Here at the Gentleman’s Gazette, we believe that great classic menswear items don’t always have to be expensive. They can be found at vintage or thrift shops, too! So, we took a trip to two vintage shops to share 25 smart tips to get the most out of your time shopping vintage menswear.
Obviously, March 2020 is not the time to go vintage shopping or clothes shopping in physical stores anywhere, but this is something you can do once it all has passed.
Video Transcript:
SRS: Welcome back to the Gentleman’s Gazette! In today’s video, we are…
PS: At Lula Vintage in St. Paul.
SRS: Yeah, we thought we’d mix it up and go to a real vintage store.
SRS: Are you a vintage shopper, Preston?
PS: I shop vintage from time to time. I have had good luck in the past finding a few pieces but it’s not something I do terribly often.
SRS: Okay yeah, I’m a big vintage shopper. I like the fabrics, their weight, and everything, and in this video, I want to show you my thought process of what I do when I’m in a store and the prep work that you do beforehand, how I select garments, what I look at because not everything can be altered and sometimes, it can be quite costly, right? But if you, you know, spent maybe just $30 on something but then $200 in altering it, it’s not so cost-effective anymore, after all. A lot of people buy vintage because they can find something unique but also because it’s less expensive. I probably only ever spent $100 max on a single piece simply because I make sure that I don’t need that many alterations to begin with.
PS: Makes sense.
SRS: Yeah, so before I go to vintage stores, I usually prep in a couple of ways. First of all, I make sure I’m wearing loafers simply because I can quickly get in and out of the shoes and it’s much faster. If you have boots, it’s a big pain.
PS: Right! You don’t want to spend time fiddling with laces.
SRS: Exactly! Then I’ll get a pair of pants that I can quickly take on and off and I usually skip the belt just because it’s just one more thing to keep track of and I don’t want that. What do you wear? Do you wear a shirt or what do you usually wear when you go?
PS: Typically, yeah. Just a shirt and trousers. I don’t want to have to mess around with extra layers that I’m putting on, taking off, worrying about where I’ve set them down, you know that kind of a thing. So simple as it can be, that just saves you time.
Raphael & Preston at Lula
SRS: Exactly! I try to avoid sweaters simply because it’s just cumbersome to get them off. If it’s cold, maybe a cardigan, it’s easy to take off and I always wear a tie because I like having the same look I will have when I wear something and I have very long arms so I always get a striped shirt because on the cuff, it gives me a quick visual indicator. If the sleeve can be lengthened enough or not and if it’s something I want to further investigate or just leave behind.
PS: Seems like a good idea to me.
SRS: Yeah, I mean you have a checked one, that works too. I think I like the stripe more because it’s really bolder and more visual. I’ve even sometimes seen people coming into a vintage store with flip-flops, not a good idea, right?
PS: Right! Especially if you want to try on shoes, you should at least have some socks handy.
SRS: Exactly! I also find it very important to know your measurements. especially some key measurements like your chest, your shoulder width, the length of the jacket in the back, and the waist measurement of your pants, and the inseam. Right?
PS: Yep!
Travel Shoehorn
SRS: That way, you can make sure you can quickly identify something that fits if you’re on your own, especially, you don’t have to go to a dressing room and try it on first. You can just be a little quicker and get stuff done faster. I also bring a shoehorn usually, usually a travel shoehorn but I couldn’t find it today so I brought this one. Especially when I try on shoes, it’s just easier to get in and out of shoes and speeds up the whole process. Usually, I recommend a travel shoehorn.
PS: Makes sense! Well and while it’s also useful to know those key measurements, it never hurts to bring a measuring tape along too just so you can do a couple of spot measurements if you need to here and there.
SRS: It’s also a good idea to come together because when Preston’s, for example, trying on some suits, I can bring some more to him, I can help him and support him or the other way around. That way, it’s a lot more fun to shop and it’s a lot quicker.
