From a 1985 Unimog platform fire truck imported from Germany to black open-toe platform booties, you can find a bit of everything vintage at Georgopoulos Motors on Main Street in Amagansett, where the brother-and-sister team of Stathios and Tiffany Georgopoulos are in business together this summer.
He sells the cars, she sells the clothes.
“I buy, sell, consign, curate, and it used to be me finding cars, but now it’s cars finding me,” Mr. Georgopoulos said.
While he was talking, a car did, in fact, find him — a yellow and white 1974 International Scout II that he will likely sell for $100,000 pulled in. There aren’t a ton of these available.
“It’s a really cool truck that you can take the top off. It is a perfect summer truck,” he said. “They are pretty hard to find, but we actually have two of them, which is quite rare to have — a green one and a yellow one, which are kind of rare colors for them.”
So how did a guy selling removable hardtop trucks go into business with a girl selling crop-top shirts? One sibling pushed the other to chase her dream.
“He calls me and says, ‘You’re doing it. I bought you the racks. You’ve wanted to do this for a long time.’ And he just kind of pushed me into that uncomfortable space, because everyone is a little afraid to start their own business, especially me. I’m 21. I just got out of college,” Ms. Georgopoulos said.
Just out of Belmont University in Nashville, and already working three jobs this summer — one in geopolitics, another in liquor sales, and a third at a restaurant — Ms. Georgopoulos had no intention of selling her massive collection of thrift and vintage clothing. But she’s here for four more weeks this summer, with a pop-up called KYST open tomorrow and Saturday, Aug. 8 and 9, Aug. 22 and 23, and Aug. 29 and 30.
Her brand’s name is another family connection.
“KYST actually came from my mom. My two oldest brothers’ names are Kyriakos and Stathios. When Colette had her first clothing boutique in East Hampton, my mom used to make vintage denim jeans with patchwork and she would sew KYST into them for the first two letters of Kyriakos and Stathios’s names,” Ms. Georgopoulos explained.
While Ms. Georgopoulos jokes that she stole the name, it’s fitting. Many of the vintage items she sells today have been handed down from her mother, Tina, who kept every special piece of clothing she had bought over the years for the daughter she knew she’d have someday. On the day of this interview, she was dressed for an evening of dancing with friends at the Surf Lodge, carrying a yellow beaded Fendi Baguette bag that belonged to her mom. The two self-proclaimed shopaholics have spent their lives shopping and thrifting for special pieces, knowing they’d someday find a home.
“Thrifting is my absolute favorite thing to do, so if I see cute jeans that I love so much, but they’re not my size, I’m just going to get them anyway because someone else can rock them,” Ms. Georgopoulos said.
In her corner of Georgopoulos Motors, there are sparkly, studded Jeffrey Campbell cowboy boots that she bought in eighth grade and never wore, racks of denim, vintage silk slips, and a reversible jean jacket with pink faux fur inside, plus thrift bins that start at $10.
“Growing up out here, I felt that shopping around the towns was so unaffordable. I find that a lot of the stores are catered to tourists, which is perfectly fine. That’s what the Hamptons is known for,” she said. “But still, what about the person who is done with middle school who wants to walk around with her girlfriends and get a cute top for $10? Where do you find that nowadays?”
While Mr. Georgopoulos doesn’t sell any cars that cheap, you don’t need to spend six figures to get a vintage vehicle here. The fire truck is worth about $50,000.
“It’s solid. It’s a very capable truck and a lot of people turn them into off-road campers. People take them to events such as Burning Man. And you cannot get a vehicle with this much off-road capability at this price point brand new,” he said. “It has a transmission that you can go through every single gear in forward and reverse.”
Like his sister with clothing, Mr. Georgopoulos has been obsessed with collectible cars since he was a kid, buying his first while he was still a student at East Hampton High School.
“It was a 2003 Mercedes CL 500 and I was in love with it because it was designed by a designer I liked, Bruno Sacco, an Italian guy, and it had German engineering which was cool. You don’t really get that combination anymore. And it was a good deal.”
He calls his love of cars a hobby that’s gotten out of control and credits Covid with enabling him to start his business.
“I saw the window of opportunity open up during the pandemic where I could work my normal job from home — I used to work in finance — and work on a little passion project and have that turn into my main career,” he said.
When people hear that two 20-somethings from East Hampton High School are running a shop in Amagansett, they often assume their parents are owners or investors. But Mr. Georgopoulos built his business all by himself, using the money he made working in finance to get it off the ground.
“You just have to be very determined, very hard-working, very unwilling to give up,” he said. “The overhead costs are so high and on top of that, the stress of running a business out here. You need to be able to handle all that.”
He offered his sister the opportunity to work in his garage rent-free — a partnership too good to refuse — and made both of their vintage dreams come true.
“It’s kind of fun that we’re both pursuing our passions in one space under one roof,” Ms. Georgopoulos said. “He was the one who pushed me to do this. It’s really sparked my entrepreneurial mind-set. This is something I could actually see myself wanting to do as a full-time thing.”
Georgopoulos Motors is at 136 Main Street in Amagansett and is open year round, with KYST Vintage Thrift inside open on select Fridays and Saturdays through Aug. 30 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.