DEARBORN HEIGHTS — Most clothing store owners cater to a specific audience and stock their inventories accordingly. Vic Skelly, however, can’t figure out his specific customer-base for the life of him.

“We keep track and we have no real demographic here, which is really bizarre,” he says between racks of bellbottoms and colorful dresses similar to those in the movie, “Hairspray.” A mannequin donning a bright red fedora and matching boa sits atop one of the racks and overlooks the store. “We are not supported by any one particular niche group.” His patrons include anyone from punk rockers and cross-dressers to firefighters and local politicians.

Skelly, 48, is the owner and founder of V-Male Detroit Vintage, a clothing outlet that specializes in outfits from the 40s through the 80s. What’s more is that most of the clothes are authentic deadstock — or never-before-worn period clothing with the original price tags on them and everything. (His shoe section smells just as new as if you had gone anywhere else.) Some of his collection is made up of brand new pieces modeled after old styles.

“I’ve got three storage units worth of clothes that nobody’s even seen yet,” Skelly says. This is not to mention his backroom, which is also stocked to max capacity. “I buy the stuff in quantity and then I put it away because I’ve got no where else to put it.”

V-Male Detroit has been open for the last three years. The clothes and décor come from all around the country. Skelly has connections in New York who ship him dresses that now hang under his collection of Betty Page art that he picked up from a broker in Iowa. The explosion-proof lightbulbs once hung in an old Ethyl Gasoline factory, and much of the woodwork comes from Harry’s Department Store after it closed. “Just being in here is almost like a history lesson,” he says, admiring his own thriftiness.

The store’s origins are from the road, where Skelly would take his collection of women’s undergarments to trade shows.

“They have this big rockabilly show in Vegas – Viva Las Vegas. I’m one of the main vendors there and they nicknamed me ‘The Panty Man’ because, suddenly, I’d have 60 pairs of women’s panties on my desk!”

Nowadays, his extensive lingerie collection is displayed on a circular rack under a pale pink light and a troupe of mannequins wearing an array of corsets, garters, girdles and cinchers.

Skelly has long been a fan of older styles. As he put it, this all stems from “playing under clothing racks as a kid.”

“My mom and my aunt would go shopping a lot and they always took me with them, so they’d be shopping at Vanity Fair or a lingerie shop and I’d be running through the racks,” he says. “Just one of those funny things.”

The name of the store, V-Male, is a play on words: During World War II, mail was sent in bulk to soldiers overseas to keep morale up. The bags of letters were called Victory Mail, or V-Mail.

Skelly gets by with one employee, Kim Mitchell, and he says he’d “be lost without her.” “She does all the stuff I can’t do or don’t know about.”

Mitchell and Skelly hooked up through a mutual friend and they’ve been working together for the last two years. Mitchell laughs and says some of her friends “wish they could work here so that they can shut the door and use this as their personal closet.”

“My favorite thing about the shop is the fierce loyal customer base,” Mitchell says. “It’s ferocious. We have an amazing customer base. The people, they come in and talk to us like we’re family. Just amazing people.”

“It’s kind of like we’re the best kept secret downriver,” Skelly says. “We still, on a daily basis, have people walk through the door and say, ‘We didn’t even know you were here!’”

V-Male Detroit Vintage is located at 23902 Van Born Road, just a few blocks east of Telegraph Road. It is open Wednesdays through Saturdays from noon to 8 p.m., and Sundays from noon to 6 p.m.

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Dearborn Heights clothing outlet has loyal, diverse customer base that loves outfits from 40s – 80s