ThriftDog: Minneapolis and St. Paul Thrift, Vintage and Consignment Shop Reviews: The Vintage Studio, Minneapolis

Reviewed July 5, 2013

Imagine a place where the warm, soothing sounds of Frank Sinatra serenade you as open the door, gently following you as you peruse a light-filled space where you delight in fashions from a bygone era, perhaps one that you, like me, remember from your childhood. That's what stop at The Vintage Studio is like. This cocktail-chic consignment shop, a staple on the 50th and Xerxes thrift-store prowl, specializes in designer and upscale fashions and accessories from the 1930's through the 1980's. I've been here a couple of times now, and even though I'm more of a later-decade designer girl myself - being short and middle-aged, most fashions from the Ann-Margaret era make me look like a thinner version of H. R. Pufnstuf in drag - I still find lots of things to enjoy when I browse.

I'll be honest - even though I like the lovingly-organized classic bags, the brown leather-ish ottoman that looks exactly like one we had in our Family Room growing up, the black "Clockwork Orange"- type bowler that I came this close to buying one day and the lovely Paulene Trigere dress decorating the back wall, my favorite part of The Vintage Shop is the small collection of well-maintained wedding dresses. Not that I'm in the market for a wedding dress, but if I were, I would definitely look at these gowns. They all seem to be in the $250.00-$350.00 range, and vary in style from a simple, long sleeved Trisha Nixon-style gown to older, flirtier and more ornate styles. The one that I loved - an off-white, short sleeved confection with lots of see-through lace at the sleeves, fitted bodice and ballerina-style tulle - I would have paired with the black bowler hat and white, lacy fingerless gloves, a la Madonna's first marriage, and looked totally celeb on my big day for a fraction of what Madge must have spent. Plus I would have had enough scratch left over to buy the black, ruched 80's cocktail dress on display nearby and dance the night away in it at my reception. You know, now that I'm back on EHarmony again, I just might have to tuck that idea away.

The Vintage Store has all kinds of lovely dresses, however, from little sixties cocktail numbers to bejeweled seventies "rich hippie" maxi skirts to Liz Taylor cigarette-holder-and-a-martini style designer caftans. Plus lovely old silver toiletry sets, fashion jewelry, scarves, ties, knick-knacks, fedoras and shoes. All looking, to this eye, well cared-for and, for the most part, reasonably priced for the quality (although, forgive me, but that pleather ottoman, of the same style that I used to stand on to beat up my little brother during weekly eposides of "Lost in Space", ain't worth no 48 bucks in my opinion, kids.)

If you live for "Mad Men", if you actually made it all the way through "Liz and Dick" because of the fashions, if every time you watch a rerun of "Valley of the Dolls" you feel like you were born into the wrong decade, then The Vintage Studio should become your next home. And, since an hour or two spent there is far more entertaining than watching Lindsay Lohan in a bad wig, I'd say you made a good choice.