Shell on Wheels

Lately, a vending truck is the easiest way to draw a crowd. Whether it’s selling cupcakes, tacos, or soup, we come out, and usually in droves. Turns out, the same is true for women’s apparel and accessories. “With no fanfare or notice, I just parked the Little White Fashion Truck [LWFT] in a highly visible area and opened the doors,” says founder Shelley Sarmiento of her Severna Park-based fashion truck company that first hit the streets in August of 2012. “Within one hour, LWFT had a line of shoppers waiting to get inside.” Since then, LWFT has been seen parked mostly in the Severna Park and Annapolis areas. With years of experience in the fashion industry—former executive vice president of White House Black Market, a production and design stint at Victoria’s Secret and, an adjunct professorship at Fashion Institute of Technology—Sarmiento stocks her truck with a rotating inventory of fun, trendy, and moderately priced clothing, accessories, and handbags—including her three private labels—Truck Culture, Heart on a Hanger, and Wild Child. Although this concept has been seen in other cities—like New York’s The Styleliner, Los Angeles’ Le Fashion Truck, or our very own Go-Go’s Retread Threads—Sarmiento hopes to cover more ground. “I am definitely not the first person to launch a fashion truck, but my plan is to roll out 10 by the end of 2013.” Sounds like this idea has legs—or wheels, we should say.