Santa Rosa Vintage Finds

Yesterday, Alex and I drove north on Highway 101 to the town of Santa Rosa, which is in Sonoma County. It is the home of the Charles Schultz Museum, which has the largest collection of Snoopy, Charlie Brown and Lucy memorabilia in the country. Since I am a Snoopy collector, I have visited this museum in the past, but never really saw the town. A few months ago, I met the owner of Hot Couture Vintage Fashion at the Alameda Antique Fair and did a video clip called "Hot Hot Couture for only $10." She told me to come visit their store if I was ever in Santa Rosa. Hot Couture Vintage Fashion was our first stop yesterday and what an amazing store. It is owned by Marta Koehne who has been buying and selling vintage clothing at the store for 30 years. Everything is purely vintage items and costumes and has a great variety of clothes from all eras, going back to the 1800's.

A short walk away was Welfare League Thrift Shop, which had a little bit of everything including a large clothing section. The volunteers there were also very friendly and told us about a costume event later than evening in the downtown area. It sounded intriguing and wished I could have seen it.

After an excellent lunch at a sports bar, we drove to Skirt Chaser Vintage. This store was also purely vintage and had an excellent variety of dresses, including a gorgeous black velvet fitted dress with rhinestones - perfect for a cocktail party, etc. Skirt Chaser Vintage also has a great collection of shoes, hats and jewelry. I would definitely recommend visiting this store as well as Hot Couture Vintage Fashion. The selection was amazing and prices very reasonable - most things under $50, which is good for high quality vintage clothing.

Our final stop before heading home was Paper Dolls, a consignment store in a shopping center in the suburban section of Santa Rosa. The clothes were contemporary and perfect for work and parties. Prices were a little higher than at the vintage stores, but they had a great discount rack outside of the store where I found a perfect $10 little black dress.

Hot Couture Vintage Fashion

101 Third Street

Santa Rosa, CA

707-528-7247

hotco@sbcglobal.net

www.hotcouturevintage.com