Just a quick one from me today. I have certainly been getting impatient about getting those pins out and it seems like we are finally into the good weather here in Barcelona. I threw this outfit together for a lovely Saturday walking around the city with some friends that were visiting. One friend, Bella, is an excellent photographer so I asked her to quickly snap my outfit – look how gorgeous the light is in these!
I am still loving suede for Spring/Summer 16 and this suede shirt is the perfect light jacket. I am also still loving this pleated midi skirt (which has also featured in a previous post HOW TO STYLE A PLEATED SKIRT FOR SS16) and it is a great item for this transitional time of year.
What items are you turning to as the warmer weather hits?
Coucou!
Ça fait longtemps que j’attends le beau temps et je pense qu’il est enfin arrivé à Barcelone ce week-end dernier. J’ai mis cet outfit pour me balader dans la ville avec des amis qui m’a rendu visite pour le week-end. Ma copine, Bella, est super forte en photographe du coup je lui ai demandé de prendre mon look en photo – quelle belle lumière des ses photos non?!
J’aime toujours du daim pour printemps/été 16 et je trouve que cette chemise en daim est parfaite pour être porté comme une veste alternative. J’aime toujours aussi cette jupe plissée (que vous avez déjà dans mon poste COMMENT METTRE UNE JUPE PLISSEE POUR PRINTEMPS/ETE 16) et elle est parfaite pour ce temps.
Quelles pièces portez vous pendant que le beau temps arrive?
Velvet blazer – vintage, Flower brooch – independent designer, Wrap body – ZARA, Jeans – KILO SHOP, Shoes – DR MARTENS
Location – Behind Estació de França, Barcelona
Ever since I saw Alexa Chung (AKA The Queen) rocking a velvet blazer and straight cut off jeans at London Fashion Week, I knew that a velvet blazer was an essential purchase for spring. I finally found my velvet blazer in Garage, a VINTAGE SHOP IN BERLIN, and it cost just 16€. I love its straight and androgynous shape, which is really flattering, and here I have styled it up in a casual girl-meets-boy way.
These straight blue Levi’s, that I bought recently in Paris and whose hems I cut myself, are quite androgynous too so I think they look great with the blazer and DMS – balanced out nicely with a tight, low-cut wrap body to add that feminine touch. To finish off the look, I added this gorgeous pink velvet flower brooch that my mum gave me for Christmas – such a simple way to add a little something extra to an outfit – brooches are in guys, brooches are in.
Des que j’ai vu le look de La Reine Alexa Chung à Fashion Week de Londres où elle a porté une veste velours avec un jean bleu déchiré, j’ai su qu’il faudrait en acheter une pour printemps. Enfin j’ai trouvé la parfaite dans UNE FRIPERIE A BERLIN qui s’appelle Garage et elle a coûté que 16€. J’aime bien qu’elle est droite et d’une forme androgyne et voilà je vous présente un look femme/homme.
Ce jean Levi’s droit, que j’ai acheté à Paris récemment et dont ses ourlets j’ai coupé moi-même, est d’un style androgyne aussi du coup je pense qu’il va super bien avec la veste et des chaussures Doc Martens. Pour compenser le look “boyish” et pour ajouter de la féminité, j’ai mis un body décolleté et serré. J’ai fini le look en mettant une broche de fleur rose en velours sur la veste – une moyen simple d’ajouter un peu de je ne sais quoi à un outfit – et vous savez que les broches sont super à la mode ce printemps non?
I am really excited to share with you a vlog from my recent trip to Berlin! I have separated the video into sections – where to eat, where to visit and where to shop. Although you should check out my blog post VINTAGE SHOPPING IN BERLIN for a more extensive shopping guide.
I am so pleased with how the video has turned out and I feel that my editing is getting better every time I do a new video. Let me know what you think, like the video and subscribe to my channel and thank you for tuning in huns!
Coucou!
Je suis super contente de vous présenter un nouveau vlog sur mon séjour récent a Berlin! La video est en trois parties – où on peut manger, visiter et faire du shopping. Cependant, il faut que vous verriez aussi mon poste VINTAGE SHOPPING IN BERLIN pour une guide plus complète.
Je suis vachement contente avec la video et je trouve que ma capacité de monter les videos améliore avec chaque video. Laissez-moi un commentaire, inscrivez-vous à ma chaîne et je vous remercie d’avoir regardé!
I thought that PARIS VINTAGE SHOPPING was hands down the best that I have ever come across but Berlin’s offering comes in at a close second. Unlike in Paris’ Le Marais, London’s Brick Lane or Camden Town or Stockholm’s Sodermalm, there is not one particular area of Berlin that is dedicated to vintage and secondhand clothing and as it is a vast city it was impossible for me to discover all of Berlin’s vintage shops in just four days. However, I was seriously impressed with those that I did – from clothes sold by weight, enormous charity shops and markets to shops selling carefully selected pieces and upcycled clothing. Welcome to my guide to vintage shopping in Berlin.
Buying clothes by weight is not a new concept but it certainly is a great one. Not only does it make shopping fun – you can weigh the items yourself at scales in the shop – but you can find some real bargains. Pick And Weight is a small shop in the heart of Mitte, which is crammed full of treasures and where you buy clothes by the kilo, the price of which depends on the colour of the item’s tag – red is 25€/kg, yellow is 35€/kg, green is 65€/kg and blue is 85€/kg. This exact concept is extremely similar to KILO SHOP in Paris where I used to work so I felt right at home here. Just as I am used to, the clothes are arranged by colour and the rails are jam packed so embrace it and get stuck in.
