores lead her here. She, her cousin and a close friend are the owners of MsFitXchange, a buy, sell, trade thrift shop in Cleveland’s Larchmere neighborhood.
“My parents and my cousin’s parents are so proud to tell everyone, ‘My kids, they have a store,’” Mounthanivong said.
She’s on a mission to redefine how people view second-hand clothes. She said shopping at MsFitXchange may leave you styled from head to toe, it’ll save you money and allow you to shop more sustainably — something she said that has grown in popularity.
“A lot of people want to save money now-a-days. A lot of younger kids and the younger generation, they’re more aware of how the clothing is made and they want to know how it’s made, where it’s made,” Mounthanivong said.
Mounthanivong said that every time she steps inside of MsFitXchange, it feels like a full-circle fashion moment, and she has her family to thank for that.
“I took something that could have been looked at as like, like shameful, as like, growing up, and then I use it as like — it’s almost like when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. That’s what I did with it. When life gave me thrifted clothes, I opened a thrift store,” Mounthanivong said.
