20110823

Vintage Shopping à Paris

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Final Paris post!

In this post, I'll be telling you about what vintage shops we went into in Paris, what they're like and what we bought.

So first of all, my sister and I went to the Hotel De Ville/Saint Paul area and stayed around that area mostly. My sister's friend (mentioned in my previous post) said that this area was similar to Soho in London, and was quite a trendy place with vintage shops dotted all over the place. Obviously, before going to Paris, I did quite a lot of research into the vintage and what were the best places to go. One name kept popping up on various guides and blogs: FREE'P'STAR.
8 rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie 75004 Paris

FREE'P'STAR was the final shop we went to as before we actually had gone to it's sister store, FRIPES STAR (more on that later...).

As soon as we walked in, I was immediately struck by the mess of the whole shop. Clothes strewn all over the floor, jackets and jumpers hanging over rails and a mess of a gazilion pairs of Levi's cut offs chucked on the floor. However, please don't let this put you off. Amongst all that clutter, there were loads of gems hidden, you just have to rummage, which personally, I absolutely love doing as I feel a sense of achievement when I find a beautiful piece of clothing hiding in a huge pile of more clothes. I didn't buy anything from here as I was already carrying quite a heavy jacket from a previous store we went to, but I would definitely go back if I was in Paris. The prices are ridiculously cheap too, for example, a pair of Levi's denim cut offs (which I wouldn't spend over £10 on a pair in London) were priced at 5 euros. FIVE. EUROS. However, after rummaging in the corner of denim shorts for a while, I gave up as I couldn't find my size and I was growing impatient haha. But if you can be bothered I would definitely recommend spending a good 10 minutes looking through the pile as I'm sure my size was in there somewhere in the huge pile. There were dresses, jackets (denim and leather), smart pea coats, hats, t-shirts, shorts, skirts...basically everything. Also, there was a tiny spiral staircase (by 'tiny' I mean REALLY small, as in I was scared going down as the stairs were kinda scary too) leading down to a basement crammed full with more vintage goodies. If you like a good rummage and don't mind looking through a lot of crap to get to the good stuff, then I definitely recommend going there.

Now, onto my FAVOURITE vintage store...FRIPES STAR
61 rue de la Verrerie 75004 Paris

This shop had the same layout as FREE'P'STAR, with clothes everywhere, a denim shorts corner of 5 euro shorts, and rails crammed full of amazing vintage pieces. Instead of a basement, there was a little room upstairs (again up a really narrow spiral staircase) with a few chests full of clothes all priced at 1 euro each. ONE. FREAKING. EURO. And again, after a good few minutes of rummaging, I found some great blouses. In the end, I also got myself this BEAUTIFUL fringed leather biker. It was perfectly distressed, and although a tad big for me, at just 20 euros, I could deal with that. Yeah, it was 20 euros, priced down from 40 euros. At first I did think it was too good to be true, as a leather jacket like this in a London vintage shop, I'd expect to pay £50 or more for it as it was so heavy too. My sister got this AMAZING black maxi dress with a stunning lace detail. The fluted sleeves, perfect fit and the beautiful lace detail, it was instantly a dress I could see my sister wearing. It was priced at just 20 euros. A jaw dropping price for a dress with such intricate detailing. I could see the dress being sold as a Topshop Premium dress for over £100, so 20 euros was pretty darn good.

The old vintage camera was kind of a random purchase from a camera shop around the corner from our hotel. I got it on our last day and after seeing a basket with a few old cameras in it every day we were there, I was intrigued and stopped to have a look. Most of the cameras were just old camera bodies with no lens, but this was the last one found still with it's old lens. It was just 5 euros as I didn't work anymore, but I got it just to display in my room. And for 5 euros, you can't go wrong really.

So this was a vintage shopping in Paris post, we didn't go to many shops, but we did find some amazing pieces. I would recommend just getting on the metro, and getting off at either Hotel De Ville or Saint-Paul, and exploring that area for yourself as I know that there are many vintage shops scattered all around that area, so for whoever plans to go to Paris any time soon, I highly recommend spending a good afternoon wandering around there.

Hope you enjoyed my Paris posts, and I didn't bore you too much haha. I will go back to normal outfit posts soon, so until then...au revoir!

xxx

28 comments:

  1. love the first pic, the camera <3

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  2. Thank you so much for this post! I've waited sooo long to find someone who explored at least one good vintage store in Paris, where you can find superb pieces for little money...I've read everything you've written and I'll definitely go where you advised to go when I'll visit Paris myself...Thank you so much again! And your leather jacket is absolutely fantastic...
    www.alookintomywardrobe.blogspot.com

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  3. AMAZING FINDS, so so envious!

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  4. love this post, itching now to go to Paris.

    Got a similar jacket from Ebay ;)

    Jx

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  5. That dress is amazing! I love it!!!

    http://foreverfashion-2011.blogspot.com/

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  6. will so be checking these out when I go :)

    xo Camilla

    www.intothefoldfashion.com

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  7. that brown leather jacket with fringe detail looks great! <3

    Journal J

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  8. thank you! ps love this jacket!! < 3 xx,K.

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  9. yeah, theyre great!

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  10. Beautiful dress :)

    My English Fashion Blog:

    minnja.blogspot.com

    LOVE
    Minnja

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  11. I soo need a camera like that in my life...weell I really need a camera. haha Love the dress and I soo love the jacket!!! THat one is such a keeper! Great post. I hope you enjoyed your time!
    xoxo asiahlynn

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  12. Oh, comme j'adore Paris ♥ Love the camera :) & That's one cool jacket, like it!

    Great blog you've got :)

    XO, Imke

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  13. cool photos :)
    i love this jacket !!x

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  14. the leather jacket is defo one good find ! i loved ur black ruffled dress outfit in paris SOOOOOO much !! it's such a great look <3

    www.glistersandblisters.com

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  15. omg that fringe leather jkt is A-MAZING

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  16. Wahhh amazing vintage shop you've been ^___^
    and I mean 20bucks vintage dress? What a bargain!
    Great lace detail as well :)

    xx

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  17. oh that leather jacket is going to be perfect for the colder days!

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  18. Very nice finds! Vintage shops are great!

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  19. fabulous post :D that leather jacket is oh so perfect and super cheap too! and your sister looks great in that dress :) rummaging through piles of clothes sounds perfect to me! we must go together someday ;) *someday* #thestrokesftw #yeshashtags heh heh heh

    xx

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  20. I edited you to my blogroll!

    xx, Lillith

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  21. Some really ace vintage finds, looks like you had a great time in Paris!

    Were these the only vintage shops you made it to? I never found Fripes Star but Free P Star is always rammed & you have to proper dig through the 80s/90s crap to get to some good things.

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merci beaucoup! ♥
xoxo