MATTAPOISETT — When Rochester residents Darbi Lambert-Matos and her daughter Neva Matos stumbled on a thrift shop about a month ago, they saw something they had never seen before that spurred an idea: they would create a store of their own.

“It was all separated by what they called closets and we were like, ‘this is such a cool concept … we should do this back in the Tri-town. That would be so much fun,’” Lambert-Matos said.

Lambert-Matos called her long-time friend Teah Keogh, who has a business background, to run the idea of a thrift shop by her.

Keogh said she loved the idea and that they “should totally do it,” according to Lambert-Matos.

However, with Matos set to begin her senior year at Old Rochester Regional High School and both Lambert-Matos and Keogh working full time, they don’t have the bandwidth to operate a store full-time for six to seven days a week. 

Keogh said they put a pause on the shop until an idea popped into her head while she was driving.

“I called Darbi and I said, ‘I think I figured it out. I think we do a pop up, rent a space. We find people who want to consign their clothing, and we do it in one day,” she said.

She explained that people could come in, set up their clothes and put a price on each item. Everything else, such as the marketing, check out and event organization would be handled by herself, Lambert-Matos and Matos.

Lambert-Matos recalled telling Keogh that this was a “great idea.”

“We’ll do a one day kind of thing and see what kind of feedback we get from the community and we’ll take it from there,” she recalled saying.

Naming the event “Thrift & Sip,” the pop-up will be held at the Knights of Columbus in Mattapoisett on Sunday, Aug. 24, where the bar will be open for people who would like to purchase a glass of wine.

“They can come with a friend, maybe get lunch before or maybe they plan to go to dinner after,” Keogh said.

According to Keogh, the biggest challenge of organizing the pop-up was making people understand what the event would be.

“I explained that it was like a craft fair but with clothing,” she said.

People could sign up to reserve a closet space and bring a rack or table to display their clothes. Rather than donate the clothes or consign them, participants price their items how they see fit.

Keogh said, “Once people understood what it was, they were like, ‘Yeah, this is a really cool idea.’”

Over 30 people have signed up for closet space, and while people can still apply to be on a waitlist, the event is currently sold out.

“We don’t want it to be too congested,” Keogh said. “We want to make sure people have room to walk around and look at the clothes.”

She called this “good news” and a “good sign” that people are showing an interest in the event.

“There’s enough interest in the community that want to come together, so I think it’s exciting,” Lambert-Matos said.

Keogh said, “I love the idea of doing events that bring people together. Especially in this day and age where fast fashion is just like you make it, you throw it away, you buy it again.”

Lambert-Matos noted that if the event goes well, the hope is to hold similar pop-ups every couple of months.

“That way people can have an opportunity to recycle what they have in their closets or hook up with a friend to share a closet, but give people enough time to get enough inventory to keep this event going,” she said.

Keogh called the event a “way to get the community together.”

She added, “Think of it like a Sunday afternoon party.”

“We really just want people to come out, maybe do some back to school shopping, [and] have a good afternoon with us,” Lambert-Matos said.