Tasha's Top Vintage Places in London

There's no doubt about it, England has some of the coolest vintage and retro stores and markets in the Western world... well in my opinion anyways.

After visiting Camden Town yesterday I thought I would write this post on some of my favourite vintage stores I've so far found in England.

Here are my picks:

• Camden Town markets - right near the entrance to the stables, there is a line of vintage and retro stores. Some are a bit wacky with their clothing, but this is always useful if you have to go to say a disco fever themed party. However there are some really good quality clothes as well - you'll find cashmere, leather, German war parkas, fur coats (yes, most of the time it is real fur) among some of the garments available. One of the stores even has old school bikes!
• Beyond Retro - you can find this in London and Brighton (and can also order online see: http://www.beyondretro.com/). Personally, my favourite is Brighton as it is a bigger store, but in both of them you'll find loads of clothes, shoes, and accessories. This store literally has anything you can think of, and it is arranged in an easy and organised manner, so if you're looking for something in particular, like cable knit jumpers, you will find them all on the same rack together. One of the things I love about this place as well, which you'll also find on the website, is that it states the quality and wear of the garment which justifies the price, so for example it could have "never worn, hardly worn, extremely worn" and will also point out if it has any stains or damage on it, but majority of the clothes they have are in really good quality and still are pretty cheap in price. 
• Brighton - there are so many vintage and retro stores in Brighton, too many to name (and I've forgotten many of the names), and you can find them in the high street but also in the lanes as well. I definitely think Brighton has the best vintage and retro stores, particularly because of the range and variety it has. So if you're ever in Brighton, the best thing to do is just look around and you'll come across a vintage and retro store in a matter of minutes.
• Portobello Market -  another one of my favourite markets in England, the best time to go is on the weekend as this has everything from food markets, to antiques, to clothes. There are many different stalls of clothes, and it's all out in the open as it is a road market. This is probably the best place to look for fur coats, when I've visited before I had found a large range of fur coats at many of the stalls, and in all different varieties too such as long ones, short ones, vests, etc. These markets are a bit of a win or lose for clothes, unlike the other places mentioned, so you just have to look more at the quality of the clothes here but all the coats were in really good quality. As these are road markets, you're most likely find these are cheaper vintage clothes too. 

Well that's all I have for my list for now, they are my favourite ones I have so far come across in my time in England, but I am sure they are many more to find!

      ^ The vintage stores at Camden Town ^


Feel free to comment if you have any favourite vintage and retro places in England, or places you think I should check out :)

Camden is calling

While I love Carnaby Street, Camden Town tops the list of my favourite places in greater London. Whenever I visit here, I know I must go there or my trip to England will feel incomplete. There is just something about the place, it's vibe is so attracting - and while it has changed over the years with less Cockney's on the stalls and more people from other cultures and backgrounds replacing them, the essence of Camden Town still remains. There is still all the same stores along the high street, such as the various stores filled with punk and gothic clothing, along with many Doc Martin shops too, and the Camden Town market and stables has remained more or less the same.

Even though many of the stalls in the market and the stores along the high street cater a lot for the tourists who flood to Camden, it's image of a punk and music town is still untouched. While there are many tourists frantically taking as many photos as they can to take it all in, if you ignore what you're taking a photo of and look at the people walking around the streets, you'll often see many punks and goths roaming among the tourists too.

Yet it's not just punks and goths that make up the scene of Camden, but other groups as well. While looking through all the different stalls I came across one solely dedicated to trilby hats, which I really liked, and then coming out of the stables I noticed I knew store soon to make an appearance at Camden, "The Modfather Clothing Company". As the name suggests, it's a store completely dedicated to the Mod style. I was gutted it wasn't ready for opening yet, but there was a wicked scooter parked outside to fuel the excitement for the prospective store.

Another thing that I love about Camden is there is music playing everywhere, and not music played via iPods or any other new technology, but music playing from CDs and vinyls. I find people have so much more love for music when playing a vinyl record because you have to really think about your selection of what to play and which side of the record to play as well.

Apart from the vibe and essence of Camden Town, there is one thing I personally love more and is one of the reasons why I always revisit the markets: the unique knick knacks you can pick up from the stalls. I absolutely love the stalls which have one of a kind pieces whether it be jewellery and accessories, or pictures, or signs, or antiques, it's all there! Carpe Diem is by far my favourite of the stalls for original pieces, this is the store where I want to buy things for my glory box (because when I eventually move out from my parents, I want to have some really cool gifts to fill my home with). Unfortunately there is no actual website for the place, so if you want to buy anything from then you have to get it in Camden - I'm thinking I might get a few little pieces that are easy to take before I head home, because you never know I might not see the things I want again in Perth or even when I visit Camden again in another few years.

Although Camden Town attracts loads of tourists, it doesn't attract tourist prices, in fact you'll find many things in the stalls are quite cheap and will offer deals, for example canvas prints you can get one (depending on the size, so in this case it's 6x4) for 5 pounds, or 3 for 10 pounds. If you're really strapped for cash and are hungry, you might also be lucky to get a little feed for free - there are HEAPS of food stalls in the markets and a lot of them will offer free samples of their food to try entice you to buy lunch from them, but you could always go around to the different food stalls and try their samples, by the time you've got around most of them you'd have eaten enough to make up for a small lunch! (I don't encourage ripping people off, but if you have not enough money left for a feed and you're really hungry, this is an option).

(NB: There is also one other aspect of Camden I like, which is the vintage stalls - but I've gone into more detail of this in my next blog which is my top places for vintage in England.)