The Vintage World News

One of the most common and cliche newspaper articles during tough economic times is the second-hand shop profile, which usually has a headline like "Consumers Flock to Consignment Shops During Recession" or "Tightening Your Belt During Hard Times? Try Shopping Vintage." A bit of poking around online reveals a ton of these articles have been published over the last few months, including in our own local Guelph Mercury. "Thrifty business: Consignment stores a must in times of bust" is the name of the most recent article, by reporter Thana Dharmarajah. The article makes the usual points and has some great quotes from our friends in the Guelph women's wear biz (see: not every local article has to be about MEOW!).

Here are some other recent articles and blog posts from the wild world of vintage:

Dressing for a Credit Crunch

What trend will define the recession?

Dead Stock in Detroit

Awesome British Hat Auction

Vintage: New Old Trend

Vintage knitting news?
Comparing 1930s-era consumerism with today's

Vintage in Moscow

R.I.P. Lady Luck, a vintage store in Oregon

Vintage Geek Gift Guide

Profile of deLuxe Junk, Vancouver

Preloved: Toronto Fire Victim

Marilis Cardinal of Indyish reports on the Queen West fire in Toronto and the demise of Preloved, the boutique specializing in re-worked vintage pieces. Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the fire. It is horrible to think of people's collections, memories, and livelihoods being destroyed in this way:

Not only is the store unrecognizable except for the sign above the door, but there is also nothing salvagable in the remains of the beautiful boutique. Montreal boutique owner Colin Seymour says : "It took 150 firefighters almost 12 hours to put out the blaze. […] the entire spring/summer collection, is practically irreplaceable. Despite this, Julia [Grieve, Founder and CEO] has remained incredibly positive, and swears that preloved will rise from the ashes, in a bigger, better location."

Another store owner, Abraham Shalehchi of Abraham's Antiques also was burned down. Abraham is a frequent visitor to our booth at the Aberfoyle Antique Market and has bought from us since we first started in the business. Our hearts go out to Abraham in this time of need --an antiques store is full of irreplaceable items --stock that can never be fully replaced or valued. We hope Abraham is able to rally from this: he has unique tastes and is a rarity among people in the business: honest and personable.

There are numerous groups and charities springing up to help the victims of the fire, including this Facebook group.