Brian Patrick stood outside of an abandoned office building in Welch, West Virginia, surveying its decaying interior. The flooring had mostly collapsed, but the beams held. A filing cabinet stood against a back wall.On top of the cabinet was some sort of trinket, but through the inky inner sanctum, Brian couldn’t make out its size or shape.Wanting a closer look, he shimmied out onto one of the beams, reached up, and snatched the ornament. Back out in the light, he examined its jagged edges. Strange. Eerie almost. A plaster dental cast with missing front teeth. Brian tucked the cast into a jacket pocket and kept exploring.
A selection of vintage apparel from Union Overall Company. (Photo courtesy of Farahn Morgan)
He held onto the half smile for years. Now, it’s displayed behind a cigar case inside the Norfolk, Virginia, store he owns with his wife, Brandy Collins. “It’s my strangest pick by far,” he says.
The space feels built for it.
Union Overall Company, which formally launched in 2024, specializes in intentionally made and curated vintage apparel that dates back to the early 20th century. The glass case and the set of teeth, the shelves made from old hen nesting boxes, the stacks of vintage radios that draw the eye toward mannequins in Ivy League prep, they give the place a stylish but lived-in sensibility.
