Opportunity Lost

I grew up in Op Shops. In my teens I used to love visiting Church Stores run by the Salvation Army and Rag Merchants searching through bales of cloths. It was all I wore. In those days we used to buy by the weight.

I was saddened to see that This is not a Love Shop are closing down. Fast and Loose have also closed in recent times. It is a mixture of cheaper on trend clothing being more readily available and the success of Trade Me making it easier to buy and sell.

What gets lost though is the incredible eye the people who operate and buy for these stores have, distilling through all the crap and finding the treasure.

Buying on Trade Me may save a little time and money but you lose the essence of good vintage and second hand shopping by not benefitting from the years of experience these people have.

I think good vintage shopping needs a good vintage store because it is the people who run them that make them great not just the clothes.

View more Dispatch posts

Back to Dispatch

Spring Tailoring: How To Match Patterns & Colours

Our first seasonal drop of new blazers, chinos and shirts has arrived, and with it some beautiful and rich patterns, from glen checks and ticking stripes to tartans and birdseyes. But how to put it all together? Matching patterns - choosing which shirt to pair with which jacket, for instance - can seem like something...

Six Stylish Spring Reads

Whether you’re still stuck inside or out enjoying the first days of spring, there’s no better time to crack open the spine on a good book. We’ve put together six essential reads to get into this season, from post-modern fiction, to cosmic western epics and some of the most essential menswear writing around.

How To Make A Negroni

To say that the negroni is having a moment is something of an understatement (see also: WM Brown’s Matt Hranek) - but then again, that’s been true for years, decades even. Rich, complex and slightly bitter (much like those who drink it perhaps), the cocktail is now over a century old and remains as complex...