La Fayette Paris

La Fayette is a department store chain in France, that sells almost every brand that we love. Stores which includes Chanel, Gucci, Mont Blanc, LV, etc
We enter our favourite store Chanel. There is a line outside the store with red ropes; that's how crazy it gets. Just so you can compare what it is like shopping in France, where some of these prestigious brands originate from, in comparison to prices in Australia, for example, your Classic Chanel 2.55 Bag, just a comparison, in Australia it was selling for $3,600 in 2010 and in La Fayette Paris, June 2012 it was going for 3,100e. If you’re a non French residence, sign up for a membership at the Information desk for an addition 10% off!

One thing that you’ll soon notice when shopping in Paris is that, each style of anything will come with a magnitude of different colours. Here’s what we mean.

Some of the other great designs we've spotted while in store are;

Designs by Sergio Rossi (photos above)

Vintage Shopping in Paris

We have finally arrived in France and our first stop is Paris, the Fashion Capital.
Our first vintage shopping experience…. And we are not disappointed. We have found a few stores in the area of Rambuteau. First store that we entered was ‘Hippy Market’.

This store is surprisingly huge, in Paris sizes. The store is filled with Shirts, skirts, pants and just as many shoes and accessories to go with it, for both guys and girls. The clothes were in excellent quality but the price tag reflects this. Here are some cheeky snap shots.

On the same street Rue du Temple, we came across the ‘Friperie’. This is one of my favourite vintage stores in Paris. This store has so many pieces of clothes, they are not very high quality but the pieces are very cheap. So patience is the key and make sure you thoroughly go through each piece of item. In our previous posts you may find advice on what to look for when shopping vintage. We have found so many amazing pieces that Fabric Croissant Vintage will bring back to Australia. This store also has a few bargain areas with prices being dramatically marked down. Here are some pictures.

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Our next Vintage store ‘Neuf Depot – Vente de Luxe’ on Rue des Archives has the cutest owners. The friendliest assistants with very limited English, and like all French, they will try to tend to needs. A tip for the occasion, make sure you search all your important keywords in French first.
For example; C’est combien = How much, Quand Size = what size, etc.
Neuf Depot is hidden in the corner of a prestigious area, selling vintage boutique labels pieces. At the moment, there is an amazing looking Hermes scarf that’s going for only 150e. Just so you can compare, Hermes scarf retail for over a thousand dollars in the stores. If you have or already own some Hermes items, compare it with vintage pieces, you will notice that branded good these days does not match the quality of the past.
Here’s what the front of the store look like.

A store with No Name is what I’d call it. It is also located on the Rue des Archives and we were outside for a long time, trying to look for a name for our fellow fans. Unfortunately we were unable to find one. Here’s what is looks like outside;

Just as confused as the name, we found the pricing of this store very interesting. We came across several dresses for 30e, which we thought was slightly on the expensive side consider other shops have them for about 10e each. We also found some dresses that were 20e and 10e each. It’s either Fabric Croissant Vintage has very expensive tastes, or the pricing doesn’t reflect anything. We like to think it’s a little of both.

The shop we have heard so much about and finally found is ‘Free ‘P’ Star’.

You many find many blogs and reviews about this stop, but nothing stands out here for moi. Yes, the price is pretty good, but lacking in the number of quality pieces. Definitely check their basement level, and watch out for the stairs.

The French has some crazy narrow stairs. We came across a purple vintage leather jacket for 30e. Bargain! And there is a massive 1e bargain section which you may want to check out.

That brings us to an end of Vintage Shopping day 1 in Paris.