Abbie Chic

Vintage Shopping in Brick Lane, London

18 April 2019

So if you have seen my previous post, you will know I visited the east end of London recently for my birthday. The reason for this exact location? To check out the vintage shops that are a plenty in this area. I'm passionate about vintage and preloved fashion, saving items from the landfill and cutting down on my consumption on fast fashion.

I had googled the area and seen there was enough vintage stores to keep me entertained for the weekend! The best area for vintage shopping is Brick Lane. A stone's throw from Shoreditch and this lane had various retailers from bagel shops, to Indian restaurants, to book shops and whole lot more.

Two vintage shops I was keen to visit were Rokit and Atika. Both I had been aware of since my teens, but I had never ventured into one. I was too swayed by the high street stores to go vintage.
In Brick Lane there is two Rokit stores almost right next to each other.

Brick Lane

The first one was smaller, but still had a great array of sweaters, t-shirts, dresses etc. One section that did catch my eye was their hand bags. I'm always checking out vintage and charity shops for any gems and on this occasion I may of just found one!
I have only owned one designer hand bag, being a Mulberry handbag, which my husband got for me 7 years ago. It's a quilted shoulder bag and at the more affordable end of their price scale. I do love it, but it's just not an iconic designer hand bag design. I'm talking about Gucci, YSL and Chanel.
And in Rokit I did come across a handbag of the latter. There was a Versace bag, but it's the Chanel handbag that got me excited.
It's a medium size Le Boy bag with python skin. It was priced at £65 and was showing some signs of wear. I'm quite skeptical when I see a designer handbag secondhand as it's hard to know if it's authentic. With this one I thought it looked like the real deal. It feels like it's made of leather, has nothing that looks cheap or fake and has the serial number sticker on the inside.
That said after watching a good number of Youtube videos even the fake Chanel handbags have fake serial numbers.
The sales assistant in Rokit could not or did not know know if it was genuine. I'm still a bit dubious now. There are some things that make me think it's the real deal but some that make me wonder. I guess if I had a real Chanel Le Boy bag to compare it to it might be more obvious. Still in my mind it looks good enough to be real (if it isn't that is) and it's the closest I'm ever going to get to a having a Chanel handbag.
One does wonder as they were selling it for such a good price, that it could well not be authentic, but it wasn't in the best of states, with scuffing on it. Still it's good enough for me to have. And if it is real then I'm a happy bunny!

Me and my Le Boy

Brick Lane Vintage Market

iSalvage at Brick Lane Vintage Market

After purchasing the bag, I continued down Brick Lane and found even more vintage shops! Brick Lane has an underground indoor market that is all vintage fashion, accessories and even vinyl. It's called Brick Lane Vintage Market (why call it anything else!) and has 45 stalls or sections all next to each other selling their preloved wares. Being a tourist and wanting to take photos I had my Sony digital camera to hand. And after taking a couple of photos one stall holder quite abruptly told me not to take any photos. I was a bit perplexed to why and asked her could I not take some to use to publicize her stall on social media? She said no as so many people say they will tag her products on Instagram and never do and she gets pissed off and basically has banned people for taking photos. I explained that I would tag her stall (it's called ISalvage- check it out) and that I write a blog too.
She then seemed to come round to the idea to let me take some photos and even said I could have a discount if I did. Which rest assured, I was true to my word and did tag her on Instagram.

Brick Lane Vintage Market

iSalvage at Brick Lane Vintage Market

Walking around the indoor market there was so much vintage fashion, some had been customised, some just as from it's era. If you love vintage then this will fulfill your vintage needs completely! Still more 'no photos' signs dotted around so I kept my camera to myself but still thought it was a missed opportunity to showcase all they have to offer.

Outside the vintage market, on the opposite side of the road, at the end of a car park was an office which was holding a sample sale for the brand Silk Fred. I've never brought anything from them before but I have seen some of their items online so I was familiar with the brand. I've also never been to a sample sale before, read about them, but not been. This one had several rails of glitzy and glam dresses and tops all for around £20 or less. Apparently the previous day they were busy so there was not as much left. I did't get anything as it wasn't for me. I don't go out anywhere to warrant the need for any of their items, but still least I can tick going to a sample sale off my bucket list (which if it actually existed would have a lot of retail goals on there!).

Atika

The following day I found Atika. Which like Rokit I had heard of but never been to. It's a pretty large shop, with a ground floor and a lower ground floor, again full of vintage items. The prices were marked up at about the same price what you may pay on the high street. So not expensive but not charity shop prices either. The shop was spacious, so it was easy to shop around, but they did have quite a lot of their stock on rails which felt quite unsturdy!
I didn't buy anything as I was more interested to have a look around. And in my mind I wouldn't pay the prices of a vintage shop, unless they had some great deal on or it's something I really wanted. As I've been to now 13 vintage kilo sales as time of writing this post, I know a lot of the stock these shops have are much similar to the stock at a kilo sale. Except at the kilo sale you get much more for your money. So I feel I am generally paying over the odds in a vintage shop. But I understand they have to make a profit so I don't hold that against them!

I found a couple more boutique vintage shops which I took a browse around and I also found a Beyond Retro. Again I didn't buy anything (I did try on a lovely midi denim skirt by Guess with heart shape brass buttons down the front, but it was too small though I thought it would fit me!). But it was still fun to look around and see what they had as they do have a lot more stock in their shops than the other vintage shops.

Beyond Retro

On Sunday's they have their outdoor market, much like any other town market, plus with lots of street food too. It's really busy at this time, so don't plan to rush anywhere!
There is also more indoor markets just off Brick Lane, with various independent sellers of art, jewelry, fashion and handmade items.

I felt that two days was enough time to explore Brick Lane and it's surrounding areas. I got my vintage fix and a designer hand bag too (or maybe not, who knows!).

Brick Lane

I hope this may of inspired you to visit Brick Lane. Here are some links so you can find out more about the area:

Love,

Abbie xxx

SLIDER

Vintage Shopping in Brick Lane, London

18 April 2019