David Owens Vintage Clothing specializes in 1940’s through 1970’s vintage clothing for both women and men. The shop is located at 161 Rivington Street in the Lower East Side of Greenwich Village. It has been open for the past over fifteen years. David has been collecting vintage for over thirty- five years. Years ago he helped a friend open a shop and after that he began wholesaling vintage.

The first time I visited the shop I was impressed with the equal share of men’s and women’s wear, the quality of the merchandise, and the fact that the shop has reasonable prices. Also, the shop is very well organized, and attention to detail is carried over into the merchandise. Generally, anything that needs mending gets sent to the tailor prior to being put out on the sales floor. David also carries a wide array of accessories such as men’s 1940’s neckties, pocket squares, cuff links, bow clips, bow ties and suspenders. For women he has sweater clips, brooches, earrings, necklaces, scarves, and more. He has vintage dead stock sun glasses, hats for men and women, shoes, handbags and numerous other items. There is quite a large collection of men’s Hawaiian print shirts. One of the Hawaiian print shirts he currently has is from the 1940’s made by a company called Kahanamoku. For vintage collectors who like designer name items he has a wide variety, from clothing to accessories.  David is in the shop quite often, plus he has a full time manager, Chris, who is there five days a week. Chris has a degree in Fashion Merchandising from the Fashion Institute of Technology. He started working for David during his last semester at school and never left. The sales assistance you will receive there will be friendly, as well as knowledgeable of vintage.

Kahanamoku Shirt

There are several pieces of Jantzen’s bathing suits, and many others as well. There is a set of men’s wool Jantzen’s swim suit trunks from the 1930’s.  That one is also listed on the Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/DavidOwensVintage?ref=search_shop_redirect  The Etsy shop only has only a few pieces; however, there is also a Facebook page where they regularly post photos of the apparel. One could always write or call about the stock that is posted there.

Jantzen swim wear

1950’s Stephen O’Grady dress

1940’s jacket

For women’s wear there is a lovely variety of dresses, skirts, blouses, blazers and coats. Seasonally the shop carries vintage furs, for those of you who like fur coats. There is a lovely collection of hats, for both men and women who collect millinery pieces. For men David keeps a collection of blazers, sports jackets, shirts, slacks and he said many men like to collect apparel with the Playboy bunny logo. His collection of suspenders includes ones with the button hole and those with the clips instead.  If you are on a serious budget, there is usually a sales rack, plus there is a basket of ten dollar vintage scarves as well.

If you are in the area and can stop in to check out the shop I believe it will be well worth your time.  If you are a collector of vintage you will most likely find a place that you can return to time and time again.  I thoroughly enjoyed meeting both David and Chris and I, for one, think the David Owens Vintage Clothing shop is fantastic!

   All material & photos(except Jantzen ad from Flickr) written taken by: © Marilyn Lavender, 2015.  “All Rights Reserved.”

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