Los Angeles is a great city for vintage shopping, especially if you are into Mexicana and 70’s Americana. There are lots of small vintage shops, some of them part of independent chains like American Vintage. During the day I spent in Los Feliz, I visited the Hillhurst Avenue branch which is located in a cute little wooden house next to the Home restaurant.
When I go vintage shopping, I never have anything in mind, but at the same time I keep a mental wish list – bit of a paradox really. Anyway, as soon as I entered American Vintage I saw something that had been on the very top of my wish list for absolute yonks: a vintage Mexican blanket. Finding one had been keeping me up at night, trawling Etsy and despairing at how expensive they were. I was a little apprehensive to look at the price tag in the store, expecting it to be $100 plus. Lo and behold it was only $25. I saw a similar one later on that day in Driftwood for $250 (expect a post about Driftwood as well).
I am not just blurting out this blanket story for no reason though. It gives you a good idea of the price range in the store. I dug as deep as I could, excited at the perspective of finding some true American vintage. There is a wide range of embroidered Mexican dresses (tried on a few, but couldn’t find one that was the right fit), a lot of silk kimonos (which allowed Naomi to join Cozette, Melly and I in the L.A. Geisha club), the obligatory denim shorts, denim vests and vintage tees, but also a great selection of 40’s, 50’s and 60’s dresses at extremely affordable prices (between $15 and $40 – which for the British tourist is nada).
The girl who was looking after the shop while we were in there was extremely pretty and we chatted a bit as she asked me to show her how to tie a turban! I am definitely bringing turbans back this Spring.
The morale of this story? I was given a vintage budget to purchase vintage clothes to mix & match with Quiksilver Women pieces and I spent 75% of it in American Vintage.
You can find American Vintage at the addresses below:
7575 Melrose Avenue – LA, CA 90046
210 N. Harbor Blvd – Fullerton, CA 98231
1750 Hillhurst Avenue – LA, CA 90027 (this is the one I went to)
14438 Ventura Blvd – Sherman Oaks, CA 91423
201 Main St #C – Huntington Beach, CA 92648