image description — Elizabeth Conkey opened Friperie Berkshires, a secondhand clothing shop offering high-end clothing with lower-end pricing.

New Secondhand Clothing Store Opens in Lee

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
12:45PM / Wednesday, July 23, 2025Print Story | Email Story

Owner Elizabeth Conkey says her collection is curated to find the best pieces.

LEE, Mass. — Elizabeth Conkey has moved her curated collection of thrift finds out of her guest room and into a storefront in downtown Lee.

Friperie Berkshires opened July 3 in the former storage space of the now closed Karen Keenan Gifts.

"I buy secondhand women's clothing and resell it here. I'm like a collections curator, I would say," Conkey said. "I handpick everything with the idea that it would be someone's wardrobe staple or super high-quality piece that would last a long time."

She started started selling the clothes out of her house through Instagram in late spring. Conkey said she has always enjoyed thrifting growing up and that this is something of a hobby for her.

"I've always been an avid thrifter. I grew up going to consignment stores and thrift stores with my mom, and I've just enjoyed doing that, through present day, and I love doing it with my friends, or I love going and finding something for a friend and surprising them with it. Yeah, it's just like a fun outlet," she said.

She wanted to share those finds with more than just friends, offering lightly used name brands and quality clothing at an affordable price.

"I love Lee, and I felt like it just needed a fun place for women to shop and find really stylish pieces without such a high price tag, because I feel like we have a lot of those kinds of stores in the Berkshires where you can get beautiful things, but you pay a lot for them," she said.

Conkey gets many of her finds from secondhand stores, though she's also considering taking consignments at some point. She said it's a sustainable way to keep clothes out of landfills as some of stores will throw them out if they don't sell after a while.

"Every time I go, I buy 50 pounds of clothing, and I'm reselling it. I mean, I'm saving all of those clothes from going to trash island, as they call it," she said. "So, I feel like it's really important. So I'm doing a duty by providing the community with a service, and a fun place to go and shop, but also, doing something great for the environment in time."

Her clothing comes from all over New England and she seeks to find the best things for her customers.

"I carry pretty high-end things. I'm always surprised about what I find when I'm at Goodwill and Savers and consignment stores I source from all around New England," Conkey said. "So it's not just here in the Berkshires. I'll go to Newport, Rhode Island. I'll go to Connecticut. I'll go out towards Boston. So I'm really cherry picking the best things that I'm finding."

When she lived near Paris, she would see "friperies," or thrift shops, and that was one inspiration to open her shop.

"I'm kind of taking that idea of a very European way of being more sustainable with fashion and curating a wardrobe that has really high-quality pieces that you can kind of mix and match easily, and bringing it to the Berkshires," Conkey said.

"I feel like I also want to promote the idea that you don't need a million pieces in your wardrobe. You really only need 20 or 30 pieces, and you can mix and match for the seasons and with accessories. And it can last you a long time."

Friperie Berkshires is open Friday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and by appointment throughout the week. You can make an appointment through her Instagram.

Tags: new business, clothing, secondhand, thrift store,

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Pryor & Peacock's Whimsical Furniture Environmentally Friendly

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:17AM / Friday, August 21, 2026

The company uses digital printing to create the upholstery fabric, saving water and saving vintage furniture from ending up in landfills.

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — A unique furniture store has popped up on Elm Street this month.

Mom-and-daughter store Pryor & Peacock is hosting the pop-up storefront from Aug. 13 to Aug. 25 at 6 Elm. The New Marlborough business is co-founded by Rosalina Wright and Luca Shapiro, who is also the creative director.

Their online shop was created in 2024 but they wanted people to see the pieces in person, so they're renting the space for a limited time before a long-term tenant moves in.

The store sources prints to create unique fabrics and reimagines vintage and antique furniture acquired at auctions, local shops, and online.

"We source prints from all over the world that date from the late 1600s up through mid-20th century, and Luca turns those prints into fabric by manipulating them, scanning them, oftentimes has to add or subtract things, and then we manufacture the fabric using only digital printing, which is very environmentally friendly, unlike traditional textile printing," Wright said.

Upholstering the furniture can take weeks of work. Shapiro looks for the perfect design for each piece and, if need be, uses Adobe Photoshop to extend the art work to fit or enhance the print.

"One of the most difficult parts comes in marrying the fabric to a piece of furniture because we only use antique and vintage frames also to be earth friendly, and they're also more beautiful and durable than new furniture," Wright said. "So the image has to go with the furniture, so that takes a lot of work."

One of Pryor & Peacock's missions is to be environmentally friendly. Digital printing doesn't use the same amount of water as traditional textile productions do nor does it contaminate water with ink according to their website.

Not only are they saving water, but they are saving furniture from going into the landfill while also using more durable furniture that doesn't break as easily as current pieces. They started their business to create something unique and to help the environment together.

"It's creating something nobody else is doing. People can't continue to buy throwaway furniture. Six percent of American landfills is furniture, and digital printing not only opens up the possibility of being able to put unique images on a piece of furniture, but it also is, as I said, environmentally friendly. So, for us, the excitement is to take an old East Lake settee that somebody's going to store in their barn and forget about, and make it something completely new and surprising," Wright said.

They hope their furniture helps bring a pop of fun to someone's home.

"We think our furniture is very whimsical and surprising, and most furniture today is oatmeal colored couches and gray neutral chairs, and it's boring," she said.

The two named their business after their mothers' maiden names to honor them and believe the name reflects their pieces.

Shapiro works in interior design outside of the business and the two liked working together and thought it would be great to start a business together. Shapiro says they can work well together and that her and her mother, Wright, has flipped houses before and have the same eye for design.

"So it's very easy for us to work together. When we see something, generally we agree on whether it works or doesn't work on a piece. We agree on the color schemes and that sort of thing. So it's very fun and fulfilling to work together," Shapiro said.

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