PS: Right! Having that outside perspective is helpful too because you’re not going to be able, even with a mirror, to necessarily see every angle of a garment on yourself. So having another set of eyes never hurts.
SRS: Exactly and you always want to check yourself in the mirror. You want to try it on, you don’t just want to measure but oftentimes, they just have a single mirror. In an ideal world, you have like a three-way mirror, a tailor’s mirror. Why is it preferable?
PS: Well, because you want to see things from multiple angles; something may look good from one angle but you may see, for example, that you’ve got, you know, a gapping vent in the back of your jacket that you’d have to turn all the way around and a single mirror to look at might not be able to see well.
SRS: Exactly, in a single mirror, you have to turn your head and look into the mirror and then you get wrinkles that you don’t get with the three-way mirror so that’s the big advantage. Cool! So yeah, first let’s talk about shirts. Do you ever buy vintage shirts?
PS: Not often! I think I have maybe just once or twice.
SRS: Yes! I am also not the biggest fan of buying shirts vintage because it’s usually something you wear directly next to your body so issues I found are deodorant stains often and just wear on the collar. I’d say if I find new shirts, maybe, the problem I have, I have these long arms and most off the rack shirts are just not long enough so that’s always a pain point for me.
PS: Right! I also have a similar problem to that, I’ve got slightly long arms for my build as well.
SRS: I mean when it comes to the shirts, I typically just visually check what I’m interested in, right? A shirt like this, probably not. This bright yellow, not really. This could be a fun shirt, right? Winchester white, I quickly looked at the label, Outrage Contemporary Menswear, made in Portugal. I see the size here, six and a half, 42 centimeters, it doesn’t give me the length but it tells me it’s a little too wide because typically, I’m a 40 centimeter or 15 1/2 so an inch is just too much, can’t do anything there. If you find something that you’re interested in, I think checking the label here, it says, like, polyester cotton. Yeah, why do you say that?
PS: Well, you know, you don’t necessarily want to have too much polyester in anything really because it’s not very breathable and could just be uncomfortable over time.
SRS: Exactly! I agree, I don’t like that either but let’s say I find a shirt where I potentially think it could be interesting, right? I would start out looking at the cuffs, is there any wear? This is a rounded cuff so it’s easier, there’s going to be less wear. If there are some pointed tips like on the collar, for example, you can see because that’s usually where it wears first then up here, this shirt is pretty kind of clean and good so I’d say yeah, this is something you can definitely, you know, wear. There are no deodorant stains of any kind, this looks like it’s pretty much unworn so if it’s the right size and you like the style, it’s definitely a good option. Often, I mean, what do they usually cost? What would you say?
PS: Not too much, I mean comparatively to some other more structured garments, shirts are usually a little bit less expensive.
SRS: Yeah and it depends on the store. I’ve seen anywhere from, like you know, 5 to 20 bucks or so. It’s pretty good! Once you shop a lot of vintage and you know a lot of brands, it’s pretty easy to figure out what’s good quality, right?
PS: Right, I would say so.
mother of pearl buttons
SRS: But if you don’t know the brands, right, and something you can always look at are the buttons and the buttonholes and sometimes I found like a Charvet shirt at a vintage store, right, or Turnbull and Asser which are expensive shirts and you can usually identify them by looking at the buttons and the buttonholes. A good buttonhole is always cut first and then sewn with the highest stitch density. Some shirts have like handmade buttonholes which if you see that you know it’s a high quality shirt because you don’t get it on a cheap shirt. In terms of buttons, what do you look for when you go for shirts?
PS: Well, mother of pearl is always something you want compared to just regular plastic.
SRS: Yeah, so how do you know something is mother of pearl or plastic?
PS: Well, you can do the tooth test, actually. Bring it up, make contact with your teeth and if it makes sort of a particular sound, how would you characterize it, really? The sound that it makes against your tooth?
