OOH LA LA Luxury Consignment Shop Arrives on Upper West Side

“Fashion wasn’t a career that I chose. It chose me,” says Cassandra Goins, owner of OOH LA LA, the new curated consignment store gracing the Upper West Side.

The 70-year-old retired music executive, who headed Putumayo World Music (“The entire African continent was my territory”), was, before that, president of Bob Marley’s label, Tuff Gong International, and worked with another label that had a deal with Sony. She started her store as a pop-up five years ago during COVID from the garden apartment of her Sugar Hill brownstone.

Says Goins: “I’m a very nostalgic person, and it’s all of those memories I’m attracted to. I remember my grandmother’s handbags. I get pieces in here, and they’ll remind me of my grandmother or my mother, who was a big thrifter.”

Goins remembers as a child being embarrassed if classmates saw her family at Goodwill. “But,” she continued, “all of those things that were instilled in me from my mom when we shopped there were how to shop for quality stuff. She’d say, ‘That’s junk, but this here is good-quality.’ In the late ‘60s [in California, where Goins grew up], my mom had a boutique. She was an entrepreneur. And I have a lot of her fearlessness and spirit of adventure.”

Five years ago, that spirit, plus her decades of marketing expertise and, quite frankly, a bit of pandemic ennui, led Goins to embark on her second successful career.

“I had nowhere to go, like everybody else,” she admits. “I took the opportunity to do a lot of cleaning out of my own closets and thought a stoop sale might be nice. I started doing those on weekends, then I invited other women in the neighborhood to bring a rack of clothes and share my space. From there, I rented a space just down the street from me and rented that for two weeks out of the month. The first pop-up was a Christmas bazaar.”

Her good friend and actor, the late Michael K. Williams (The Wire, Boardwalk Empire) saw her new business’s Instagram and said, “I need to purge. I need to clean up my carbon footprint. My consumerism has gotten out of control, and I need your help. Why don’t we do a pop-up and add my inventory of things?”

It was hugely successful. “We raised a lot of money for charity,” Goins says. In fact, after Williams passed away in 2021, Goins worked with the estate to sell his remaining inventory to raise funds to help support his 95-year-old mother.

When the world opened up again, Goins says, “[The store] just organically happened. I had a lot of popularity in Harlem, but what I didn’t have was foot traffic. I had more private clients.”

She decided to move and thought the Upper West Side was the ideal location but wasn’t sure it could be attainable, until one day it was. “This was actually a very magical experience for me,” Goins says, “because I have a very special woman who was a consigner and friend, Marianne Spraggins, who’s also a real estate lawyer and broker at Keller Williams. She found the space. I looked through the windows, and I was just like, ‘Oh my God, that’s my store. It spoke to me in a very unimaginable way.’ ”

At OOH LA LA, Goins not only sells, but buys and consigns. “I’ve probably taken in maybe at least 25 new consigners [since opening in September]. It’s a place for luxury, high-end brands, and quality vintage.” But, the environmentally-conscious owner stresses, “No fast fashion.”

All her designer merchandise is authenticated, and when it comes to pricing, she offers better deals than The Real Real, with whom she sees herself on par.

“Even though it’s online, and obviously has a much bigger presence,” Goins concedes, “I have a lot of pieces that I’ve curated that are hard to find, like the Chanel 1970 trench coat in the window. Customers will be hard-pressed to find that.”

Goins doesn’t sell via a website; instead encourages customers to come into the store because seeing and feeling a piece is the only way to know if it’s for you. “I’m not a professional stylist, but I do know style,” and the hands-on businesswoman is always available to her clientele.

“I share what I know and what I’ve learned about mixing contemporary with vintage, getting people outside of their comfort zone. I just try to meet people where they are and find that sweet spot to help them.”

When asked about her long-term vision is for OOH LA LA, Goins laughs and gestures to her surroundings: “This is it,” and then turns sentimental and says, “I have no regrets. I’ve traveled the world, lived internationally. I’ve raised my son. I’m at a very good place. I’m content and enjoying this chapter. I meet a lot of people.

“Since I’ve moved [to the Upper West Side],” she continues, “I know a lot of the people in the neighborhood. Most times, I know their pet’s name more than I know theirs. It’s the community where you feel safe, and you feel good, and people support you, and you feel like you’re appreciated.”

OOH LA LA. 60 W. 75th St. (between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue). 11 am to 7 pm, Monday through Sunday. Instagram: @_oohlalanyc

Lorraine Duffy Merkl is the author of the novel, “The Last Single Woman in New York City.”