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#1 2022-05-09 02:46:35

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

A Plethora Of 'Retro'/'Vintage' Shops...

...  now popping up in the most unexpected places, including, now, the rather dismal little town (surrounded by pretty countryside) in which I live. 
I can't help wondering how long it'll last, a small shop well away from the main drag, in a town where the 'Pensioners' Special' (after two p.m. - I hope you're taking note, Woof: cod and chips, mushy peas, bread and scrape, nice pot of tea) remains the height of the average citizens' day.  (It was on the main street, some dozen years ago, hearing some old trout proclaim she'd never been in an aeroplane 'Because if God wanted us to fly, He'd have given US wings.  Yes, folks, it's really that kind of place). 
So what can their target audience possibly be?  The kids here prefer spending their parents' cash on computer games and skateboards.  The 'student population' is zero, well away to the south and - to a lesser extent - the east and north. 
I pressed my nose against the window.  It's not a huge space and, although they'd left their board it, not only was it closed but there was nothing useful on the door or in the window regarding anything useful like opening hours.  You can, needless to say, follow their every twitch and jerk on social media.
The upside?  It looked not uninteresting - indeed, quite collegiate in the centre.  There were piles of Levis and Dickies in the window.  The shirts looked a tad better than the average offerings (usually RL and TH).  So...

 

#2 2022-05-09 02:52:29

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: A Plethora Of 'Retro'/'Vintage' Shops...

The last one we had, situated along the main road (thundering traffic) was a beaut: musty, smelly, rammed with items you wouldn't wrap your dog in for a trip to the vet, an owlish girlie with dyed hair glaring at her 'phone and not too interested in running a business efficiently.
Probably doing well now on Etsy and Ebay.

 

#3 2022-05-09 03:23:08

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: A Plethora Of 'Retro'/'Vintage' Shops...

I'm hoping to obtain, at no great cost, a demob suit and sneakers, so that I can be more like Sir Woof Jagger.
I shall then appear on the streets and grand boulevards of Staines, practising my dance steps.
I cannot get me, no siree, any amount of satisfaction...

 

#4 2022-05-09 04:01:41

Kingston1an
Member
Posts: 4179

Re: A Plethora Of 'Retro'/'Vintage' Shops...

There is also a plethora of ’streetfood’ colonising and in many cases completely obliterating traditional markets.

Coffee sold from those corrugated Citroen vans, exotic items from every part of the globe.

I would have thought there was a price limit on this type of fodder but apparently not. A tenner plus in Shoreditch. For that money I want a table and seat, crockery and cutlery.


"Florid, smug, middle-aged golf club bore in this country I'd say. Propping up the 19th hole in deepest Surrey bemoaning the perils of immigration."

 

#5 2022-05-09 04:11:21

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: A Plethora Of 'Retro'/'Vintage' Shops...

'Streetfood' is perhaps more enjoyable abroad.  We used to enjoy German and Belgian food in Rialto Market during our trips to Venice.  What is more ubiquitous in Blighty is jacket potato heaped with dollops of baked beans into a flimsy carton and eaten with a plastic fork.  Scarcely alluring.
We were in Matlock around Saturday lunchtime.  An Italian restaurant was, needless to say, closed, the owners doubtless knowing the average visitor to Matlock is content with fish and chips or a supermarket sandwich.  Streetfood might have been welcome if continental.  But not if overpriced.
We used to have great fun at the French markets that used to turn up here, our so-called middle class EU enthusiasts trying out their limited schoolgirl French only to be told (rather frostily) by the stallholder, 'We all speak English, Madame'.
We stopped going when we realised their mark-up on cheese was becoming a joke.

 

#6 2022-05-09 05:09:14

Spendthrift
Member
Posts: 659

Re: A Plethora Of 'Retro'/'Vintage' Shops...

'Street food' as an idea has just been bastardised to suit our tastes and economy hasn't it? In much the same way as every supermarket are peddling their own 'artisan' ranges. Put it in black packaging and stick a drawing of a tree on it. They'll fall for it.

There's a world of difference between a Thai on their way to work swinging his clear plastic bag of 10p stew, and fighting for space at Greenwich market to eat your £12 burger before it spills over your trousers.

These vintage/retro shops are cropping up more. Of course they've always been there as another side to house clearance businesses. Clothing wise, they probably like the idea of running a 'real' shop as opposed to a warehouse, but as AFS says, all the activity will be on-line.

 

#7 2022-05-09 05:15:12

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: A Plethora Of 'Retro'/'Vintage' Shops...

It's easy to forget this (if, indeed, one ever knew it in the first place) but these places have existed in one form or another at least as far back as the late 1970s.  Even Derby (not then a city) had 'Society' (not much cop) and 'ID', and Nottingham had far better places.  No social media then of course.  If they failed to open they failed to sell.  But the owner of ID made the mistake of stocking some rather expensive leather jackets.  The local teddy boys just walked in and helped themselves.  These were tough boys from the local council estates, unimpressed by a small number of art school, floppy-haired poseurs.

 

#8 2022-05-09 05:16:26

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: A Plethora Of 'Retro'/'Vintage' Shops...

I mean, if challenged, of course, they'd have kicked your head in.

 

#9 2022-05-09 05:28:05

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: A Plethora Of 'Retro'/'Vintage' Shops...