SRS: It’s kind of like tinny or so. You have to try it, maybe with your iron sometimes, touch it and then you kind of do it. You can alternatively also just dip your tongue on it and just see what’s going on, it may be a little weird to be the guy licking the buttons at the store. This is a plastic button, for sure, mother of pearl is cold, plastic is more like warmer room temperature. Then there’s the next step, what you can also do is you can look at how a button is sewn on. If it has a shank, it’s more likely a higher quality shirt. If there’s no shank, it’s probably not that much quality. You can also look at the top, most buttons are sewn on with an x or cross-stitch. Some cheaper shirts usually have like a parallel stitch and Italian shirts often have this kind of what they call the chicken foot stitch which usually means that it’s of a higher quality. I think in recent years, it’s also changed a little bit but these are little hallmarks that you can utilize to quickly determine if a shirt has a good quality. There are also others such as the stitch density and you can learn more about that in our video.
PS: Next up, we’re going to take a look at jackets, suits, and overcoats.
SRS: Yeah, so what’s the first thing you usually do when you walk the store?
Cheap contrasting plastic buttons
PS: Well, one thing you can check on a jacket is buttons, whether or not the buttonholes are actually working, whether the jacket has surgeon’s cuffs. These days, on a lot of jackets, you’re just going to see that as a more common feature but back in the day, it was not as common. So if you see surgeon’s cuffs on a vintage garment, that typically means that the build quality will be a little higher.
SRS: Yeah totally! It’s probably a tailored garment of some kind and I start with the sleeves because that’s where you can often see it. Now in this store here, all vintage garments and most of the jackets actually don’t even have buttonholes and that’s a good thing in the sense that you can then shorten or lengthen the sleeve from the bottom which is great for alterations because with a surgeon cuff, you have to actually have the alterations from the top of the shoulder which is a lot more expensive and it requires more skill on the part of the alterations tailor. So just because there are no working buttonholes, doesn’t mean you won’t find anything that’s good quality, right? So that’s the first step where I look. Second step is I check underneath the collar. If there is a zigzag stitch, then it’s a machine stitch and it’s more of an industrially made product. If there is a hand stitch, it just means it’s a higher quality product and usually, I want to look for the highest quality I can find so that’s what I want. So what would you check on next?
cheap buttonhole
PS: Well, you could also check to see if the lapel buttonhole is functional or not.
SRS: Exactly! Like a lapel buttonhole typically, unlike a regular buttonhole which has this kind of keyhole shape, is usually straight. Cheaper jackets sometimes don’t get that right and they have this kind of buttonhole with a keyhole on top so you know it’s not a nice look and it’s hard to cover up unless you wear a boutonniere. Sometimes, you find jackets that are completely without a button. The thing was popular in the 70s, probably.
PS: I think so, yeah.
SRS: 80s, I mean it’s still okay, you don’t always need a buttonhole. I think it’s just traditional because it comes from the time when you kind of buttoned everything then when you unbuttoned it, the top buttonhole was still there and today, in most jackets, it doesn’t serve any function but it’s still there, historically. So if you look at cheaper buttonholes, they’re usually sometimes just sewn in and not even cut right so they lay flat. I don’t like that and if I see that, I know that I probably don’t like the jacket. So looking at that buttonhole quickly tells me if that is something I like. So, for example, here, if we look at this jacket here, it’s really nice. I can push through my finger and I see it was cut first and then sewn. If I go to the backside, I see regular stitching which tells me it’s a handmade buttonhole, has a nice gimp thread and it’s very nice and continues here with the other buttonholes. Looking at that, I’m like “oh nice” then I’ll look at the fabric and say, “Hey this is great!” Now, I can look at the label and see, “Oh, it’s J Press,” which is a nice ivy league haberdasher and they have cool stuff so that I can just try it on or I look at the size tag here. What does it say?
PS: This one says 40, regular.
SRS: Okay, how much is it?
PS: This is $35.
