"I like to say we stop, you shop," Angela Antonello says, opening the door to a bright red truck.


What You Need To Know

  • Fashion Rescue 911 started as a truck, then moved into a brick and mortar store

  • The truck goes to neighborhoods around CNY doing local pop-ups

  • The season is over, and the owner plans to bring the truck back out in April

Antonello runs Fashion Rescue 911. She’s got a brick and mortar store in Baldwinsville, but it all started as a boutique on wheels.

“People love it," Antonello says. "I can gear the merchandise on the truck to what the event is.”

“I had been doing shopping online until now," says Jeanette Fedkiw, a first-time shopper on the truck. "This is my first soirée out to look at clothing.”

Typically, the truck goes from neighborhood to neighborhood doing small events. The pop-up I saw was right in front of the boutique, but still gave neighbors a chance to experience something different.

By bringing the truck into neighborhoods, Angela says people feel more comfortable, since they know the other people who have been shopping. On top of that, she’s found a way to bring back a luxury most stores haven’t.

“I use high steam sanitation, so if you try on a garment, we don’t put it back out on the rack, we steam it," Antonello says. "We put it in quarantine, which means we don’t let anyone try that on for a certain period of time.”

That sanitation process means the fashion rescue truck has a dressing room. Angela says that small part is what many people have missed for so long.

“People are saying their clothes don’t fit because they’ve stayed inside for three months," Antonello says. "So to be able to have them come back try something on and feel good about themselves, that’s what it’s all about to me.”

The truck is finished for the season. In a typical year, it would run through November.