Reviving the Past: The Attic Brings 70s Fashion Back to Harvard Square

The Attic, a vintage store that boasts sustainability, opened earlier this month in hopes of adding more options to the retail clothing scene in Harvard Square.

Located at 1218 Massachusetts Ave., the new store is the second location of the Attic, with the first opening its doors in 2019 in Brooklyn, New York. The Harvard Square shop is operated by Jenna E. Cea-Curry, while her sister runs the New York location.

For Cea-Curry, secondhand clothing has always been a big part of her family’s life. Her family owns and operates Bay State Textiles, a Massachusetts-based company that partners with schools and cities to recycle clothes and other textiles.

“This is pretty much a family business,” Cea-Curry said.

From handbags to jeans to sports jerseys, the store sells a wide range of clothing and accessories — all of which are personally curated by Cea-Curry from textile donations at her family’s business. She described the style as emblematic of “70s-inspired stuff mixed in with early 2000s.”

Although Cea-Curry believes the store generally appeals to younger people, she has been “surprised” by the range of ages that have come to shop at the Attic.

“Definitely a good mix so far in the past few days,” Cea-Curry said. “I’ve noticed a lot of students.”

Cea-Curry began looking to open a second location of the Attic last summer and settled on opening in Harvard Square after she noticed the area “was lacking a lot of just clothing stores overall, secondhand or not.”

Inside the store, the walls are painted with an assortment of lighter tones — some adorned with floral decals, others with vintage Playboy magazine covers.

“I wanted people to walk in and look through the window and be intrigued by all of the color on the walls, which is something I think you don’t see as often when walking into retail stores nowadays,” Cea-Curry wrote in a message.

Aditi Ambravan ’26 described the store’s atmosphere as “vibrant” and “very positive.”

“They have a wide selection regardless of your style,” Ambravan added. “There’s stuff for more feminine and masculine people.”

Gabbi M. Thomas said she decided to check out the store because she works nearby.

“There’s a lot of really cool pieces and it’s really affordable too,” she said. “And there’s all different sizing and stuff too. So it’s pretty inclusive.”

While there are currently no plans to open a third store, Cea-Curry hopes to expand the Attic’s online presence in the coming months. She believes that shopping sustainably — where “you’re forced to pick out in a crowd of everything different” — can help in “finding your own personal style.”

“You’re not picking through racks that are all the same shirts,” Cea-Curry said. “You have to pick out something that connects with you, forcing you to create your own personal style.”

—Staff writer Caroline K. Hsu can be reached at caroline.hsu@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @CarolineHsu_.