I am a huge fan of charity shops - I can spend endless amounts of time trawling through the selection of miscellany, and I end up buying quite a fair amount from them too. I have begun this blog in the hope of inspiring more people to take advantage of their local charity shops, and even those not so local. See a charity shop? Go have a look inside. I'll be posting all of my interesting finds - from the past and present - and hopefully you will end up finding some treasures of your own.
Yesterday I bought this wonderful knitted jumper from my local RSPCA charity shop. Or, as I like to call it, 'The Cat One'. This place has a very clear theme and that theme is 'feline'. I believe all their proceeds go towards cat shelters, but they also advertise local cats for adoption and all of that sort of thing. They're very good. Nice people, too, which is very important in a charity shop. You'd be surprised by the amount of negativity that comes off a lot of charity shop workers. But not here - they're lovely here.
This particular shop is quite well known for having been the place that a lot of people have found designer items, but that doesn't really interest me. I've bought a lot of things here over the years - trinkets and garments - but usually not for myself. This shop has a predominant female clothing section, which most do, but this one is really quite apparent, mostly because the female clothes here are of a very high standard, whereas the male section is often in the poor-to-moderately-ok bracket. However, I struck some 100% acrylic gold yesterday with this jumper. Only £3! You can't really tell from the photo but the strips of colour are on differing levels - some sunken, some raised - which is a really interesting quality. That's the thing - you get some amazing technique in charity shop clothes that are just too expensive in vintage shops, and aren't really present any more on the high street.
I'll be wearing this a lot in the coming months.
RSPCA Charity Shop
18, Broadway Parade
Crouch End
London
N8 9DE