SRS: I mean yeah, this is a great tweed jacket for $35. Putting it on here and 40-regular, usually, if it’s properly marked will not fit me and sure enough, it’s too tight. I mean, I like it, it’s super soft, moving, it’s very comfortable. I wish it was a 42-regular then I’d buy it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, that way, got to leave it behind. It’s just overall, too tight in the sleeves, it’s too tight in the front and it could maybe be fixed but it’s hard. Let’s say you found a garment that you like the look of and it seems to fit, what’s the next step?
PS: Well, if the fit is good, next, you want to check for imperfections. Let’s say tears, or moth holes, big stains, loose threads, anything like that.
SRS: Yeah, because you want to make sure that you don’t have to invest too much money in maybe replacing the lining of a coat, right? Because that may cost more than the coat itself.
PS: So using this jacket here, if we kind of walk through it, we can see, first of all, on the inside of the collar where it meets the lapel here.
SRS: There’s a little imperfection here, it’s kind of a hole. I mean when you wear it, you know, put it on, see if it’s even visible or not but I would definitely, like, mend it or so that it doesn’t just go further, if you like the jacket. I mean the tweed is beautiful, right?
PS: Yes, absolutely! Here on the inside of this pocket, we can see some tearing.
SRS: Oh yeah, it’s just like worn out, right, so someone wore this a lot, that’s how you got this and oftentimes, when I look at other things, for example, the sleeves, right? Are they worn? In this case, they’re pretty good here. I had it where this was completely like disintegrated basically and you can see here the sleeve lining too, right, discoloration from the dirt, it’s worn through, I mean, something to keep in mind. I think here if you look right, there’s a loose thread in the tweed. I’ll try to kind of pull it back but it’s not doing that so I’m like, Nah, that’s not something I really want because I want more of a pristine garment because sometimes, you can find garments that have hardly ever been worn and you can find others that are just worn out. Alright, sometimes I’m in the store and I just find one thing then I’ll just try it on right there not with a shirt but with a jacket or overcoat. What did you find a lot more stuff?
PS: Well, if you’ve got a really big pile, that’s when, again, it comes in handy to have a helper. You’ll probably want to go back to the changing area, you can try things on one at a time, get that outside perspective, and have your helper bring more things over, take more things away, just so you’re not in a big pile of clothes.
Preston trying out a great vintage suit but the fit is off
SRS: And that way, you just get to try on a lot more and don’t spend your time with walking back and forth hanging things up. Cool! So yeah, dressing room, right? I mean it’s important to look at yourself and see what you got so I found this great suit here so you know I tried it on and it was just a suit from 1980, the tags says 70s but inside, you know, when we looked at it because it pays to look inside the pockets because oftentimes, you find union labels and it fits quite well on the jacket, pants what did you think?
PS: Not so much. There was definitely some tightness in the thighs which I think, in your case, is often something you find with vintage garments.
SRS: Yeah, I mean, I have big thighs and vintage garments are often better because they’re cut fuller like 40s and 30s but I have big issues with thighs. I have big thighs and so pants are oftentimes a problem. So in this case, it was not salvageable, there wasn’t enough of a fabric reserve to make it work.
PS: And as you might not be surprised to hear, the opposite was true for me, in terms of trousers. There were several where the jacket fit to some extent but the trousers were just way too large, almost comically large in the waist.
SRS: Yeah, I mean sometimes, the shoulder was quite big, there was a lot of shoulder padding, right? But most of the time, you have quite square shoulders so that kind of worked out but then, like the one jacket and you’re a slim guy but the vent gapped in the back. I mean that’s just a no-go. Others we had there was the kind of not enough room in the sleeve to let it out and the lapel was kind of funny, what would you say.
PS: A little too slim for my taste. It just didn’t have any sort of attractive shape or belly to it. Kind of plain and nondescript.
SRS: Yeah it was peak lapel but it was slim, more like a modern jacket, I think and then, you had this like 70s multi-colored chalk stripe on. That was something, right?
