Meet the Duo Behind the East Village Boutique for Vintage and the Obscure

Running a business with a sibling is definitely not for everyone, but Wendy and LaRae Kangas, the partners and sisters behind Duo, have made it work for nearly a decade. Make no mistake, though — things weren't always that way. "When I was in middle school and Wendy was in high school, we didn't want to work together," LaRae shared over iced coffees and lemonades on a warm December day. But things must have changed right around 2008, when they opened up their adorable East Village boutique that's now a favorite amongst downtown locals and girls that wear vintage Levis.

Neither studied fashion in college, but it's obvious that they know what they're doing here: The East 9th Street store is filled with amazing vintage pieces like Calvin Klein cashmere sweaters and reworked denim, plus modern styles by under-the-radar brands. During our visit, we discussed everything from what it's like to share clothing with your sisters to thoughts on launching an in-house collection.

Tell us how the concept for Duo came about.

Wendy: It's something we've talked about since we were little kids, but it wasn't until we were in our young twenties that we moved to New York from Minnesota and it really became a reality. We were like, "We could really do this here. Let's try it." So we started looking for spaces.

LaRae: When we were growing up, we'd always talk about it. We have a lot of entrepreneurs in the family, but when you're 16, you don't know if it can happen. Then we were both in New York at the same time, so we thought, "Should we try this? It's okay if we fail, but do you wanna try?"

Wendy: We wanted to do it our way — €not too serious about fashion, just comfortable and very approachable. Duo is for vintage and modern independent lines, and I feel that it's very true to who we are and what we wear and what we like in our lives.

Were you two always close? Did you always want to work together?

"We wanted to do it our way — €not too serious about fashion,...