Stroll in the Village of NYC- Visiting Vintage Shops

Spring is in the air although it still has been chilly and very windy here. The last couple of weekends I have been taking strolls with the aim to visit vintage shops so as to tell you a bit about the places I find or revisit those that I had found before. The cluster of vintage boutiques is larger in the East Village as opposed to the West. There are a few really nice ones in the West Village but due to the rents and the atmosphere I think most of them seem to be on the east side of Fifth Avenue down through the Alphabet Avenues. The West Village is very lovely and if you like old architecture it is a great destination, plus the restaurants and cafes are fantastic. The East Village seems to have naturally retained more of the creative vibe that twenty or thirty years ago, was spread all throughout the entire Village. The shops are more clustered so if for instance you wanted to spend an afternoon shopping for vintage clothes you would have a many shops to choose from. I will write more about other ones I find or go back to as the season progresses but today I wanted to focus a bit on the ones I have found that have superior quality, in that for clothing their items hanging in their shops are in very good condition. Therefore if you are not so inclined to be handy with a needle and thread you do not have to worry about fixing up the garments. Plus the care taken to present the clothing in a neat and organized way is also fantastic. There are some shops that are great but their shelves are so overloaded it makes it difficult to easily see everything. I am sure they are loading up their shop with inventory and perhaps they have no storage nearby. I think it is easier to see the clothing, relax and really enjoy your shopping when the clothing is presented in such a way that the shelves have enough space so that you can really move the hanger and see the garments. Vintage is delicate and you wouldn’t want to be tugging on the hangers for the sake of the clothes anyway. I am hoping to go back to a few of these shops and interview the owners and write more about their shops.

David Owens Vintage Clothing has a great collection of vintage clothing and jewelry for men and women and the quality of his merchandise and the display is fantastic. It is evident how much care he puts into his shop. He always has nice shirts and ties for men, so if you are looking for something unique for a man that likes vintage this is a good place to go. I know a lot of you really like my retro and vintage paisley post. I would assume that this shop has a nice collection of paisley items. He seems to have a bit of everything. The shop address is 154 Orchard Street.

Dusty Buttons storefront- photo by owner

Dusty Buttons

The Upper Rust

There are also some nice shops that sell furniture or collectibles. The Upper Rust is at 445 East 9^th Street and the outside corner looks as if you have taken a stroll into a smaller community in a town upstate due to their collection of vintage housewares or collectibles that they sit outside the shop.

Right next door is Dusty Buttons which is a lovely vintage shop where the owner sells vintage and vintage inspired clothing. She said all the new clothing is either made in the US or fair trade certified. Her shoe collection is from Europe. Her shop is small and very colorful. She has some very pretty dresses! Her shop is at 441 East 9^th Street. I haven’t worked my way up to buying all new items fair trade certified, but as I am slowly reducing and being more conscious of what I buy, that is what I aim for.

John Derian Company

65 Bleeker Street Old architectural facade

When it comes to vintage it is also important to not forget the good old staples of Army Navy shops. Army Navy Bags Fashion is a small army navy shop on the Lower East Side that has been around for years. It is a go to place for a reasonably priced army navy jacket and bags. I bought my army navy jacket there, so did my one of my friends and my daughter bought her army navy bag there. She inadvertently set off an alarm at the airport due to her bag having traces of gun powder. She handed them her bag and explained it came from an army navy shop and after they searched it she was on her way. I guess airport security is very sensitive these days!

John Derian Company has vintage inspired furniture and vintage housewares. The sofa I took of photo of was over $6,000 but it was a beauty. There are three shops containing John Derian’s work, one has prints and other housewares with vintage inspired items. It appears to be a mix of new and old in general.

If you are on the hunt for some antique oddities and houseware items such as taxidermy for your walls, old medical supplies, or antique circus items check out Obscura at 207 Avenue A, just below 13^th Street. I didn’t take any pictures but they have an odd collection of unique antique collectibles.

If you walk west and want to complete your walk in a vintage fashion you might enjoy a meal at Hamilton’s Diner on West 4^th Street, at 51 Bank Street. The counter is a reclaimed antique counter and the atmosphere is small and cozy. The shiny metal appliances and round stools at the counters are so 1940’s! They have five dollar burgers and an array of sodas that they make as well as fizzes, sundaes, and milk shakes. I really enjoyed the two times I have been there and plan to return soon. I didn’t get a picture of the place but if I do soon I will post it in here later on.

While you are the in the area, if you have time stop by and check out the vintage shop Geminola which is at 41 Perry Street. The shop is incredibly beautiful and filled with vintage women’s clothing, much of which the owner lovingly upcycles or makes from vintage fabrics. The shops prices are expensive, however for the sake of art, even if it is out of your price range one could enjoy visiting this shop. She also has some vintage clothing for little girls. Her dresses are often one of a kind, so if one can afford them they are well worth the cost for the unique quality and craftsmanship.

There are so many other vintage shops in the village and particularly if you can mend and sew there are several places where one can buy vintage at rather reasonable prices. Some of the lower priced stores will carry vintage that the shop does not repair or alter to fix seams falling apart, and buttons falling off. If you can repair the clothing yourself than that’s fine!

No Relation Vintage is a rather popular shop and as far as fake fur coats go they seem to have had a nice collection this past winter. They also usually have some Gunne Sax dresses from the 1970’s or 1980’s. They have a good amount of both men’s and women’s apparel. No Relation Vintage is at 202 1^st Avenue. There is also Village Style at 111 East 7^th Street and many others. I will go into these more another time. In the West Village there is also Star Struck Vintage on 47 Greenwich Avenue which has an eclectic mix of vintage clothing for men and women.

I have found that some of the very old vintage shops have changed through the years. Reminiscence has changed a lot. They have moved over to 74 5^th Avenue and it seems they focus on selling lower priced items, in terms of vintage than they used to years ago. Prices have dropped a lot, most likely due to the cost of the current mass produced clothing that is made out of the US and sold for barely more than it costs to manufacture. I felt a bit sad that the shop seems to have succumbed to that pressure to lower the price of vintage (which also means not having as much higher quality items) for the sake of selling a lot of it. However all shops have to find their own way to survive in today’s economy! Plus they are now located right near a university so therefore all the more reason to make things affordable to students. If their average customer is under age thirty for instance, they won’t know the difference about the way they were say thirty years ago.

All in all it is fun to walk around and explore the vintage shops and enjoy the scenery. Happy spring!!