OCEAN CITY – When Caitlin Quirk opened The Garb Collection on Asbury Avenue in Ocean City, she wasn’t trying to reinvent fashion—she was trying to rescue it. After over a decade in retail, she had seen the excess up close: single-use plastic, wasteful packaging, piles of “one day I’ll sell it” items in the homes of friends and family. Her response was to build a space where people could shop more sustainably, more personally, and more consciously—without sacrificing style.

“It’s like Poshmark, but in person,” Quirk told the Herald. “I wanted to create a space where people could keep their clothing in circulation without the hassle of selling online or the guilt of donating items that might just end up in a landfill.”

Unlike traditional thrift and consignment stores, The Garb Collection is designed to feel like a boutique. Shoppers don’t browse racks of mixed garments. They explore carefully booths styled by individual sellers, who pick things from their own closets to sell. Each clothing rack contains the essence of the original owner’s style, which lets shoppers find sellers whose tastes match their own.

It’s a great way for anybody with too much clothing to set up their own little shop without a large upfront cost.

“You’re shopping someone’s closet, not just a clothing rack,” Quirk explains. “If you find a style you connect with, you can stick with that booth. It makes the experience more personal and aesthetic-driven.”

It’s this kind of innovation that has helped The Garb Collection stand out in the resale market—and she hopes it can help people get more excited about secondhand fashion.

“The best way to be sustainable is to buy secondhand,” Quirk said. “But the resale experience needed an overhaul. People want style, they want ease, and they want to feel good about their choices.”

Booth rentals at The Garb Collection are short-term—ranging from 5 to 60 days—making it accessible for anyone looking to clean out their closet. It isn’t just for resellers or folks with a side hustle; it’s for everybody. And it’s working. “It has far exceeded my expectations,” Quirk says. “Every booth has been filled. The most common thing I hear is: ‘I have so much stuff and I don’t know what to do with it—but I don’t want to just give it away.’”

That reluctance is valid, she says. “When you donate clothing, only 10 to 20 percent of it actually stays in circulation. The rest ends up in a landfill.” The Garb Collection gives people a chance to give their clothes a second chance. She said that readers would be amazed if they knew how much clothing is bought, worn once, and left to sit in a “donate pile” in the corner of a bedroom just because the fit was slightly off, or the color was wrong.

The Garb Collection is Quirk’s newest business, but her efforts to reduce consumer waste extends across her other ventures, including a children’s clothing store, Bowfish Studios, on Asbury Avenue.

“Some people define sustainability by energy or water use,” she says. “For me, it’s about eliminating trash and waste wherever possible, and choosing quality.”

Over the past five years, she’s cut ties with vendors who don’t meet her packaging standards and shifted to packaging that’s compostable or reusable. You won’t find single-use plastic anywhere across Quirk’s businesses.

“Every single new garment you buy typically comes wrapped in plastic,” she notes. “We’ve eliminated that, we only work with vendors who don’t use single-use plastic.”

She’s also made small changes that add up make a big impact: ditching paper towels for washable cloths, transitioning to email receipts, and using recycled boxes for e-commerce orders.

“We collect boxes from around town, from Amazon orders, we reuse vendor packaging, instead of buying them in bulk —it saves us about $5,000 a year,” she says. Even the paper shopping bags are handed out sparingly. “We charge 50 cents for them, just to get people to think before grabbing something they’ll throw away five minutes later.”

Quirk’s commitment to sustainability deepened after a tour of the Cape May County landfill.

“It was a wake-up call,” she says. “New Jersey only has 13 landfills left. By 2051, Cape May County will be the last one. That’s a real concern. What’s the plan when we run out of space?”

Keep your own clothing in circulation, or give life to an old garment, by visiting The Garb Collection in Ocean City.