Like her last name suggests Milwaukee vintage clothing impresario Tina Poppy can often be found popping up all over town, easily recognized by her technicolor outfits, platinum blonde locks and beaming smile.

Poppy, who runs her online store Violetville Vintage out of her Riverwest home, has developed a worldwide following with her keen sense of fashion which she shares through her blog and the playful photo shoots she uses to sell her clothes.

It's a major shift from the banal corporate sales job Poppy found herself in following college.

"I burned out on it really fast. It just wasn't for me," said Poppy, "I didn't care about it and I have to care about it. I can't go through life not enthusiastic about what I am doing. It got to the point where the alarm would go off and I would be like 'I can't do it. I just can't do it.'"

She now finds herself making a living buying clothes, modeling them and hustling to meet the needs of her demanding clientele. Her enthusiasm shines through in everything she does, from her blog posts on fashion week trends to her vibrant photography.

While her online presence's professional glean would suggest otherwise, Violetville is a one-woman show. Poppy essentially taught herself on the fly how best to model, photograph and sell her clothes out of necessity.

"It was just massive trial and error. I cannot tell you how many days I have wasted with camera lighting," said Poppy, "I never planned on modeling for it or anything. I had this thing that wasn't even a mannequin. It didn't have any arms or legs or a head on it. It was just like a torso and I would throw the clothes on that and be like why don't these things sell? But a faceless torso doesn't really show what these clothes look like."

In the six years since Poppy launched her business the online vintage resale community has expanded immensely with sites like Etsy and Ebay helping to connect buyers and sellers like never before. The increased competition rapidly forced sellers to search for ways to stand out. Simultaneously the demand for vintage seemed to sky rocket as well.

"It used to be that someone would pull something out of the closet on a hanger, throw it on their bed, take a picture, put it on Ebay and that would be it," said Poppy, "Then people like me started styling things and doing these things that feel like high fashion photo shoots. That's when it became like this integrated thing where people started being able to access it in their normal every day lives. Then you throw bloggers into the mix and suddenly vintage became like this everyday thing."

Oddly Poppy, whose 3000-square-foot home is brimming with her finds, didn't grow up obsessing over fashion magazines or dreaming of making a living playing dress up someday.

"When I was younger I hated fashion magazines. I never wore makeup. It seemed so brain washy to me," said Poppy, " And it is, but I discovered that there is an art to it too."

After spending the early days of launching her business working 20 hour days, Poppy said she is eager to start exploring other projects.

"I hope Violetville goes on for ages, but it is getting to the point where I have time to devote myself to other things as well."