My very first Pyrex

I spotted it on my usual weekend trip to Housing works. In the household section, at the back of a shelf, was a mustardy yellow and very retro Pyrex casserole. The lid rattled slightly and it had a nice heavy feel to it. I promptly paid the $12 (yes, Manhattan prices....) and brought it home.

Pyrex was made in the 50s and makes for the perfect kitchen accessory for any vintage lover. The stuff was built to last and the designs are wonderfully retro. As a result, it has now become quite collectable. It makes the perfect item to thrift, so keep your eyes open for it. If you thrift some Pyrex, check out the Pyrex love website to figure out what you've got. I believe my casserole is part of the Butterfly gold collection, who knew?

The Cure thrift store

Throughout the winter I trudged through the snow, braved the wild winds and got drenched in the rain as I braved the elements to thrift in the city. Now, as New York City welcomes its first days of spring I've decided to emerge from my prolonged blog hibernation. Let me tell you about a thrift store I discovered this past winter: The Cure Thrift shop. My friend Flora, my fellow thrift addict, told me about it and promised great things. Well the girl was right - this place rocks.

The best thing about the Cure is the furniture, this is the best thrift furniture in Manhattan. The place has everything and is organized in room sections:

• Bedroom
  

Kitchen - check out the super cool retro oven

• Office - some nice mid century furniture dotted around

• A book area. Flora perusing the selection.
  

This thrift store is gigantic (remember there is no space in Manhattan!) and I was very impressed. I fell in love with a couple of furniture pieces, and although I spotted some good deals, the majority had a hefty tag - cheaper than an antique shop but not exactly thrifty. You pay for the good selection and nice layout. The basement is filled with clothes, shoes and handbags - and has a men's section. Luckily they have a big spring sale going on - they advertise their sales on their website and on craigslist - and for the last two sale days they will be holding a $15 per stuffed bag. Watch this space!

For the love of thrift rating (from 1 to 10):

Selection: 9 (10 if you're looking for furniture)
Presentation: 9

Niceness of staff: 8

Bargain factor (ie pricing): 7
Thrift turnover: 8

The Cure thrift store is on East 12th and 4th avenue and is open late on week days (8:30) and on the weekends (8pm).

Use your head

Imagine my delight when a lady gave me a leaflet for a new thrift store as I was strolling through NoLita during one lunch break last October. My heart raced at the prospect of finding a thrift store in a part of town famous for its boutiques and independent designers. It turned out that Use your head: shop for a cause wasn't out of place in this neighbourhood; this is the ultimate Manhattan high end boutique thrift store.

Rest assured that Use your head is the real deal - not a consignement store or a vintage store, but a true thrift store where your money goes to help the Soho partnership, a nonprofit for helping the homeless get jobs and off the streets. In fact, the lady who gave me the leaflet was called Renee and she had been helped off the streets by the organization. How cool is that?

The staff at Use your head are friendly and chatty and make you feel at ease - no boutique snootiness going on here. In fact, the girl working there gave me the low down on the place. The shop belongs to Henry Buhl, a gentleman in his 70s who has many friends and is extremely active in the community - he started the Soho partnership.

What makes this store so New York, is that Henry Buhl's friends are people like Lauren Hutton and Jane Fonda who regularly drop clothes off at the store. On another trip there I was told that they had just received a donation of vintage clothes from Sotheby's. Designer shops in the area also donate regularly to the shop - including Nicole Miller, Prada and Marc Jacobs.

As a result, the shop is very edited with high end clothes. The pricetags are hefty for a thrift shop but low considering that the boutique next door would probably charge you 5 times the price. Some examples are a Chloe dress ($120), a silk YSL Rive gauche blouse ($45), a Ferragamo jacket ($350). They also have some amazing vintage finds - I read that recently a lady donated clothes from Oscar de la Renta, YSL and Valentino after she refused the request from the fashion houses to arquive the clothes.

As well as clothes they also have shoes and handbags. I snatched a delicious vintage handbag for a mere $20.


If you are in town, do pay them a visit - you will see some beautiful clothes, maybe a celebrity or two, and if you buy something you can look gorgeous while helping support a great cause!

For the love of thrift rating (from 1 to 10):

Selection: 10
Presentation: 10

Niceness of staff: 10

Bargain factor (ie pricing): 7 (if you're looking for designer wear)
Thrift turnover: 8

Use your head: shop for a cause thrift store is on 262 Mott Street

The little black dress

Every thrift girl knows how important an LBD is.

Thrifted in goodwill, courtesy of lookbook, all the way across the East river ie Brooklyn.

Merry Xmas!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all you lovely bloggers! Time to eat, drink, be jolly, grateful and enjoy family and friends - may the festivities begin! x

A little extravagance....

The Upper East Side's Council Thrift Shop is one of my favourites in NYC. The volunteers are such sweethearts, always with a smile and willing to chat for ages about whatever you've bought or tried on. The shop has a great down-to-earth community vibe. It is a little dishevelled but makes up for this in spades with staff friendlieness - and great stock.

They sell clothes - for men and women - and often have designer garb. They also have shoes, books, accessories, housewares and furniture. This place is great for nabbing yourself a bargain, the prices tend to be fair and there is always a sale going on.

I went there this October and they had just put all their Fall/Winter stock out. It was mostly designer wear and it was all 50% off. There was some excellent stuff, from Armani, to Valentino and Michael Kors et al. I spied a jacket that was absolutely gorgeous and brand new from Mackage, a brand I'd never heard of. It was $180 (GULP) but with the discount it was $90. Yikes - pricey - and unusually expensive for the Council Thrift store! However, it was soooo funky that after much umming and ahhhing and in-store modelling - I bought it. To console myself I later checked their website and saw that their jackets go for $500 and up. That made me feel less of a sap.

So, I love the jacket but it is my most expensive thrift shop buy ever. Extravagance? Perhaps. However, this is where I throw the allmighty thrift moral punch - all proceeds go to support the National Council of Jewish Women of New York who focus on progressive stances on issues such as child welfare, women's rights and reproductive freedom. Yeah!! This jacket is worth every single cent!!

The Council Thrift Shop is on 84th between 2nd and 3rd avenues. It is open Mon-Wed,11am-5:45pm; Thu, 11am-7:45pm; Fri-Sat, 11am-4:45pm. Closed Sundays.

For the love of thrift rating (from 1 to 10):
Selection: 8
Presentation: 8
Niceness of staff: 10
Bargain factor (ie pricing): 9
Thrift turnover: 8

Second hand man

Because guys love thrift too.

From Ireland - loving the enormous scarf and thrifted jacket

From Germany (all thrifted) - maybe this big scarf thing is a trend....

From the US, shoes and shirt from the Salvation army (maybe he wants to jump off the ledge beacause he didn't thrift his jeans...)

From Brooklyn, New York - thrifted vest - let's hear it for the home boy! Yeah!

Are you a guy that thrifts? Are you a girl that thrifts with or for her guy?

My man wears thrift - on occasion - but I'm the one with the addiction....