Hey, Londonites, get in here!

[thunderw21]

Has anyone been to the "Vintage Showroom"? It looks fascinating.

http://thevintageshowroom.com/

A guy could spend big $$$ and get into huge trouble in a place like that.

 

[repeatclicks]

Looks okay at best. London is crap for vintage, its extremely over priced, and with the £ these days hovering around $1.60-1.65, I just get my goods direct from the States at a nice 30% discount.

For example, a 85% decent American gab shirt (looks and feels well loved, maybe a tiny pin hole or two, no stains or fade though... wearable lets say) runs £30-40. Thats $70, which I have never paid for a gab shirt.

They may have some gems in there, but who wants to be bothered with making an appointment? America and Japan definitely have the finest goods.

 

[AntonAAK]

I've been to their shop in Earlham St a few times and it's well worth a visit.

So far I've picked up a beautiful pale lemon knit tie which is so soft it feels like cashmere (no label, £15), a paisley Tootal cravat (£15) and a hand knit Fair Isle style slipover (£95).

I also found a very nice black Bates Homburg which unfortunately was too small but was selling for £35.

I know the slipover seems expensive but I really wanted one. Inspired by the fair isle thread on here I decided to buy one and went into the west end expecting to be able to pick up a new item. I must have been in every menswear shop and department store in London, including all of the specialist Scottish knitwear shops on Regent Street, to no avail.

Finally after a whole Saturday of fruitless trudging around the shops I popped into this shop in Earlham St and they had a pile of a dozen of them, ranging from £65-95. I'm quite a big chap and the £95 one was the only one which fitted me. I'm generally too big to have much luck finding vintage but I'll continue to pop back there for ties and cravats and to ogle all of the goodies that are too small for me.

I have no idea how those prices compare to vintage in other countries but I hope it has given you some idea of what things go for in this establishment.

This is my first post by the way, I have been lurking for a couple of months and have learned a great deal from the knowledgable people on this forum.

Many thanks
Anton

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Fantastic shop. Very very nice stuff, but pricey … as any real vintage is in London. This store is, however, significantly cheaper and has significantly better stuff than the crapola "vintage" shops on Brick Lane, for example. The only place to find cheap good vintage in London is to really know what you're looking at when you see it, and find it at a market, at a Rockit branch, or Beyond Retro. Gab shirts, for example, are very rarely cheap in any of these places because they're so damn easy to identify. (and unlike in the US, they don't pop up in good condition all that frequently)

Take my advice and visit "vintage showroom" market stalls at Portobello or the fairs. They knock off quite a bit of price for the stalls. IIRC the store is a joint venture of a number of sellers. One guy is a true champ at finding old interesting militaria, and there appears to be a person with a real talent for finding pre-1950 British leatherwear (which is astonishingly rare).

In defence of this shop, a (now relocated) army surplus store on Earlham Street had its rent bumped up to £250, 000 per annum. That's not a trivial amount of money for a small trader, and leads to higher prices. It is very hard to price vintage fairly when paying a Central London commercial rent.


bk

 

[larsnxd]

London used to be amazing for vintage items! I used to head to Camden, London, a helluva lot, but over these past, what, four - five years, its lost its charm and the prices are outrageous! Its so expensive that if I want to purchase anything in the UK I tend to go for repro's that are cheaper than vintage or import from the States as its cheaper to pay for the item and airmail together than get it over here. Even Brighton has hiked its prices way way up. Its such a shame. eBay vintage items have started to creep up in price too.