A First Foray into Vintage

Today I visited The Nichols Building in Sheffield. It was primarily because I’ve been following Sew in the City via Facebook. Although I’ve grown up in Sheffield, I’ve never visited this place and decided today was the day.

On entry I was faced with the whole charity shop vs vintage phenomenon discussed in an earlier post. The ground floor was filled with areas selling home ware, clothes, jewellery, pottery plus a huge range of novelty items.

Fairly quickly, I spotted an item of clothing with a yellow floral print I liked. Upon closer examination I noted the Hobbs label. I tried the dress on over my clothes and was pleasantly surprised by how well it fit. For £20, the dress was mine, and I decided that whilst it was not very old, probably a couple of years, when new it must have cost £100. A few minutes later, I was the smiling owner of my first ‘vintage’ piece of clothing. I’m still deciding how best to launder it, as the label said silk.

Secondly, and more excitingly, on the first floor I happened across a Ladybird Book that I knew and loved. The back cover showed the original price; 75p, but today I was happy to pay £2 to be reunited with the traumatic story of a mouse who had his tail chopped off by a combine harvester. One of several childhood items of which I have often lamented the loss – my mum isn’t much of a hoarder.

Having thought that an hour’s parking would be plenty, I ended up sprinting back towards the car. I’d recommend a visit to anyone, whatever you’re into and whatever you’re looking for. Turned out the sewing section was not staffed at the time I was there, but there was still plenty to pass time browsing.