Mission Vintage Treasure in San Francisco

Yesterday afternoon, I visited one of my very favorite parts of the city, the Mission District. For those of you who don't know, it is the warmest and most vibrant part of San Francisco. It not only has the beautiful mission, Dolores Park and great restaurants, but also has a very active vintage clothing community. I only visited some of its stores, but the ones I visited were fantastic gems.

I rode Bart over from Berkeley and got off at 16th & Mission. I walked up Mission one block to Thrift Town, a vintage department-like store. When I first moved to the city many, many years ago, I bought most of clothes here, including vintage dresses. Clothes here are very inexpensive and you have to dig for quality items, but doesn't that make it more fun?

After leaving Thrift Town, I walked over to Valencia Street, just one block away and headed for my next stop, Schauplatz Vintage only a few blocks away. I was welcomed by Bernard who showed me several interesting vintage items to admire and photograph. A few more blocks down Valencia lead me to Retro Fit where Steven was busily working on a last minute project. I totally loved the decor in this store and the mannequins, some whimsical and others with so much attitude. A short distance away was Afterlife Boutique, which had a lot of clothes for men (hard to find in a lot of vintage stores).

At the corner of Valencia and 21st Street I turned left and visited a very cute, boutique/consignment store called Gravel & Gold. I was first attracted by the hand-painted breast shirts in the window. This store had a lot of whimsy. I walked back up to Valencia a few more blocks to my last stop, Painted Bird. Although this was one of the smallest stores I visited, it had the most to tempt me to buy, including a beautiful red, leather jacket by Prada. If it had only been a little bigger, it would have gone home with me. There was also a good selection of women's shoes less than $20 and vintage jackets in perfect condition for $40+. I would definitely come back here just to shop. Enjoy the photos!