PS: Yeah. I have never worn trousers with that much of a bell-bottom look to them.
SRS: Yeah and also, I mean, you have the issue, what’s your waist size?
PS: My waist size is a 30 which means I’ve got an 8-inch drop between my jacket and my waist size.
SRS: Which is a lot but I mean, you see when Preston tries on pants, it’s just not something you can alter. You could think, “Oh yeah I can take it in,” but if it’s too much, the proportions are off, right? It’s just like, I don’t know, when you buy a jacket and it’s too long or too short, the buttoning point, the pants, everything is positioned in a way that it makes sense. If you change that balance, it’s off and it’s just not worth spending all that money to get a look that is just weird. So sometimes, you can find great vintage ties or pocket squares such as these ones. Here, you know, you have these kinds of what do you call these, diamonds?
PS: Yeah!
SRS: Kind of irregular angles, something you don’t see that much these days. Look at these ones, really oversized, the color is unusual with a white edge and stuff, it’s just cool, right? Not something you typically find these days. Maybe at Fort Belvedere. Probably one of my favorite vintage sections is the overcoat section because they’re cut a little more roomy, the length is variable and so it doesn’t matter so much because the pockets and the buttoning points are always in the same spot and vintage fabrics are just very different from today’s, right?
PS: They’re going to be heavier most of the time, which in overcoats is a good thing because it means you’ll stay warmer. I also like double-breasted overcoats because it’s a double layer of fabric rather than single-breasted and I like the patterns, you know, they’re just different, they’re unique, they’re just not your run-of-the-mill designs in black and charcoal, navy that you get from the mall. This is a really cool vintage officer’s coat. You can see it has nice details with darts, it has these gold brass buttons which are really cool. It’s a size 36 which is something that, you know, could work for you. Sixty-five dollars, I mean, it’s a bargain. If you turn around, there’s like this belted back so you can even adjust it so it’s tighter in the front, It’s just heavy, it’s warm, really cool details, I mean for Preston, overall, I think there’s just too much fabric here but it still looks neat because the pleats are just arranged that way. So cool stuff! Yeah for me, I think something I found here was this Polo coat. It’s actually original Polo coat 1980s, has camel hair fabric, and it has a disadvantage that it wears rather quickly here along the edge, you can see it but it’s just part of the material. It’s quite warm, I like this one because it had long sleeves, what would you say, otherwise, fit wise?
PS: I think it looks good. You’ve got maybe just a little bit of excess here but certainly nothing that couldn’t be managed.
SRS: Yeah and also, I’m wearing this with a regular dress shirt right now, if I had a jacket..
PS: That would obviously take up more room..
SRS: And you want that, like, pull a little bit, you want a little bit of room, has these nice patch pockets, that outer seam, I mean, how much is this here? $120, I mean a lot less than what you pay otherwise, to me, that’s a keeper, that’s great! It has a good length, nice color, no stains, nice lining. Another one here they had was in really tough shape, right, the lining was worn out and stuff, so this one is in much better shape.
Pros and Cons of Buying Vintage
Our 14 Best Vintage Buys – Thrift Store Clothing & More
PS: Another one for the collection, perhaps.
SRS: Exactly! Make sure to check out the video of my overcoat collection here. Vintage shopping can be a lot of fun. Sometimes, you find lots of things but other times, you find nothing at all and that’s okay. I’m always happy if I just find one thing and even if I don’t, I think it’s important to build a relationship with a vendor, right? Be friendly when you walk in, say hi, have a conversation, and sometimes, you know, they don’t even have price tags and if you come in and you ask for something, they’re much more likely to give you a favorable price if you’re nice, it’s just like one-on-one of being friendly and a good human.
PS: So if you’d like to see more on the topic of vintage, we’ve also done videos on the pros and cons of vintage shopping and our best vintage buys.
