Tatters is a Tea Room and Sustainable Clothing Boutique in Warren
Enjoy tea service featuring owner Carol Riley's grandmother's recipes, then shop for beautiful handmade dresses, blouses and skirts made from repurposed lace, florals and linens.
Tea service at Tatters Tea Room and Handmade Clothing Boutique. Photo by Jamie Coelho.
Tatters is a tea room and sustainable shopping spree all rolled into one, located inside a converted church in Warren. The building with soft light streaming in through stained glass windows has been renovated into a retail and living space. The shop is run by Carol Riley, who hails from Ireland and bakes her family recipes for the shop’s tea tower of scones, Victoria sponge cake, chocolate ganache tart and raspberry crumble served with Devonshire clotted cream and jam. The spread also comes with tea sandwiches of hummus with pickled red cabbage, goat cheese with red pepper jelly, cucumber with cream cheese and egg salad alongside a pot of hot tea with milk and sugar, served in a delicate tea set.
Guests must book a reservation in advance to get the full high tea treatment, but it’s an afternoon well spent, especially when you make a day of it by exploring the shop’s sustainable fashions created from donated and recovered fabrics. The shop is lined with racks of tops, dresses and skirts made from repurposed lace, florals and delicate linens alongside Derby-worthy hats, bags and purses, and even handmade pillows, furniture and wooden bowls crafted by a local woodworker.
Tatters features handmade clothing and home goods made from sustainable fabrics.
The back corner of the charming retail shop is a tea room with mismatched chairs and tables that were either donated by people or found on the side of the road. But everything works together to create the sustainable vibe that Riley has cultivated. Even the delicate English, gold-rimmed tea sets on which the treats are served are donated to Riley, who gladly gives them a new home for all to enjoy.
“People come in and say something like, ‘Oh, my mom died, or my aunt died,’ and they give them to me,” Riley says. “There are some [tea sets] that are amazingly beautiful. I keep those elsewhere because if I use them, I’ll break them.”
Tatters started out as a handmade clothing and hat business that Riley founded more than forty years ago with her friend. “I always sewed my whole life, and my friend and I used to load up the car with stuff to sell and stand outside RISD,” Riley says. “And we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have a shop?’”
They officially launched the business as Tatters by renting a booth inside the Imagine Gift Store in Warren, selling sustainable clothing and handmade hats sewn from discarded or repurposed fabrics. “Thirty-eight years ago, I was doing the same thing I am now, but it wasn’t trendy at all back then,” she says. “Now it is. The reason that we called it Tatters was because we would take things that were in tatters and remake them.”
Soon, they moved into a space in Warren’s Cutler Mills for two years as owner David Westcott built the building’s artists’ studios that exist there now, and then they ended up leasing a small storefront in nearby Bristol, before moving the shop to Newport. When that didn’t work out, they decided to bring the business to their homes and travel to shows like Brimfield.
Business was going well, but Riley always wanted a live/work space of her own. When Riley’s sister became ill in Ireland, she and her husband moved back to care for her, and they nearly bought a school there to convert into a home and retail space. But her sister unfortunately passed away, so they decided to return to Rhode Island. That’s when Riley came upon the 1882 church that was for sale in Warren.
“Just to be nosy, I walked in and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I want it,’” Riley says. “I believe there’s no such thing as a coincidence. My maiden name is O’Hara, and before this was a church, somebody named O’Hara was involved in making it into a church.”
The Riley family bought the church in 2019 and converted it into living space and the retail shop over COVID. The timing was right to bring the building up to fire code. “There was a balcony, so for fire code, we had to put a ceiling in, so we would have had to close the shop to do the work anyway,” Riley says.
When the shop shut down due to the pandemic, Riley created face masks out of hospital scrubs for hospitals and medical workers since there was a shortage at the time. They also sold the masks out of a window at the front foyer of the building for all that needed them.
That business kept them going during Covid while work was being done in the shop. When the world reopened as the health risks from the pandemic faded, Tatters clothing business reignited.
Riley is still collecting textiles, including lace and linen table cloths, tea towels and handkerchiefs to turn into wearable clothing. Fabric continues to be donated. “People bring me boxes of fabric. Somebody just brought me amazing lace. She said her parents owned a lace factory in New York, and she knew I would use it,” Riley says. “It’s spectacular vintage lace.”
And now it will live on as wearable art.
Tatters is a cozy spot with limited seating and tea service must be reserved and prepared in advance for each guest. Reservations are required and necessary. Vegan service is available. Open Thurs.-Sun, noon-5 p.m. 324 Main St., Warren, 401-561-3703, tatters-boutique.com
