Boston Vintage Shopping

[ChrissyM]

dreamecho you're leading me toward a very dangerous place!!

can't say that i mind though

thanks for the heads up, i'll have to check it out sometime when I've got some money to spare.. i've got to be good and save up for christmas spending!

[lucy92]

im not too keen on oona's actually.

i like the goodwill in davis square. its among one of the largest goodwills and its where a lot of rich folks get rid of their clothes.

[dreamecho]

lucy, thanks for the info about goodwill in davis square! i'll have to go there sometime...soon!

just out of curiosity, why don't you like oona's?

[mundodabolsa]

Well you didn't ask me, but...

personally I find oonas to be more of a place to find stuff for costumes, not necessarily halloween but more theatrical costumes, not so much for clothing I'd actually wear. But then again I suck at vintage shopping, I just lack that knack for finding things, so maybe it's a me problem and not an oonas problem

[lucy92]

the goodwill HQ in the south end has auctions the first weekend in the month. ive never gone, but it certainly sounds interesting...
they also have a section in the store that has higher end clothes for less than 15$. ive gotten some nanette lepore dresses there.

oonas has too many jokey clothes (bet lots of people are trolling it for costumes this time of the year) and i think its pricey for what it is...

and next time you are in new york, check out the city opera thrift store. its pricey, but it has some really nice items...

[lucy92]

has anyone checked out the south end open market for clothes? i've never been....

another good idea is checking out the brimfield antiques show in harvard, ma.
they have TONS of clothes. they do it two weeks out of the year. and its the largest antique show in the country i think. ive never been, but members of my family have gotten amazing things there.

[mundodabolsa]

^when are those two weeks?

[ChrissyM]

lucy how do you know all these things and all these places

it's amazing!

[lucy92]

http://www.brimfieldshow.com/

here's the official page...we've got a long wait until the next one.

another good idea is checking out private school rummage sales and synagogue rummage sales.

i went to a synagogue sale in newton a few years ago and scored some prada lambskin boots. when i was trying to pay for it "ooh prada, dont you know who this is?". i said "pra-who"? i pretended i had never heard of the brand.

[lucy92]

theres a very good rummage sale in beverly this weekend at the shore country day school (kerry healey's children go there - its that fancy). last year, i got some manolo blahnik snakeskin shoes for a dollar and some nice dresses. and they have a special section where the fancy stuff goes. a few hours later its fill a bag for a dollar.

i would reccomend y'all go there this saturday or make a note of it for next year.

unfortunately, i wont be able to go on saturday as im leaving town, but my mother and i are going to attempt to sneak into the pre-sale on friday. its that good.

thanks, chrissym!

[lucy92]

there's a new vintage store in cambridge on mass ave between porter and harvard squares called "history". it just opened this week.

there's not a whole lot in the store but there are a lot of fabulous pieces (ie. ysl rive gauche, bergdorf, courreges, jp gaultier, balenciaga etc). prices ranged from between 20$ to 200$. all of it looks dry cleaned and there are some new items there as well.

im not sure how long the store is going to last seeing as how expensive some of the pieces were, but the items are all consistently good. its worth checking out especially if you are a smaller sized and sick of going to the garment district and coming up empty.

there are two racks of mens items.

[mundodabolsa]

lucy you're amazing! that store is 1 block away from my apt, I had NO idea it's a clothing store, I don't know why I put it in my head that it was going to be a hair salon and forgot to check back...

thank you! thank you!

[dreamecho]

Three cheers for lucy! You just keep on hooking us up.

I live a few minutes away from Harvard Sq., so I will definitely be checking out History very soon!

[lucy92]

another new store! this one is a high end consignment store in jamaica plain. one that i havent been to though. maybe ill check it out after the holidays...

eva b consignment
603 centre street

http://www.evabconsignment.com

[lucy92]

story and photo from the boston herald. the photo is of a dress at the garment district. that's a pretty awesome dress, imo.

And Goodwill to all... As post-Christmas donations pour in, thrift shops lure savvy shoppers
Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Forget the pre-Christmas crush ’n’ rush - this post-New Year’s period is ripe with deals for the uber-thrifty.
Those privy to shopping bargains wait until after the holidays to hit local consignment shops, Goodwill centers and other thrift stores, bypassing malls and department stores to spend that leftover Christmas cash.
And it’s all because this time of year many folks are clearing out their closets, making New Year’s resolutions and beating the Dec. 31 deadline to get a tax deduction through donation.
“Aside from moving day in September, this is the No. 1 time of year for donations,” said Elizabeth Donovan, manager of Garment District in Cambridge. “They’re just pouring in.”
At places such as Garment District, Jamaica Plain’s Boomerangs and Urban Renewals of Allston, the outpouring of donations means secondhand deals get passed down to those who search for them.
“It would make sense,” said 33-year-old Somerville resident Angela Coraccio, who despite not being “as fanatical about it” as she used to be, has been an avid thrift shopper for years. “People get all kinds of new stuff for the holidays, and then it’s out with the old stuff.”
Diego Sanchez, public relations director for the AIDS Action Committee, the group that founded Boomerangs in 1996, said the JP shop and its nearby donation center at the Sam Adams Brewery have been “booming” with donations.
Boomerangs manager Jasmine Crafts said any donor giving to the store is supporting the AAC and thus eligible for a tax break come April 15. Many donations come in the form of excess clothing people don’t need anymore or, as she put it, “that Christmas gift that didn’t quite work out.”
And then there’s the more obvious reason.
“This is the time of year we make things called New Year’s resolutions, and people attempt to create order in their life,” Sanchez said. With that comes a slew of fresh starts, from the closet to the kitchen.
“There’s this sense of, ‘It’s New Year’s, I have to get rid of stuff,’ ” added Donovan. “Plus people are thinking, ‘I gotta look good this time of year.’ ”
That adds up to shopper’s bliss, if you know when and where to look.
Allston thrift shop aficionado Jussi Gamache said seasonal planning is the key to finding bargain-basement deals.
“In my experience, the cycle is related to what students are doing,” said Gamache. “Summer is better since they’re mostly gone, August is the best since the ones that are here are getting rid of stuff before they move and October is terrible because they’re all looking for costumes.”