SRS: And if you ever find yourself in Minneapolis or St. Paul, check out Lula’s Vintage at 1587 Selby Avenue in St. Paul, has been around since 1992 and it’s going strong, vintage only, quality stuff. I got my midnight blue double-breasted tuxedo from the 1940s here for 100 bucks. I love it, it’s unique, it’s very classy but not something that anyone else would have. For our second stop, we just went to our neighborhood. There is this cool store that is a little thrifty, a little vintage, a little green, Speakeasy, Mpls. They’re located at 24th and Dupont in Minneapolis and I walk past there every day when I drop off my daughter at daycare.
PS: So here, they’ve got a little bit of everything, in addition to different kinds of clothes, jackets, I tried on a suit but they’ve also got home goods, green goods, lots of different stuff.
SRS: Personally, I’ve gotten many things here. Everything from vases or a little ice bucket but I wanted to come here because they have really cool clothes and accessories. Okay, let’s look at ties here. First up, we have this J.Z Richards tie, it’s like from a store in Wayzata which is like a local suburb, right? And I mean, cost?
PS: Yeah, not very much at all. Looks like $6 for this one.
SRS: Yeah, retail price 65. So you can get quite cool stuff or I mean, look at this one here, has this kind of faint pink undertone a Bert Pulitzer, $8, kind of a summer tie, kind of a cottony lineny silky feel. Otherwise, what we got here more like a check tie, here is a black tie with brown paisley, for example, in a satin. I think that’s what they have on the rack that would interest me like jacquard ties like this but let’s look at this rack here. There are quite a few things, I really like this pattern here, very kind of English looking but it always pays to inspect your ties, right Preston?
PS: Yep, I would agree! You’ve got a little bit of what seems like some pulled threads right here.
SRS: Yeah, like fraying you almost see a hole which is pretty much dead center so I would suggest not to get that. So yeah, I mean not every tie you find vintage is going to be great but look at this silver tie here, works perfectly with a business suit, right? Robert Talbott Nordstrom’s ‘Best of Class’ I mean these were expensive ties. They retail for more than $100, you can have them for $6s, I mean just you know a great simple tie that you can wear with a business suit or for the office, maybe not with your sport coat but there are plenty of other ties here that would be great for the sport coat. Look at this one here, kind of a bronze-ish tone, Brooks Brothers, all silk, really nice. The second reason I wanted to come here was because of their clothes maintenance accessories, right? I mean, you can buy these lint rollers that you have to replenish over and over again, just goes to a landfill. I mean, go green, get a horsehair brush right? Four dollars, handmade, lasts for a long time. Look at this nice Woodlore hanger, $4, what will you use that for?
PS: This looks like it could be used for belts, perhaps.
SRS: Yeah absolutely yeah, or even like ties, if you’d had to, right, clothes organization is pretty cool.
PS: Woodlore, I think a subsidiary of Allen Edmonds, if I am not mistaken.
SRS: They are. I actually went to the factory and they make lots of shoe horns and stuff. I mean cedar and whatnot but yeah, quality product. Same with this here, I mean look at this. It says Oxford made in USA, regular, sterilized 100% horsehair, yeah, exactly what you want for your clothes brush so when you brush it, the dust comes out. The other cool thing we found here were valet stands, right?
PS: That’s right!
SRS: Do you have one at home?
PS: I do not but I wish I did.
Speakeasy’s selection of ties
SRS: Okay well, great opportunity here. I mean this is a piece from, what does it say? Reguitti which is an Italian brand. They specialize in valet stands and you can find them on eBay for 75 or up to 200, 500 bucks. Here, it’s like 40 bucks, you know, great piece. You can use it, I think, I’ll take that for our studio so you’ll see it in future videos. It comes with another, you know, like clothes brush, short bristles, it’s kind of a little stronger so for like a heavy wool overcoat or so, perfect accompaniment. Here’s the second one, so yeah, Preston wants another one. Here, I think you can hang ties. It’s just a little hanger or bow ties or whatever, pretty cool stuff. Next up, let’s look at some clothes. They don’t have many of them but
PS: As we said before, all you really need is one good piece to make a trip worthwhile.
