The Raspberry Beret has had a love affair with beautiful textiles for the last 25 years, and has been in business in Northern California since 1991. We search for unique and unusual romantic and fantasy clothing , Gorgeous Vintage inspired Dresses and Romantic Period reproductions, for weddings , Party, Holiday and special occasions. we carry several well known designers lines.

Many of my repeat customers have written wanting to know more about me personally and my background, so I will oblige.
I grew up fascinated with history . My grandmother and my mother were both talented seamtresses and my grandfather was a lacemaker.
They taught me the trade.
As I matured my love for antique textiles and vintage clothing, became my obsession.


I met my husband Michael while living in Hawaii. After our second child was born we moved to Oregon for several years , and owned an antiques store.
In early 91' we decided to move to Northern Calif. to be closer to our
ageing parents.

I opened up my first clothing store (basicaly to validate my obsession for buying beautiful things) … and carried new & vintage clothing and costumes. I designed and created my own costumes and supplied many amateur and professional stage productions in the area. This extended into creating costumes for SCA and renaissance fairs.

In 1993, my sister Sherry joined me and we opened The Raspberry Beret, this venture was successful and a few years later we opened our second store. Sherry got married and moved a bit south and opened The Red Dress.

In early 1999 I began to explore the idea of selling on the internet and dabbled with selling on Ebay. As this venture grew I sold off one of the stores,
got a dot com and put The Raspberry Beret online