I've had luck with these lately.
For instance, when I walked into Stouffville's gem of a vintage store, Chic Thrills. Let us proceed by making this a visual presentation: You are walking down Stouffville Main against a chill, untimely spring wind, but what the heck; you walk into this store with the most amazing vintage displays on the mannequins: read; fashion heaven. (read also: spending casualties). You enter, breathe in the aroma of sweet sweet vintage clothing (or maybe the perfume of elderly ladies) and hop to the back of the store, fall before the alter of shoes, and pray.
You get the picture. I suppose this is a special vintage clothing store because it's in Stouffville, and in the words of a disciple or two, "can anything good come out of Stouffville?" (We have had some pretty rotten baseball championships, let me tell you).
The wonderful thing about this store is that it's homegrown, small, and situated one store down from a coffee shop- The Love of Joe- which boasts a private library of 1984 and Jane Eyre amongst other classics and things I wouldn't condescend to read... by the way, I picked up the tastiest Columbian coffee ever there, and I would certainly go back.
Right. Back to Chic Thrills. Really, besides proximity to decent coffee, this shop has a lot of really great jewelry. For me, it was a "just touch, don't buy" limit. For some items, prices run around 15 dollars, others up to 30 or more. They have some real classy stuff if you don't mind spending money. Also some cameo earrings running at 30, but I limited myself to drooling.
Besides jewelry, they do have a decent selection of skirts- the lacy frilly kind that makes you feel all happy to find even though, honestly, they're not that rare- 80s style tops, vintage looking lace tops, the most amazing brocade pants I'd ever seen but would have to gain a few pounds to fit into, ...and a whole wall dedicated to formal wear.
The only downside of this store is that I'm too much of a dunce to figure out how things are sized. For the most part, things are ordered according to colour. That creates some confusion, but what have we been put on earth for except to overcome obstacles, try on clothing, and buy if need be?
Not to become anti-climactic: this store ALSO has an amazing selection of footwear. It would rival Aldo, especially because the footwear is actually -interesting-. The problem with footwear, that classic problem for anyone with an affinity for drop-jaw shoes, is the large amount of highly confused shoe-makers. They consistently put the pattern INSIDE the shoe, where it is obscured by the foot, rather than where people can see it. No one seems to have caught this gross mistake, or else merchandise was too expensive to redo it. What started out as a mistake has become a fashion repeat. Blah. Anyway. Nice shoes.
I happened to pick up a perfect 71/2 size kitten heel, brown satiny (probably polyester) with an Indian beaded pattern. Excitement ensued. That's why I actually bought a coffee and chucked a whole loonie into the Tuition Fund at Love of Joe, because these shoes were 15 dollars. (Although the barista at Love of Joe's was talking on his cell-phone while I waited, like, how important can that be compared to me?? I have shoes, and I am -really- -REALLY- important!!) and I had a loonie to spare. The sum of all this is: go to "downtown" Stouffville, stay FAR far away from Walmart and the box mall there, and go to some of these lovely small town places; they won't last forever... unless of course, you spend your tuition on vintage clothes and coffee.
L'End
L Cain
