Retro and Resilience, Rolled Into One
Months after opening her Newport Beach vintage apparel and furnishings store, Natalie Tass woke up with a doozy of a headache. Her boyfriend rushed her to the ER, and a spinal tap turned up traces of blood. Within hours, Tass underwent almost 13 hours of brain surgery for an aneurysm in her left frontal lobe.
Doctors cautioned that recovery would last six months to a year, with a potential for paralysis. It was November 1996. Friends stepped in to run the store, the Front End, through the busy gift-buying season and the new year.
Three months later, Tass, sporting a punky buzz cut as her shorn hair slowly grew back, was out shopping again for her dream store, which is filled with a wacky mix, from shoes from the 1940s to dishes from the mid-’50s.
“I figured ‘Natalie can’t die,’ ” recalls Tass, a vivacious, self-dubbed “gaudy gal” because of her predilection for rhinestone jewelry, the bigger the better. “By ‘die,’ I mean I couldn’t stop. I had too many things to do.”
On her list was an idea that popped up during recovery: To invite customers with vintage cars to showcase them around the shop during an afternoon of live music and food.
“I couldn’t see the reason why not to do it,” she says, beaming. “The clothing, the cars, the music--it all goes together.”
The Front End Eights & Aces Kustom Kar Show, taking place Sunday from noon to 6 p.m., has evolved in three years into a community-based charity event. It draws an impressive lineup of local bands, more than 200 restored mid-century cars and some 1,500 attendees.
Proceeds this year will benefit Kids 2000, an organization for abandoned children.
It’s a test of Tass’ Energizer Bunny energy and determination that she has continued the event after its premiere. Hours after the first show ended, Tass received a phone call informing her that her store was burning.
Some $150,000 worth of merchandise was destroyed. Left was a spray-painted message punctuated with profanity scrawled over the store’s side wall mural. Sufficient evidence to prosecute the arsonist was never secured.
Underinsured by two-thirds but undaunted, Tass hung up a banner declaring “No End to the Front End.”
Her parents helped her rebuild, and customers donated stock.
Tass has since extended into the second floor, doubling her space to 1,400 square feet. She expanded the selection of new retro-inspired fashions by Southland brands such as Steady, No Dice and Von Dutch, as well as band merchandise, from the Reverend Horton Heat, Social Distortion and other band members who are customers. She also sells their albums, along with dozens of others by independent rockabilly, roots rock, swing and punk bands.
But that’s not all. She launched a Web site and is collaborating with Laguna Beach artisan Connie Archibald to create a line of weighty sterling silver jewelry that is festooned with crowns, angels, Chinese lettering or fleurs-de-lis. Social Distortion’s Mike Ness sports a pair of custom cuff links with guitars and flames.
Right now, though, Tass has only Sunday on her mind. There are the bands to coordinate--Jive Kings, Tex Twil, Creepy Nice Guy, Rumble Kings, Orangemen and Hellbound Hayride--twice as many as previous years. And an avalanche of more than 100 donated prizes for a raffle.
“I feel like this store has brought something more to the community than cool stuff,” Tass says. “I’m just happy to be able to do it again.”
324 N. Newport Blvd., Newport Beach; (949) 642-4720; www.frontendvintage.com.