By Rachel Shuster

The Coastal Theory is a fresh and creative e-commerce website and physical store, offering vintage and original men’s and women’s fashion as well as antique interior design pieces. Co-owners and couple Heather Poitras and Aaron Antanavica take the old and give it new life.

The Coastal Theory originally started as a blog two years ago, but evolved from Poitras and Antanavica’s creative partnership. They opened their physical store this year on June 23rd. The store is located at 103 Church St. in Whitinsville, but Poitras and Antanavica are considering relocating to be closer to Worcester.

“Every piece of furniture and home décor we build is from reclaimed materials,” Antanavica said. “We put a rustic spin on every piece. We’ve been avid thrifters for a long time now and get all of our clothing from yard sales, thrift shops, etc. We also do consignment,” he said. TCT also carries accessories, leather goods and even antiques from Portland, Oregon.

Poitras and Antanavica are inspired by old furniture design and vintage looking paints, as well as the French proverbial style. “No two pieces are alike. When it comes to style, we kind of wing it. We get inspired as we go along,” Antanavica said.

The Coastal Theory also does custom pieces. Clients can bring in a piece or request a piece and have it created. The shop donates 10% of all its profit from furniture and home décor to the ASPCA.

Poitras makes several of the accessory and jewelry pieces, but the Coastal Theory also has a number of independent designers. “We have an urban contemporary menswear clothing company called Native Danger, a graphic T-shirt company called Monogram Apparel from Worcester and jewelry designers. We give up and coming designers a chance to sell their stuff,” Poitras said.

The Coastal Theory has clothes from Forever 21 and H&M to YSL and Christian Dior. “We try to cater to a wide customer base as far as cost,” Poitras added.

In the future, Poitras and Antanavica will be doing pop-up shops at colleges in the Worcester area, as well as craft fairs. “We also plan on having community craft nights for people to create pieces based off ideas they found on Pinterest, since that is such a huge thing right now,” Poitras said.

For more information on The Coastal Theory, visit www.thecoastaltheorystore.com or email thecoastaltheory@gmail.com.