calivintage + forever 21

calivintage + forever 21 thrifting adventures

yesterday i had the pleasure of meeting up with forever 21 as part of a san francisco city guide series they’re sharing on the forever 21 blog. we met up at fourbarrel for good conversation and delicious coffee before heading out into the mission district for a bit of thrifting and vintage fun! naturally, our first stop was at one of my favorite thrift store chains, thrift town. the san francisco location is always packed full with new inventory, so it was a pretty good bet. i walked away with a beautiful vintage cream coat, two pairs of vintage salvatore ferragamo flats, a brown suede skirt, and a beautiful vintage wool cardigan!

after that, we quickly stopped into clothes contact nearby before heading out to painted bird where i scored a beautiful floral ’60s dress and ogled at their beautiful selection of silk blouses. there are a million more shops in the area that i highly recommend but we only had a limited amount of time, so i listed a few more options in the post over at forever 21.

i also wanted to let you know that i’ll be at the new forever 21 store opening at 2 stockton street in san francisco on saturday, january 7 at 9:30am. i’ll be there along with a little section featuring my favorite picks from the store! the first 500 customers in line will get a free gift card and everyone can enjoy 15% off with this coupon. hope to see you there!

15 comments

  1. I’m kind of curious, how is the pricing of items at thrift stores in the SF bay area? It is so impossible to find things like ferragamos, let alone vintage ones at thrift stores in Pennsylvania (although I did find a current pair that don’t fit me, and yet, I have them lingering in my closet, haha!) and if they do have them, they are priced pretty high. I am always boggled by the things that bloggers in CA seem to find, thrifting seems fantastic there! Thrift stores in PA are great, but places like thrift town seem 100000000xs cooler.

    1. you know, it really depends. there are certain thrift chains (like thrift town) that have tons of inventory that they’re restocking all day every day. they’re crowded and can be unpleasant, but places like that tend to have reasonable prices (though they vary from location to location). one pair of ferragamos i got was priced at $15, the other was $40. i’ve also found them for cheaper at yard sales and estate sales. then again, vintage boutiques will try to charge upwards of $80 a pair. even some thrift shops. but one thing i’ve noticed is that a lot of the higher priced thrift stores actually have really good sale days, so i keep an eye on the calendar. a few shops will have 50% off shoes or purses some days, and 50% of clothes on other days. that’s usually when i run to the case of overpriced vintage coach purses and have a field day. i also try to remind myself that even if it’s more than i’d like to pay, $40 is still actually a good price for a good condition pair of ferragamos because they still make them new for like $400! though if i were trying to resell them, i would definitely be looking for a better bargain… haha, i could go on for days!

      1. Ahh, thank you for responding! I’ve always been a tad curious as to the pricing… $40 really isn’t bad at all for ferragamos, it’s very good, actually! I would pay that much for them any day (although I could probably tell myself that, “oh, you’ll find some cheaper eventually”)! The pair that I bought (that don’t fit me, hah) were only $4.97, but I guess it’s because people in my area don’t know a whole lot about designer names… and they really aren’t as observant of their inventory sometimes (then other times they are way too observant, and put everything that is a designer name on their website, or price it astronomically). It seems like sometimes they are overly aware and observant of name brands and things people are looking for, then other times it’s kind of fantastic to see what you can find for cheap! I just thrifted a Cynthia Rowley sweater for $3 last week, and a major thrifting memory of mine is finding a gorgeous Gucci leather and wool purse for $3 when I was 8 years old (and I recall seeing quite a few knock offs priced at least $20)! Thrifting is so crazy! I still, eventually, hope to check out places like thrift town, but I guess the west coast has its ups (ferragamos that are fairly easily found! or at least more easily than in PA) and downs in regards to thrifting, same as the east coast (not too many ferragamos in sight, hah)… I could seriously go on forever about thrifting, too… I’m pretty sure that it’s become an addiction. Instead of ultimate couponers, shouldn’t there be ultimate thrifters?

  2. Great article, Erin! I’m always up a good trip to the thrift store. Discovering new ones with rare gems are fantastic to come upon. The ones featured definitely look drool worthy. I’ll keep them in mind whenever I go to SF one day. xoxo

  3. Ahhh! I’ve been wanting to go thrifting in Frisco for some time now, but never knew the proper locations. Thanks Erin for the deets! I shall definitely check out these places on my birthday this month!!

    Cheers

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