My favorite place to shop - back in the mid-late 80s - was the various vintage stores in Ann Arbor, MI. It probably had the single-best per capita ratio of good old clothes in North America. There must have been 5 or 6 places I visited regularly – can't even remember all the names. Second Hand Rose was great, run by an older couple, Ernie and Virginia, who were nice as pie. And Rebop, where Lelia and her harlequin glasses, red lips and nails, and hip musical taste broke my heart every time I went in.
Unfortunately, I was a wiry 38 reg at the time and all the good suits seemed to be 42s and 44s. But I bought, and mostly couldn't get them cut down. And 20 years and 5 sizes later – I've long since junked them all. And all the cool stuff seems to be 38s and 40s. Funny how time turns the tables.
In NYC in the early-mid 90s I bought a lot at New Republic in Soho. They were doing very high quality 40s repro clothes – I'm still wearing some of that stuff 15 years later. But about 1998 they gave up the ghost.
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