Garage is another vintage shop where you buy by the kilo but this time you just need to remember 25€/kg and you are golden. There are some fixed price items but these start from just 3/5/7 euros so how can you complain? This shop has everything, literally EVEYTHING, a bargain hunter could wish for – from vintage tea dresses, printed blouses and woollen jumpers to a shoe and boot collection that is to die for. Even though Garage is rather isolated – away from an area where there are other vintage shops and in a basement of what looks like a housing estate – it is certainly worth going out of your way to visit this enormous store full of bargains just waiting to be discovered. I picked up a beautifully androgynous velvet blazer on my visit to Garage and as I had been looking for one for a while, I thought 16€ was pretty damn good.
MADE IN BERLIN
Neue Schönhauser Straße, 19, Mitte.
Made In Berlin is Garage’s more hip, more expensive and more centrally located old sister boasting carefully selected pieces in a beautifully decorated boutique in Mitte. I think we can all agree that the vintage sign and decor behind the cash register (that is the title image to this post) is the prettiest thing ever. From the outside I thought it was going to be quite a small shop but it just keeps going! You might not get any bargains here but you can certainly expect quality, on-trend vintage items such as Levi’s 501 jeans from 30 euros. Plus it is just down the road from the aforementioned Pick N Weight so you can pick and choose where you plurge and where you rummage.
Frankfurter Tor, 3, Friedrichshain. Plus various others.
There are numerous Humanas around the city and the first one that I discovered was just off Alexanderplatz on my previous trip to Berlin. At the time I impressed by its large floor space but I now know that that was just an average Humana shop. On this recent trip to Berlin, I discovered their four-story “department store” at Frankfurter Tor where any bargain-hunter will feel like they have died and gone to heaven. The first three floors contain a vast selection of secondhand clothing for men, women and children with prices starting from as little as 1€! The fourth floor is dedicated to vintage and although these items are more expensive to those on the lower floors, it is still pretty cheap for vintage.
This chic boutique is at the opposite end of the vintage shop spectrum from stores like Humana and Garage but it depends what you like and sometimes it is just nice to have the selection already done for you. Some of us just are not natural bargain hunters but why should that mean you should be deprived of unique items and saving the planet? It should not, so enter Sing Blackbird, which has some gorgeous vintage and secondhand clothing that is all presented beautifully by colour and item across four rooms. Of course this all comes at a price – think 30€ for a blouse, oh and if you do need to think about it, Sing Blackbird also have an adorable little cafe for relaxing and vintage ponderings.
On a quiet street in upcoming neighbourhood Neukölln you will find Shio, a rather unique boutique that I instantly fell in love with. Shio has an impressive variety of pieces on offer for such a small space. Firstly let’s talk about their upcycled clothing, which is very reasonably priced (20€ for a crop jumper) seeing as the pieces have clearly been carefully selected and lovingly improved or moderated. In walking round to the back of the shop from the two/three upcycled rails you will find Shio’s own label – new, modern and minimalist clothing for both women and men. I absolutely loved their simple grey men’s tees and cotton midi dresses with striped hemline detailing. Finally they also sell cute jewellery, printed wrapping paper and even soap! Shio, I will definitely be back with a wad of euros on my next trip to Berlin.
MAUERPARK MARKET
The secondhand and vintage market in Mauerpark takes places every Sunday (come rain or shine) in the beautiful area of Prenzlauerberg. If you are heading to the market, make sure you take a pre or post shopping stroll in the charming streets of Kollwitzkiez. The market is vast and you can expect everything from carefully selected vintage clothing, a large choice of secondhand sheepskin coats (a Berlin favourite) and antiques to retro furniture, independent designers and jewellery. Once you have finished browsing, grab lunch from one of the many food trucks at the back of the market – we went for vegan falafel, which was delicious. If I lived in Berlin, this is definitely where I would come to deck out my flat with old tables, retro armchairs and cute trinkets. Oh Mauerpark Market alone is almost a reason to move to Berlin!
So there you have it! I hope you have enjoyed this guide to just some of the best places for vintage and secondhand shopping in Berlin. Let me know if you have been to any of these shops, if I am missing an major ones and which are your favourite!
The baseball cap is pretty a tricky item to wear right and I have always seen it as traditionally being on the heads of tourists, sporty types and chavs. However, when I spotted this corduroy cap in Kilo Shop in Paris, I was unable to walk away from it and as I love experimenting with different looks I decided to challenge myself and buy a cap.
When creating an outfit around the cap, I knew that I wanted to avoid a sports luxe look by wearing trainers so I chose to pick up on the grunge feel of the cap’s corduroy material and go for every nineties kid’s favourite shoes – Dr Martens. I think during summer I will be able to rock the cap with a full grunge look complete with slogan tee and ripped Levi’s shorts at a festival but for now I am playing the minimalist layer game. I think this oversized shirt dress looks great unbuttoned over the top of a black slip dress, enabling me to flash just the right amount of leg for this time of year.
How would you style a baseball cap?
C’est difficile de porter bien la casquette baseball parce que selon moi, traditionnellement elles sont souvent sur les têtes des touristes, des gens sportifs et des cailleras. Cependant, quand j’ai trouvé cette casquette en velours côtelé chez Kilo Shop à Paris, je ne pouvais pas la laisser et vu que j’aime bien expérimenter avec mes looks, j’ai décidé de l’acheter pour me défier.
En créant cet outfit, je savais que je voulais eviter un look “sports luxe” en portant des baskets du coup j’ai mis mes chaussures Dr Martens pour aller avec le vibe grunge de la matière de velours côtelé de la casquette. Pendant été, je pense que je pourrai mettre un look completement grunge – un t-shirt slogan et un short Levis déchiré – avec la casquette mais pour l’instant je m’habille en minimaliste. J’aime bien le look en portant la robe-chemise au-dessus d’une robe noire pour que je puisse montrer un peu de mes jambes mais pas trop pour le debut de printemps.