Needless to say, the main problem with most of these places is the people who run them, with their cutsie-pie Hashtag/Rainbow nation mentality.  Hockley in Nottingham abounds in such places.  Very off-putting for a dyed-in-the-wool old reactionary fart like AFS.

 

#10 2022-05-09 10:22:29

Spendthrift
Member
Posts: 659

Re: A Plethora Of 'Retro'/'Vintage' Shops...

AFS - ‘It's easy to forget this (if, indeed, one ever knew it in the first place) but these places have existed in one form or another at least as far back as the late 1970s.’

Yes. I remember as late as ‘89, some areas of towns having more than a few second hand clothes shops. Usually decorated as, and as inviting as a large coal shed. Always coats hanging all round the doorway and hoarding, with the proprietor standing blocking your way. Almost challenging you to ruin their day by entering. Roll up hanging out of his/her mouth.
Probably everything piled up inside was natural fibre and British made.

 

#11 2022-05-09 11:30:55

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: A Plethora Of 'Retro'/'Vintage' Shops...

Pre-Internet, one was forever on a voyage of discovery.  I suppose this began for me around 1969, when I first began trying to track down DC and Marvel comic-books.  Less than ten years later, I'd get on a coach to Manchester to visit Virgin Records.  My father often took the train to London or Birmingham to buy/trade records.  In the last year of his life he was content to have me obtain rare CDs from the USA on Amazon or Ebay.  The thrill of the chase has largely gone.  It's like dating on Tinder (or, for those of you whose tastes run in the opposite direction, Grinder).  No thrill.  No romance.  No wistful yearnings.
Thank heaven, late this afternoon, I cheered myself up listening to Fred Astaire.

 

#12 2022-05-09 15:16:18

AlveySinger
Member
Posts: 900

Re: A Plethora Of 'Retro'/'Vintage' Shops...

Vintage clothing fairs seem to be all the rage with the yuuff.

The Singer daughter. She of teenage age and temper dragged me to one last Saturday.

Clothes being sold by weight. Nothing of interest to me

 

#13 2022-05-10 04:11:22

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: A Plethora Of 'Retro'/'Vintage' Shops...

The shop turns out to be actually rather good.  The owner is bringing in consignments from the USA.  Saw Carhartt, Dickies, Levis, Ralph Lauren, Champion, Russell Athletic, Lands End, Patagonia etc.  Nothing much to thrill me nowadays but quite encouraging.

 

#14 2022-05-10 05:02:45

colin
Bright Light
Posts: 1365

Re: A Plethora Of 'Retro'/'Vintage' Shops...

Good stuff does still pop up in vintage shops - my highlight being a late 50s dogtooth cashmere overcoat made in USA for £50 in beyond retro in Soho.

Obviously 99.9% dross, but I find you can search easily, based on glancing at fabrics for quality.

That said, I wouldn't really bother much now, mainly as a I don't really need new old stuff!

 

#15 2022-05-10 07:16:52

AlveySinger
Member
Posts: 900

Re: A Plethora Of 'Retro'/'Vintage' Shops...

AFS,
Fred Astaire def cheers you up. His recordings should be mandatory listening at GCSE level.
Heard today Ella singing Night in Tunisia. Pure magic.
Tonight at Singer Towers will be a festival of Shorty Rogers in honour of the warm weather.

 

#16 2022-05-10 11:38:16

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: A Plethora Of 'Retro'/'Vintage' Shops...

I very much like the idea of a pure cashmere overcoat.  The closest I've managed was a wool/cashmere mix back in 2008: Italian-made.  Peter Pan collar.  I guess I outgrew it in the end but I remember wearing it one afternoon on a trip to Russell Street and feeling overdressed.  I shall always remember that day: I took a piss at the 'Guardian' offices.  Polly Toynbee was nowhere to be seen.  Possibly she does not hang around near the gents' lav. 

Fred cheers me immensely.

'We joined the navy
To see the world -
And what did we see? -
We saw the sea...'

 

#17 2022-05-13 03:41:46

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: A Plethora Of 'Retro'/'Vintage' Shops...

And now, less than a hundred yards away from my front door - ta-ra - the 'new' monthly Friday flea market. 
Quite a nice Harris Tweed jacket on sale: charcoal, almost black, with a very subtle fleck; verging on rockabilly.  Not really 'Ivy League' but all right for £20.  Seller was an overripe but quite sexy bird with greying hair and dark glasses.  I gave her my Invertere to hold: 'Oh, I sell lots of these...'  Was she bullshitting?  The jacket was a shit fit and went back on the rail. 
Then I had some fat, wheezing prole attempt to engage me in a conversation about Art Deco pottery.  He heard nothing of what I had to say about Susie Cooper so, clutching my wholemeal loaf, I came home.

 

#18 2022-06-30 06:11:53

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: A Plethora Of 'Retro'/'Vintage' Shops...

I'm beginning to wonder whether I'll ever bother visiting a 'vintage' shop again.  Maybe some in London are still worth bothering with but those within striking distance of me are much of a muchness, focussed as they are on a far younger clientele.  And fair play to them.  They're not 'Ivy League' (even though they sometimes, almost inadvertently, sell items of Ivy League clothing) - more 'generic Americana'.  I believe 'Wild' in Nottingham still does well.  No longer of much interest to me, though.  And my daughter has now moved from Nottingham to TRSs home city.

 
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