Step into Dion’s Haberdashery at 745 Broadway and you’ll find vintage clothing chosen by someone who clearly enjoys its history. Owner Dion Teague has a particular fondness for sturdy coats and jackets, along with hats, shoes and luggage. His shop fits naturally among Antique Row’s stores, though the path that brought him there was anything but predictable.
Teague spent 18 years working as a clinical psychologist. In the mid-1980s, a Tacoma job helping injured logging workers sent him into the forests around Morton, Randle and Packwood. Showing up in a suit, tie and shiny shoes made him realize he needed a wardrobe better suited to the Northwest.
That search introduced him to rugged clothing from names such as Pendleton and Filson, and an interest in vintage fashion took hold. He has also become drawn to old letterman sweaters, including pieces made by regional knitting mills. One of those mills, Quality Knitting Mills, once stood across Broadway from an earlier location of his shop—a particularly Tacoma connection between the clothes and the street where he sells them.
Teague began selling from a space inside Sanford & Son Antiques in 2018. Since then, he has moved into larger spaces; he told the Weekly Volcano that he has been at the current location for about two years. The growing shop reflects a hobby that, by his own account, became something closer to an obsession.
That is only the straightforward version of his story. In Alan Gorsuch’s interview for the Weekly Volcano, Teague tells it with considerable humor—including an incident on Broadway involving a vintage cowboy outfit that is better heard from him.
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