This Old Thing?

This kind of buying, which, on the surface, appears to have the consumer in mind, means there are only a couple dozen different items in the store at any given time. It eradicates part of what's fun about vintage shopping: unearthing singular items -- stuff that no one else has. Still, the high-volume buying might work if the selected apparel was extraordinary in some way. But it isn't. In fact, it would be easy to find a healthy cross-section of the shop's current inventory of cropped leather jackets, well-worn sweatshirts, '80s-era beaded sweaters, plaid button-front men's shirts and "Daisy Duke" cut-off jeans in any Goodwill store anywhere in the world. (The company opened the first California Vintage store in Mexico City in June and recently rolled out two in Germany.)

And though the prices are within reason ($61 for leather jackets, $50 for oversized retro sunglasses and $26 for sweaters, sweat shirts and Levi's 505 jeans), they're still a notch higher than the average for nondesigner vintage in L.A.

Ultimately, California Vintage seems geared toward the amateur vintage shopper: first-timers or those easily overwhelmed by thrift stores. As an intro course, you could do worse. But as much as the indie-spirited company would hate to admit it, this is what always happens when big corporations co-opt fringe business models. They add water and stir.

--

emili.vesilind@latimes.com