In Liverpool, we took a broader definition of thrift and had an eye-opening trip to Greatie. That’s the name locals give to the Great Homer Street Market, a so-called “wholesale” clothing market that sells direct to the public on Saturdays from about 100 indoor and outdoor stalls. There’s a lot more here than clothes. From [...]
If you needed convincing that thrifting is widespread, imagine our surprise at finding four thrift stores in the market town of Cootehill in County Cavan, Ireland, population 1,853. Three of them -- the Palliative Care Charity Shop (run by the Irish Hospice Foundation), Vincent’s (run by St. Vincent’s de Paul) and New2U Charity [...]
Certain vintage stores elevate themselves beyond mere inventories and become museums of our past. This is absolutely the case with Sweet Lorain in Cleveland, Ohio, which is a veritable department store of clothes and collectibles from every era of American life sweeping back a century. With 10,000 square feet of racks, shelves and furniture groupings, [...]
Thank you, Dublin charity shops, for locating within paces of each other on the same street. Shoppers on central city’s South Great George’s Street can quickly check the new offerings at the shops run by Oxfam, St. Vincent de Paul and Enable Ireland and then head a street away for the vintage shops in the [...]
You know that a brand has cachet when you start seeing knockoffs. For Whiting & Davis, a maker of metal mesh purses that has been in business in Massachusetts since 1876, knockoffs have been a sincere form of flattery for almost that long. (The current knockoffs come from China.) Originals are highly collectible. You can [...]
We’ve seen a lot of thrifts, but never one as neat as a pin as the British Heart Foundation shop in downtown Liverpool, England. Every garment was not only tagged with price and size, but it was hung on a hanger with the appropriate little black box size square. Every rack was spaced evenly with [...]
Three years ago, Allison took a darning class at French General in Los Angeles, the always-on-trend store with new and vintage fabric, notions, trims and French ephemera run by designer Kaari Meng. It's the sort of store that hits all the right notes, and its workshops, field trips and European excursions are our idea of [...]
