What’s In Store: Sebastopol’s Mad Mod Shop

Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and Andrea DeTrinidad-Hoogendoorn’s grandmother are three of the women who inspired the Mad Mod Shop in Sebastopol.

DeTrinidad-Hoogendoorn is the creative force behind this vintage-?inspired, polka-dotted, pin-up-girl haven tucked between the tasting rooms and restaurants of The Barlow.

“Everything in the store has to pass the happy test before it comes in,” she says, flashing a contagious grin. This philosophy is apparent throughout the store, from the sequin fitting-room curtains to the blue and white baker’s twine she uses to wrap her customers’ purchases.

Every dress has a story, from the “wiggle” dresses that are popular with a certain 77-year-old grandmother to the “fit and flair” poppy-print frock that a customer fell in love with after years of avoiding dresses. Anyone who walks into the store can find something they love, with Audrey-inspired dresses and Marilyn-style bathing suits in sizes ranging from extra small to 4X.

DeTrinidad-Hoogendoorn subscribed to Entrepreneur Magazine in the seventh grade, has a precise vision for the Mad Mod Shop and lives by the creed “If you can’t find anything you love, you make it or have the pros make it for you.” To this end, she chooses only the things she loves, from designers as far away as London.

The Mad Mod Shop is stocked with styles from the ’50s and ’60s that are made with modern fabrics and cut to “actually fit us.” She describes them as “classic silhouettes for the modern woman,” with bigger waistlines and stretchy fabric.

DeTrinidad-Hoogendoorn also is a designer and a lifelong “maker” who spared no creative expense in decorating the store. Over the past seven years, she has collected items that fit her idea of the “mid-century shopping experience.” A Sputnik-style light fixture hangs above the register, and custom-made ruby slippers with 4-inch black and white stiletto heels are perched above the crinoline slips.

DeTrinidad-Hoogendoorn made a desk out of her grandmother’s sewing table and reupholstered her grandmother’s kitchen chairs for the fitting rooms. She also filled a file cabinet with her grandmother’s patterns from the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s that have inspired her to create her own line of clothes. This month she cut her first dress, and she plans to be selling her own apparel line by spring.

Store treasures range from a “Rosie the Riveter” style hair scarf for $10 to the “ultimate” little black dress for $219.

The Mad Mod Shop is in The Barlow at 6780 McKinley St. It’s open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday and Wednesday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, closed Tuesday. Info: 329-6113, madmodshop.com.