I've mentioned Beyond Retro a few times before. I frequent their East End shop, although I have noticed that since the whole Mad Men trend for vintage fashion explosion, the price of their select Mid-Century section has gone up a bit. I used to be able to always find a decent day dress for around £30-£35, but that price seems to have gone up by £5-£10, which is noticeable. However, there are still bargains to be had.
Anyway, the new online store has a little slide device on the side of the screen which allows you to input your bust, hip, waist and even preferred length measurements. Every vintage dresser knows the importance of knowing your measurements. I think this is a really good idea and saves you the heartache of stumbling upon what would be the perfect dress, only 10 inches too big. You can also search by colour and thankfully, era.
The prices are quite reasonable, although I think they do seem a little more expensive than the in store prices, but perhaps that is becuse they select better quality vintage for the online store (quite often you will find buttons missing/stains etc in store).
The massive positive is that you don't actually have to visit the store. No offence to Beyond Retro and its patrons, but I often find it slightly overbearing, especially when busy. The East London one is fully of hipster clones, it plays very loud music (god, I sound like a granny) , and is full of way too many shiny/lycra/70s things for my taste. But each to their own.
To sum up, I think that this is a great new online shop for us unsociable internet addicted mid-century dressers, and that they are definitely onto something when it comes to ease of internet shopping with their magic slide-y measurement device. Now, all we need to do is get ebay and etsy to install one....
Happy Shopping peeps!
That is indeed a clever idea. I agree with you on the in-store experience there, I don't enjoy it at all. They have so much 80s tat that it isn't much better than going through a charity shop, and anything earlier than 70s is often stupendously expensive.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! I'm deffinetly taking a look when I have the time
ReplyDeleteWhat a clever idea! I must say my pet hate on ebay is vintage sellers giving a vague size and then - often in rude capitals and ill-spelled- declaring WE DO NOT GIVE REFUNDS IF IT DOESN'T FIT. Often there's more implying that putting up with poor service is part of buying 'vintage'. There's even one seller who claims with pride they don't clean garments that are sold for immediate wear. Practice like that puts people off vintage - and vintage-shoppers like me get put off them, full stop.
ReplyDeleteI also agree about the 80s stuff in Beyond Retro. I do enjoy a dabble in the era that taste forgot myself... but as Penny Dreadful says, won't buy if it's stuff that can be found for a third of the price in a charity shop!
What a great idea, I've never been there before but I can imagine! Yes know your measurements is totally key to vintage shopping!
ReplyDeleteOoh, that's a really nifty idea!!
ReplyDelete-Andi x