SRS: Alright, what do we got here?
PS: We have one here that I think might work for you. This is Norm Thompson, originally out of Portland, Oregon but the jacket itself was made in Great Britain.
SRS: Yeah look at that! A little more contemporary, in a classic herringbone harris tweed. Has this kind of zipper fly.
PS: Kind of a short turn-down collar, we’ve got this ribbed bottom here, raglan sleeves, nice sort of tweed pattern, kind of patch pockets with flaps and buttons.
SRS: Yeah it’s a little more modern but I mean, great alternative. Eighty bucks, right, you’ll never get a quality piece like this and this feels like it’s entirely new. Alright, what do we got next, Preston?
PS: Okay, next up we have the original, imported teller coat, it says Trumpeter here. This one is made in Austria.
SRS: How cool is that? I mean, very nice pattern, there’s not many windowpane coats, let’s see here. Thank you, Preston. Yeah I mean, nice pattern right?
PS: Yeah absolutely!
Raphael trying out a teller coat
SRS: I mean look at that, there’s about two inches here, the bottom of the sleeve, there’s really no wear to it so it’s very easy to make the sleeve a little longer. I think right now, wearing it with a regular shirt, it’s fine but if I have, maybe, a sweater or a jacket, it pulls up a little more so I definitely want that extra length in there but it’s going to be an easy alteration, 15-20 bucks. Yeah, otherwise, the back is belted, full belt. Let me button it here then yeah, I can just belt it or I can tie it, probably just belt it like this. Yeah, this thing here $60, right? I mean it reminds me of an old apparel arts drawing where they also have this windowpane overcoats. You know these angled pockets, very easy to warm your hands. I mean raglan sleeves are cool. I mean you can see there are little bumps up here right now, you see those?
PS: Yes.
SRS: That comes when you actually use a thin hanger such as this one, for example, so what happens is it pushes up in the shoulder. Now, to get rid of this, you use a wider hanger such as the ones from Butler luxury, for example, and then you try to iron it out. I also like this little detail here, has kind of a like a storm flap right, it’s kind of from a trench coat and you can either wear it buttoned but the idea is that you actually take it then button all the way up and it looks like this.
PS: Probably good for especially heavy snowfall.
SRS: Beautiful overcoat, nice color depth, basically in, like, new condition, hardly worn, I’d call this piece mint. There’s not much you could get wrong. Sixty dollar price tag, amazing value. Now, most vintage stores are very cluttered, Speakeasy, on the other hand, is different.
Some of Speakeasy’s glasses
PS: Yes, I think it’s very well appointed. You can get around easily and everything is very visible. It’s all kind of got its own space and its own little display.
SRS: It’s nicely grouped together, you know, they leave stuff behind in the back office but look at these here like salt and pepper shakers in marble set, $12, right? A little like you know candelabras, $14. A little kind of, what is this, Asian inspired.
PS: Could be sort of a drink muddler?
SRS: Exactly! Set of six, $10. Here’s a set of backgammon, right, cool game, like $16. I mean how cool is that on your next gentleman evening, for example? Or maybe you need some decanters for your brandy, this is like 12 bucks. Look at this here, ice cooler right quite like mid-century modern, 18 bucks. Here we got here some low ball glasses as well. For a little scotch right. The other thing they do is they actually have stuff in their drawers, pretty cool, right? That way, it’s not all cluttered on top but you can explore yourself. I thought it was quite smart.
PS: Looks like we’ve got some napkin rings in there. Something to serve different dishes over here.
SRS: Yeah and then they have bookends and all kinds of household things which are not necessarily clothing related but if you’re into the gentleman lifestyle, chances are you’ll find things that will work for you that are unique and not just a cookie-cutter or run-off-the-mill, right?
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