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"  Among vintage shopping&amp;#039;s many allures are the thrill of the hunt, the chance to own a pre-loved piece with its own history, and an ease of mind that comes from contributing less, not more, to your planetary waste tab. If you&amp;#039;ve got patience and a good eye, we&amp;#039;ve got the best spots in the world for vintage handbags, shoes, dresses, and more. See more photos to explore our guide.  DENIM   WHAT COMES AROUND GOES AROUND 351 West Broadway, New York 212-343-9303nyvintage.com  Downtown New York has no shortage of vintage stores, but What Comes Around is the insider&amp;#039;s favorite for a carefully edited selection, including some of the most well-worn jeans around. With everything from rare Levi&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Big E&amp;quot; jeans (from $500) to the even rarer &amp;quot;Double X&amp;quot;&amp;#039;s (up to $2,000) from the 1950s. &amp;quot;Our staff is really a team of stylists that help you establish the style you like, degree of fade, and fit,&amp;quot; says co-owner Gerard Maione. His tip for cleaning vintage jeans? &amp;quot;Don&amp;#039;t wash them until you absolutely have to\u2014turn them inside out, soak in cold water, and let them hang dry.&amp;quot;  EVENING/BRIDALWEAR   DECADES 8214 \u00BD Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles 323-655-0223decadesinc.com  Cameron Silver&amp;#039;s shop is a go-to gown spot for young Hollywood.  RARE VINTAGE 24 West 57th Street, New York 212-581-7273rarevintageince.com  Like the name suggests, this shop stocks pieces you&amp;#039;re not likely to find anywhere else. By appointment only.  &amp;quot;I will not buy a dress just because of the label in it,&amp;quot; RARE owner Juliana Cairone says. &amp;quot;I recently passed on some beautifully made Yves Saint Laurent haute couture suits from the early 90s because the shoulders were just too big and the skirts too short and that look is not relevant now. That is not to say that all pieces from that era look dated. Herve Leger, Thierry Mugler and Montana look amazing and modern. We have a beautiful Scassi from the 1980s that has all of the drama,color and bows of that period but if you take away the hair, shoes and make up that would have been worn with it and put on some great strappy sandals and not too done hair the look is spectacular and sexy. It is what the designers do all of the time, take a vintage dress and reinterpret it.&amp;quot;  THEFROCK.com  While their gowns can be pricey, the pieces from thefrock.com aren&amp;#039;t exactly what you&amp;#039;d find in an everyday thrift store (think Dior couture, hand-beaded Jean Patou, and 1960s Pierre Cardin).  FINE JEWELRY   ISADORA&amp;#039;S 1915 First Avenue, Seattle 206-441-7711isadoras.com  Whether you&amp;#039;re in the market for Edwardian hanging earrings or a strand of Victorian pearls, Isadora&amp;#039;s has it. They also do a brisk trade in vintage engagement rings, according to sales associate Miko Premo. &amp;quot;People look at it as both a way to be earth conscious and avoid conflict diamonds,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;And when you&amp;#039;re buying a vintage engagement ring, it&amp;#039;s totally unique.&amp;quot; Their website also ships anywhere in the world.  T-SHIRTS   WORLD OF VINTAGE T-SHIRTS 7701 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles 323-651-4058  If you firmly believe no &amp;quot;vintage&amp;quot; tee should ever come from Urban Outfitters, World of Vintage T-Shirts is your spot. They stock more than 4,500 men&amp;#039;s and women&amp;#039;s tees, including concert shirts from the Police&amp;#039;s first 1981 North American tour. Owner Patrick Guetta&amp;#039;s advice on finding the most comfortable, lived-in one? &amp;quot;The best vintage T-shirts aren&amp;#039;t made of heavy cotton, but fine gauge cotton that feels soft.&amp;quot;  POSHVINTAGE 235 Jefferson Avenue, Miami 305-609-6398poshvintage.com  The brick-and-mortar store is nothing compared to the massive online storefront of Posh Vintage. Owner Patti Stoecker is married to a photographer who used to shoot rock album covers in the 1970s, and their T-shirt collection has grown accordingly.  SHOES   GIRLS LOVE SHOES 29 Ludlow Street, New York 917-250-3268glsnewyork.com  Sisters Zia and Dana Ziprin stock their tiny Lower East Side Shop with shoes from floor to ceiling, with more than 4,000 more pairs tucked away in their archives. Their styles range from 1930s to early 1990s, sizes 4 to 12, and include pairs from Chanel, Ferragamo, Charles Jourdan, and Valentino.  BIS St. Antoniebreestraat 25, Amsterdam 31 20 620 34 67  One of Amsterdam&amp;#039;s best vintage shops is particularly great for footwear\u2014the &amp;quot;shoe annex&amp;quot; has loads of pumps and boots, most for less than $60 a pair.  ABSOLUTE VINTAGE 15 Hanbury Street, London 44 207 247 3883absolutevintage.co.uk  The manager estimates they have 7,000 pairs in stock at any given time\u2014including a section dedicated especially to women&amp;#039;s size 34-36, which can be hard to come by. Her tip for scoring the best pair? &amp;quot;No matter how much you love the shoe, don&amp;#039;t buy it if it doesn&amp;#039;t fit right there and then, as most vintage shoes have been worn already so it&amp;#039;s not very likely that they&amp;#039;ll stretch. But don&amp;#039;t be put off buying a shoe because it has no heel tips\u2014those can be easily replaced by a cobbler for a few pounds.