Vintage Chic
From Australia, Tana has been in Beijing over ten years. She started what was probably the first vintage shop in Beijing on Yandai Xiejie, near Houhai. The items she sold were brought in from abroad and included Levi’s and other such items. The shop has not been open for several years, but vintage clothing has become much more popular here lately.
从澳洲来的Tana十多年在北京。因为她喜欢收藏很独特的衣服，丝禁，鞋，袜子，帽子，等，她原来开国第一个卖二手衣服的商店在烟袋斜街。她卖的东西原来主要是从国外进口的，像一些Levi’s牛仔裤，70年代的衣服等，但价格卖的不是很高因为这个她的爱好。 她的11岁的女儿, Lily。女儿受到母亲的影响，也穿得很特别，也喜欢戴大的墨镜。我真羡慕她女儿，能说世界两个最重要的原因说得很流利。
Would you comment on why Tana closed her vintage shop in Beijing? I know that a vintage shop is different from a hospital resale shop or a Salvation Army. But both of the latter have done exceptionally well in the US recession for obvious reasons. Does a vintage shop not operate with the same rules?
Well, vintage shops are trying to maintain a higher level of quality and a certain style. Of course, with a lot of searching, you can sometimes find great stuff in Salvation Army, but usually vintage shops are offering a certain aesthetic.
Are there any vintage shops in Beijing you may recommend? Though I lived there for a few years, I never noticed there were such hidden treasure in the city.
Oh!yes!Love!this is it
In brief -there are two main reasons I closed up shop in Hou Hai.
The first is that I was finding it increasingly dfficult to find good quality vintage garments, due to the blooming interest in vintage clothing all over the world (there is a finite source of quality items- which in turn gives them value), and the fact that the huge vintage warehouse in Guangzhou where we sourced a lot of our stock was burned to the ground.
Besides this, the rents in Yandai Xiejie pretty much quadrupled over night, so although business was good, it wasn`t really viable to remain open in that location. I think something similar has happened recently in Gulou Dongdajie, as all bar one of the vintage shops on the street seemed to have shut up shop when I visited 3 weeks ago.
Sad, as I was quite fond of `The Old Town Girls.
Thanks to photographer and subject for a beautiful picture.
Tana, thank you for sharing your style and thoughts with us. I found your comments above of great interest.
It seems only 10-15 years ago, with minimal effort, I could find vintage [1940s-70s] coats in impeccable shape, from as far off as France and Hong Kong here in California for less than $10.00 USD. These days, there are none to be had at any price.
Cheers and happy 2010 to all,
Gemma
yes!
A gorgeous picture of a stunning & fabulous femme !
love it. x
I feel your pain Gemma. Sadly i think there’s really not much left worldwide (LA used to one of my favourite cities to shop for vintage too- great selection and availability, prob due to a strong garment industry along with the affluence of the city post war?)
Any fine quality garments that are left are selling for prices that make me weep! I did a little shopping in Paris last week, where as you can imagine, there are some lovely shops. But the prices – yikes! London and Sydney are about the same, but I’ve had better luck in smaller French cities. Toulouse is surprisingly good for vintage shopping, and I’ll be able to comment on Lyon in a day or two ; )
Tana mentions the closing of The Old Town Girls (I haven’t been up that way in the past few weeks, so I didn’t realize it had potentially closed), but they still have their shop on Taobao (just bought something from there the other day) which is called TOTGIRLS or can also be found by searching 丁丁的血.
Regarding vintage shops in Gulou, I’ve found some great skirts and earrings at Mega Mega Vintage–the key is getting in there just after they’ve put out new items.