LondonNet Shopping Feature

It’s a strangely gratifying feeling to find something dog-eared and bedraggled, weighted with accumulative layers of time, relegated to a bargain bin long ago by someone to whom it was worthless. It’s a value universal in the world of vintage, used and derelict objects. I once found a copy of a Throbbing Gristle LP in the dregs of a Salvation Army charity shop, and was amazed by the fact that it had apparently remained so long undiscovered – but then, this recalls another adage as worn as the array of cowboy boots gracing the shelves of East End shop Beyond Retro – one man’s treasure is another man’s junk.

The component of the appeal of vintage shopping that is probably most puzzling to outsiders is the act itself, which is often less shopping as it is sorting through piles of what are quite often just dirty, old objects – but this search is unhampered by dry spells that can endure for weeks or months. It’s equally unhampered by the magnitude of the putative “junk” to sort through – the hope of the ultimate find that may be in the next shelf or in the next box is sufficient motivation to spend hours pillaging charity shops and suburban garage sales. The Swans LP I found at a charity shop was the last record in the last box I flipped through in a room filled with LP boxes, and it was entirely worth the hour or so necessary to look at them all.

These sorts of finds, though, are rare in metropolises, because they’re generally dependent on the ignorance of the seller as to the value of the item, or, as difficult as it is to imagine with gems like that Throbbing Gristle record, a long line of ignorance through which the item has passed. And since London generally seems to attract more experienced, savvy shoppers, the possibility of a genuine chance find is even more remote. But although central London contains a number of vintage, antique and record shops whose extravagant prices and extremely rare wares make them more like museums than stores, some relative bargains can still be found.

This store, located near the University of London, is composed of two long rooms with a decent selection of dresses, blouses, shirts and jackets at reasonable prices, with some army surplus gear toward the rear. The store specialty, though, is its bevy of traditional Indian and Asian pieces, including Mandarin-collared dresses and colourful garb with intricate embroidery. Prices range from five to twenty UKP for shirts and dresses, with higher prices for leather jackets and camouflage pieces.

Rokit
107 Brick Lane
Tube: Aldgate East

This painfully hip store with three branches around London proffers retro clothes at prices rarely below twenty UKP. According to a store clerk, the stock is imported from a mother company in Canada and pre-priced, which makes it automatically suspect, and shoe prices are criminal - but the rare, moderately priced find makes a stop here worthwhile.

Beyond Retro
112 Chesire Street
Tube: Aldgate East

An excellent emporium with a veritable warehouse of vintage clothing in all manner of styles, this gem of a store, located a few blocks off of Brick Lane among industrial, derelict-looking buildings, is a haven for weathered vintage shoppers and fashion-industry types alike. Prices are some of the best bargains you’ll find in central London – rarely more than ten UKP for shirts, blouses and heels, fifteen UKP for dresses, and thirty for jackets and boots. Some household wares and furniture are offered, too, along with myriad accessories, bags and sunglasses. The shoe range is well maintained and appealingly arranged according to colour, and the sweaters and shirts are laid out likewise. Although the store bills itself as “American Retro in London”, the pieces are obviously culled from Canadian and American rag houses. The slightly Misleading advertising notwithstanding, Beyond Retro is the best of its kind in central London, achieving the rare coupling of a lack of pretension with a keen eye for style.

Salvation Army Store
9 Princes Street
Tube: Oxford Circus

This sparse but well-kept store is tucked around the corner from the high street mecca of Oxford Circus, but is hardly the sort of dirt-cheap Salvation Army free-for-all so common in the suburbs. Clearly catering to high street types willing to wander ever slightly off-path (two-thirds of a block, to be precise) to do some rummaging through this store’s less than ample racks. Items are generally moderately priced, following the Rokit model of slapping a thirty UKP price on anything looking vaguely out of the movie Repo Man.

Portobello Road Market
Notting Hill Gate tube
Fridays, about 8am-4pm

Although the rest of the market runs through the weekend, the best day to go for vintage shopping is Friday. The wide array of decades and styles represented in the stalls underneath the canopy, several blocks past the antiques and foods, attracts both casual shoppers and designers in need of inspiration, and, accordingly, some stallholders cater to the latest runway trends. Prices are generally low, but since stallholders know their stuff, rarer finds can top fifty pounds.