A vintage guide to...York

It’s vintage guide time again!

My place of choice this week is York. Off I popped this weekend to the wonderful York  with two of my housemates and a lovely day was had.

First off I have to highly recommend the charity shops in York, not only are there loads of them but a few have specialist vintage and retro sections. The best road to visit is Goodramgate where there are about 7 charity shops on the one road! My favourite was the Sue Ryder shop (head upstairs).

York’s charity shops are best for: Retro goodies particularly shoes!

My next recommendation is the lovely York Antiques centre in the Shambles. The market is predominated by vintage and antique jewellery at pretty reasonable prices. Downstairs is a lovely little vintage clothing area where there was a wonderful selection of vintage clothing from the 30s through to the 80s. There was a sensational full length buttercup yellow ballgown for just £40! Whilst there I picked up two fantastic pieces. A wonderful 30s chenille jacket (I’m not telling the price because it was too good for words!) and a lovely pair of green leather Dents gloves.

York antiques market is best for: Reasonable priced vintage from any era and jewellery!

Then it’s off to the vintage shops, there are quite a few dotted around York but I have just picked my two favourites.

First off is House of Avalon. This beautiful little shop has an equally wonderful café out the back. The stock here is predominantly 40s and 50s. There was a wonderful selection of vintage evening dresses when I visited.

I also just have to say how much I appreciate the ethos behind the shop:

“The idea for the House of Avalon was born in 2008 as part of Avalon’s vision to create employment opportunities for people with learning disabilities within a Social Enterprise. We know there are limited ways in which people with learning disabilities can gain meaningful employment and the House of Avalon helps address this nationwide problem.”

House of Avalon is best for: Mid century evening dresses.

And secondly is the wonderful vintage emporium. Owned by Keeley Harris who runs the discover vintage fairs this shop is wonderful. It is an absolutely beautiful shop with a lovely mix of homewares and also clothing. There are a huge amount of wedding dresses here, and I particularly loved the selection of 40s and 50s suits, if one had fitted me I would have definitely been buying.

What I also really liked abut the shop was that it had an excellent selection of Mens vintage too. There were so many beautiful quality suits!

(Pictures from the Vintage Emporium website)

Vintage emporium is best for: Suits for men and women. 40s and 50s day dresses and Wedding dresses (Keeley also runs the Vintage wedding fair hence the selection of amazing wedding dresses!)