My favourite vintage

In this blog I aim to rate some of the vintage stores I visited whilst I was living in London.

I also wish to share with you some of my favourite items of clothing - the majority being vintage finds from London too!

One weekend whilst my boyfriend was down visiting me in London, we decided to make a day out of visiting as many vintage shops/boutiques/stalls as we possibly could. I managed to visit some of the vintage shops on my list, but not all of them as some were closed as it was a bank holiday Monday.

I have divided my list into locations.

COVENT GARDEN

Mint Vintage - Yes.

Blackout 2 - Yes

POP - No

WOW Retro - Yes*

Rokit - Yes*

NOTTINGHILL

Portobello Market - Yes

CAMDEN

Lost N Found - Closed every time I walked past!

What Goes Around Comes Around - Could not find

Rokit - Yes*

Thea - Yes

Retro World - Yes

Modern Age - Yes

St Cyr Vintage - YES*

In my opinion, many of these vintage shops were rather same-ish, yet three stood out to me.

All of the vintage shops sold similar items of clothing, some more expensive than others.

I was told when I was in London for 2 months that I had to visit Camden and Portobello Market. These were the two vintage locations I found first.

I went to Camden and looked in all the wrong places. I jumped off the train at Camden town (not far away from where I used to live in Old St) and walked directly across the road to a market simply labelled "Camden Market". I spend about 10 minutes in here and decided that enough was enough. In this market there was a great deal of clothing being sold with tacky London motif's on them - but no vintage clothes! I remember taking a moment to absorb my surroundings and seeing many trendy cool looking students with bags of what seemed to be vintage items - but I had no idea where they'd come from. I quickly gave up on Camden and tried Portobello Market.

Portobello Market is great - if you have the money. Many genuine Louis Vuitton briefcases, Mulberry and Chanel bags and Dior silk scarves that were 100% genuine vintage items. The items had the receipts pinned to them. I did not wish to buy anything from here as I did not want to blow all my money on one piece, but it was well worth the journey. If anyone collects fur there were plenty of real fur jackets - predominantly mink. My boyfriend also liked looking at the vintage Barbour jackets.

Right next to the top end of Portobello Market (left out of the station) there was a very strange vintage shop that was literally like Aladin's cave... I did not catch the name of the shop but it was fascinating. There was clothes EVERYWHERE, you could not see the walls. Shoes covered the floor so it was difficult to maneuver at times. Incense burned that was so pungent and I loved it! Again, plenty of genuine vintage items such as Dior mules, but very very expensive.

I then went back to research where I had gone wrong in Camden and discovered that I needed to be in the Camden Stables Market. I decided to journey there with my boyfriend and WOW, where we amazed.

Camden Stables Market had some of the best vintage shops I'd seen in London. You could literally spend days in there. The atmosphere was electric with the smell of incense, cigarette smoke and Moroccan food in the air. I couldn't believe that this place was tucked away so neatly in the heart of Camden.

The vintage shops were grand and spectacular - no longer was I squashed between rails and feeling very claustrophobic. The prices were excellent - one even devoting a rail to only original Burberry Macs - all 70% off ranging from £70-£200. All the vintage stores offered similar things and seemed to blend beautifully into one another - except one.

My favourite vintage store in Camden Stables Market was St Cyr Vintage. It blew everything else I had seen out of the water.

The store was quaint, quiet and perfect for me. With a range of clothes divided into styles and era's I found it so easy to get lost amongst the garments. Shelves neatly tucked away the most beautiful bags which were categorised into style and colour. Belts were hung from the ends of rails, cabinets contained sparkling accessories, fur shawls hid in pigeon holes and in a corner vintage books and records were stacked. All of the items had tiny tag attached which contained a brief item description followed by the price and origin of the item. Some items were expensive, others were a steal. I highly recommend this store to everyone as this vintage store is not one I found on the Internet but one I stumbled across accidentally.

Covent Garden also contained another one of my favourite vintage stores - Rokit.

I had previously visited Rokit in Camden and although this store was good too, I found the one in Covent Garden had a much better selection.

Rokit is big, has plenty of room to rummage for the best of the best garments and had such a diverse selection. St Cyr Vintage had more 50's-60's style clothing, whilst Rokit had more of an 80's - early 90's feel. Rokit's shoe selection in particular was astounding. I looked no further for footwear than here whilst I was in London. I also admired Rokit's selection of playsuits and jumpsuits. Their collection of graphic printed shirts and silk blouses was exquisite too.

WOW Retro was impressive too - although not as good as Rokit. The staff were helpful and if you are a collector of fur coats this place is great. I also found some vintage Burberry macs being sold for £100. Again, like Portobello, plenty of Barbour items too. I found this place a bit too crammed, but this also added to the appeal as there was such a selection to choose from.

LETS BREAK IT DOWN...

Best place for newcomers? - Camden Stables Market. There is so much to see here. Please go see Cyberdog too, although this store is not vintage, it is certainly interesting... ^_^

Best place for vintage brands if you have plenty of money? - Portobello Market - Gucci, Louis V, Dior, Mulberry, Chloe... And that selection was from a Monday market. Apparently its even better on a Saturday.

Best place for vintage (cheap)? - Rokit

Best place for 50's inspired items? - St Cyr Vintage

Best place for GENUINE items - St Cry Vintage

Best place for shoes/bags? - Rokit

Best place for fur? - WOW Retro

FINALLY...

Here are some images of my favourite London looks - courtesy of the vintage stores I have mentioned - excluding the Westwood bag and necklace - I wear these with everything. I have also shown my Philip Treacy bag as I recieved my hat when I was down in London - therefore the hat will always remind me of my time there!

Black jumpsuits - Rokit (covent garden)

Emerald jumpsuit - StCyr Vintage

All Shoes - Rokit

Vivienne Westwood bag - www.triads.co.co.uk

Vivienne Westwood necklace - Vivienne Westwood website

Cat - Bloggers own

http://www.stcyrvintage.co.uk/index.php - Please check this place out. It truely is amazing.

xoxo