Sunday, July 29, 2012

Searching for Vintage in the Wine Country

Recently, I was at a flea market in the Bay Area and met a woman who suggested that I visit consignment shops in the Wine Country.  She had shopped there and had found some great deals for clothes and shoes.  Since I am always looking for new stores to visit and photograph and love the beauty of the Wine Country, I drove there yesterday.  It is about an hour and a half's drive from Berkeley.  I took along my tenant, Alex, who is a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley from London.  He wanted to see a little countryside outside of Berkeley and I knew he would be a great assistant and model.

Our first stop was Thrifty Manor in St. Helena (1340 Tainter St., St. Helena, CA, (707) 963-5093).  This thrift shop is part of St. Helena Catholic Church and is managed by Diane Nunes.  It has lots of clothes and knick knacks at very low prices.  I didn't see anything costing more than $5.  It was a little difficult to find, but well worth seeing.  Next stop was Lolo's Consignment (1120 Main St., St. Helena, CA, (707) 963-7972, www.lolosconsignment.com, lolo2nd@sbcglobal.net) where we found an assortment of designer shoes, purses and vintage beaded bags.  Lolo's Consignment is owned by Kristine Waldenburg and is located on the main street of the town, so very easy to find.  Kristine suggested that we go to Calistoga, only a few miles north, as they also had some vintage stores.

As we drove through St. Helena, I noticed another vintage store and we quickly found parking and headed in that direction.  I am so glad we stopped because this store was my favorite.  It is called Vintage Trunk - The Consignment Boutique (1210 Main St., St. Helena, CA, (707) 967-8008, maria@vintagetrunkonline.com) and is owned and operated by Maria Rohe.  Vintage Trunk reminded me a lot of some stores I visited in the Upper East Side of New York, as it had an abundance of designer shoes, purses and dresses.  There were a lot of people shopping here and Maria told me that she has the only vintage clothing store in town.  She gave me the freedom to film anything in the store that struck my fancy and I spent most of my time in shoe department.  I would encourage readers to stop here the next time you are going up for a wine tasting trip or to enjoy the hot mud in Calistoga.  You won't be disappointed.


We got back into the car and drove 10 miles to Calistoga, which is a very small town that is known for its mud baths.  I have been here before and remembered visiting an amazing vintage store, but unfortunately it was gone.  Alex and I visited 2 stores here and had a nice lunch in an outdoor garden next to a bubbling fountain.  Since the temperature outside was more than 90 degrees, the fountain was a blessing.  The stores I visited in Calistoga were (1) Sugardaddy's Consignment (1333A Lincoln Ave., Calistoga, CA, (707) 942-1600, sugardaddysconsign@comcast.net) owned by Andee Beresini and (2) CE Estate Furnishings & Consignment (1227 Lincoln Ave., Suite C&D, (707) 942-1213, cfarris707@sbcglobal.net).  At CE Estate Furnishings & Consignment, I bought a gorgeous 1920's, purple velvet evening purse for only $15.  All the vintage purses were 50% off.  The store also had some beautiful antique furniture.

Finally, on our way back to Berkeley, we stopped in Napa to visit Wildcat Vintage Clothing (1210 First St., Napa, CA, (707) 224-3162, theawildcat@gmail.com) owned by Thea Witsil.  Even though it is somewhat difficult to get to downtown Napa from the freeway, I would suggest visiting this store.  It is primarily a vintage costume store with 20% new clothes that look like vintage.  It has everything imaginable, including a cat hat that Alex is modeling.  Wildcat Vintage Clothing also has an online store that you should visit.  Just google their name to find it.  Well, enough talk.  Let's look at some photos. 


Welcome to Thrifty Manor in St. Helena

Thrifty Manor

Friendly sales staff at Thrifty Manor

1920's woman wearing hat at Thrifty Manor

Unusual wine flute glass ($2) at Thrifty Manor

Red 1960's purse at Thrifty Manor

Black boots ($4) at Thrifty Manor

A view of the store at Thrifty Manor

Toni at Lolo's Consignment in St. Helena

Alex at the clearance rack at Lolo's Consignment 

Kate Spade purse ($41.50) at Lolo's Consignment 

Plastic poodle 1950's purse at Lolo's Consignment 

1950's red dress at Lolo's Consignment 

Floral slip on heels at Lolo's Consignment 

A view of the store at Lolo's Consignment 

Vintage Sunglasses at Lolo's Consignment 

1920's black beaded purse ($150) at Lolo's Consignment 

1920's metal beaded purse ($175) at Lolo's Consignment 

Small silver beaded coin purse at Lolo's Consignment 

Gucci flats ($195) at Lolo's Consignment 

Vintage Trunk in St. Helena

A view of downtown St. Helena

A view of the store at Vintage Trunk 

Trench coats and designer shoes at Vintage Trunk

Green floral summer dress at Vintage Trunk

Sexy green evening dress at Vintage Trunk

Gentlemen's Department at Vintage Trunk

Escada evening dress with fur sleeves at Vintage Trunk

Light pink mini dress at Vintage Trunk

Purses at Vintage Trunk

Shoes at Vintage Trunk

Adorable vintage dresses in the window at Vintage Trunk

Leopard Manolo Blahnik heels at Vintage Trunk

Dolce & Gabbana Cinderella shoes ($199) at Vintage Trunk

Chanel flats ($250) at Vintage Trunk

Kelly green Dior heels ($245) at Vintage Trunk

Isaac floral heels ($92) at Vintage Trunk

Maria Rohe - owner of Vintage Trunk

Sugardaddy's in Calistoga

Alex with black shoulder bag at Sugardaddy's

Downtown Calistoga

CE Estate Furnishings & Consignment in Calistoga

Vintage Chinese cabinet at CE Estate Furnishings & Consignment 

Nicole Miller shoes ($35) at CE Estate Furnishings & Consignment 

Beautiful floral Fendi pumps ($225) at CE Estate Furnishings & Consignment 

1920's purple velvet purse ($15) at CE Estate Furnishings & Consignment 

Vintage beaded purses at CE Estate Furnishings & Consignment 

Alex studying the menu at the outdoor restaurant in Calistoga.  He took a picture of the 2-page wine menu

Wildcat Vintage Clothing in Napa

Window display at Wildcat Vintage Clothing

Friendly sales staff at Wildcat Vintage Clothing - check out that mustache

A view of the store at Wildcat Vintage Clothing

Petticoats and portrait at Wildcat Vintage Clothing

Model with vintage hair dryer at Wildcat Vintage Clothing

Vintage purse rack at Wildcat Vintage Clothing

Alex modeling cat hat at Wildcat Vintage Clothing

Wedding dress at Wildcat Vintage Clothing

1930's t-strap shoes at Wildcat Vintage Clothing

1940's shoes at Wildcat Vintage Clothing

Modern vintage-esque bathing suit at Wildcat Vintage Clothing

Boots & clown model at Wildcat Vintage Clothing



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