&amp;quot;  HANDBAGS   LES TROIS MARCHES DE CATHERINE B 1 Rue Guisarde, Paris 33 43 54 74 18Catherine-b.com  As anyone who&amp;#039;s ever tried to track down a vintage Birkin bag can tell you, it&amp;#039;s no picnic. But they&amp;#039;ll have more luck at Catherine B than anywhere else\u2014the 15-year-old shop specializes in Hermes and Chanel, and the owner definitely knows her purses.  RELLIK 8 Golbourne Road, London 44 20 8962 0089relliklondon.co.uk  Just steps from the nearby Portobello Road flea market, Rellik stocks clothes from Alaia, Comme des Gar\u00E7ons, and Vivienne Westwood, but it&amp;#039;s the kitschy vintage handbag collection that&amp;#039;s really worth digging through.  HATS   GRATITUDE VINTAGE CLOTHING 3613 Fairmount Street, Dallas 214-522-2921  If you can&amp;#039;t find a hat here, you&amp;#039;re not a hat person. The 1,000-square-foot store stocks hundreds of vintage hats for women, from day to evening, $8 to $150.  LIBERTY OF LONDON Regent Street, London 44 20 7734 1234  The London department store is an unexpected source for vintage fedoras, cloches, and chapeaus.  COSTUME JEWELRY   THE VINTAGE CLOTHING SHOP 7 St. James Arcade, 80 Castlereagh Street, Sydney 61 2 9238 0090thevintageclothingshop.com  This shop has Australia&amp;#039;s biggest and best selection of costume pieces, including a huge range of brooches, necklaces, and earrings from the 1950s through the 1980s.  LULU&amp;#039;S AT THE BELLE KAY 3862 North Lincoln, Chicago 773-704-5858lulusbellekay.com  Owner Laurie Demma-Davis has been collecting vintage jewelry for more than 40 years and calls it &amp;quot;an addiction.&amp;quot; Her shop is a testament to that, chock full of baubles and bangles she scoops up at private estate sales across the country. &amp;quot;Big, chunky gold jewelry is really selling right now,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;And long pendant necklaces that hang down past the waist, which are great with Halston-type looks.&amp;quot; She also predicts a major comeback of pre-ban ivory, so keep your eyes peeled starting now.  BORGHETTO FLAMINIO Piazza della Marina 32, Rome Sundays 10 a.m.-7 p.m.  Good things come to those who sift at Borghetto Flaminio, a Roman flea market with a little bit of everything but especially great representation from costume jewelers.  DESIGNER/COUTURE   MARK WALSH/LESLIE CHIN Riverdale, New York 914-963-1694vintageluxury.com  Walsh has been known to turn up the virtually unfindable: Call Mark and give him specifics of what you seek (a Chanel suit from the 1950s, for example) and he calls it a rarity that he won&amp;#039;t have it in his collection of over 100,000 designer pieces (including accessories). He often sells to serious collectors, including museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has been known to make special visits to NYC to bring pieces to potential buyers, but for a first time customer recommends making a visit to his warehouse in Riverdale, which is by appointment only &amp;quot;because there is just too much.&amp;quot;  DIDIER LUDOT 33 Rue Valois, Paris 33 42 96 06 56didierludot.com  Nobody stocks a bigger or better selection of vintage haute couture than Didier Ludot, who had his finger on the pulse of vintage way back in the 1970s. His collection occupies four storefronts on the Palais Royal, spans 1900 to 1980, and includes pieces from Lanvin, Balenciaga, Madame Gres, Dior, and Chanel.  OUTERWEAR / COATS   THE ATTIC 1018 South Main Street, Las Vegas 702-388-4088atticvintage.com  Husband and wife Victor and Mayra Politis run the biggest vintage store in the world\u2014chances are, there&amp;#039;s a coat inside this four-story emporium to suit you. They sell tons of wool and fur, even in the Nevada desert, and say they&amp;#039;ve seen a recent uptick in women&amp;#039;s capelets and short coats from the 1960s. If the craps tables become too much for you, this vintage mecca is the perfect hour-long escape.  THE CAMDEN MARKETS Camden Town, North West Londoncamdenlock.net  The shops and stalls at the massive Camden Markets are open 364 days a year (closed on Christmas Day) and sell everything from leather motorcycle jackets to brocade hippie coats.  SUNGLASSES   VINTAGE-SUNGLASSES.DE Knobelsdorffstr. 29-31, Berlin 49 30 8954 3747vintage-sunglasses-shop.com  Though their physical store is in Berlin, Vintage-Sunglasses.de (their URL and store name) carries the largest selection of sunglasses on the internet. They travel everywhere from Japan to Los Angeles in search of stock and will ship anywhere in the world.  COURAGE MY LOVE 14 Kensington Avenue, Toronto 416-979-1992 With so many movies now being filmed in Toronto, Courage My Love has become the go-to spot for costume designers to snag unique vintage sunglasses (with doubles, since anything can happen to them on the set). There are more than 5,000 pairs in stock with an emphasis on the 1930s to 1950s.  FUR   FRANNY B STALL AT PORTOBELLO MARKET, LONDON Portobello Road Market, London Opposite Falafel King every Saturday 44 7958 611428  Vintage fur can too often be tattered, unlined, or just plain ratty\u2014avoid the risk and go straight to Portobello Road, where there are 42 stalls crammed with vintage clothes and accessories, plenty of furs among them. At Franny B, owner Selina not only sells vintage furs but also specializes in customizing vintage furs that you bring to her. She will shorten, shear, embellish, you name it... "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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