Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Venice Recycled Beach Chic


I traveled to Venice Beach this weekend with my friend, Kat, to search for vintage clothes and to check out a place where we lived in our 20-something years.  For those of you that don’t know, Venice Beach is in Los Angeles, California and is the most eclectic place on earth.  It is their beach of choice despite Malibu.  And though it was only in the high 40's in the Bay Area, it was sunny and warm (80 degrees) in Venice.  This Northern California girl basked in the sunshine.  The first thing I did was buy a hat and ended up wearing it the entire weekend. 

I had planned to visit at least 5 stores that were near the Venice Oceanfront area.  Unfortunately, 3 of them had closed.  But I was able to visit 2 fantastic vintage stores near the beach.   Animal House (66 Windward, Venice, CA (310) 392-5411, animalhousevenice@gmail.com), which is only a half block from the Oceanfront, is a wonderful store.  It combines the spirit of the Southern California beach scene with vintage clothing from various eras.  And the prices at Animal House are very reasonable. Most of the dresses, coats, etc. that we found and admired were $20 or less.  I would definitely recommend that you check out this store.

After our visit to Animal House, we had some lunch at the Sidewalk Café, which is an open-air restaurant at the beach.  It has excellent food and is next to a bookstore that has survived over the years.  Most of the entrees and sandwiches at the Sidewalk Café are named after authors and artists.   It is always fun to have brunch or lunch there because the parade of people walking by is very entertaining and there are always performing musicians along the Oceanfront Walk.

After lunch, Kat and I continued walking down the Oceanfront Walk to seek out more stores.  Sadly to say, 2 of them were MIA.  We did find Gotta Have It Vintage Clothing (1516 Pacific Ave., Venice, CA (310) 392-5949) on Pacific Avenue, the street that borders the beach.  This was a fab vintage store with clothes from the 1940’s through the 1980’s.  They also had a great collection of costume jewelry.  Best of all, they told Kat and I that the Rose Bowl flea market, that we planned to go to on Sunday, happened last weekend.  But there was an even bigger one in Long Beach, so we went there on Sunday.  I will be talking about that later.  Enjoy the photos!



 Animal House
 Kat searching for vintage blouses at Animal House
 Surf board & surfer shirts at Animal House
 A view of the store at Animal House
 Bell bottoms & pastel tops at Animal House
 Sales staff making you welcome at Animal House
 Vintage bathing suits at Animal House
 Vintage jackets & capes at Animal House
 The perfect checked shirt & jeans at Animal House
 1970's peasant dresses at Animal House
 The vintage pop corner at Animal House
 For date night at Animal House
 Red velvet & black poncho at Animal House
 Very cool green mini dress at Animal House
 Black leather jacket & beach shorts at Animal House
 Kat walking down the Oceanfront Walk at Venice Beach
 Venice Beach surf shop
 Muscle people & aliens at Venice Beach
 The Sidewalk Cafe on the Oceanfront Walk at Venice Beach
 The Oceanfront Walk at Venice Beach
 A view of the beach
 Gotta Have It Vintage Clothing
 Gotta Have It Vintage Clothing with $10 rack out front
 Vintage dress wall at Gotta Have It Vintage Clothing
 Blond coats & hat with black purse at Gotta Have It Vintage Clothing
 Venice Beach chic at Gotta Have It Vintage Clothing
 Very hot black leather boots at Gotta Have It Vintage Clothing
 Vibrant beaded purse with hat at Gotta Have It Vintage Clothing
 Boot Dept. at Gotta Have It Vintage Clothing
 1960's tri-color suede mini dress at Gotta Have It Vintage Clothing
 Vintage purses & fur hat at Gotta Have It Vintage Clothing
 Vintage coat & jacket at Gotta Have It Vintage Clothing
 Strands of costume jewelry & purse at Gotta Have It Vintage Clothing
 Another view of the blond jackets & the pink dress at Gotta Have It Vintage Clothing
 Inside the Sidewalk Cafe
 The punching bag area near Muscle Beach at Venice Oceanfront Walk
 The infamous Muscle Beach at Venice Oceanfront Walk
Is it really January??




No comments:

Post a Comment