Global Vintage Collective

A little non-descript and scruffy from the outside, Global Vintage Collective is the place of thrift-store addict’s dreams. With racks of mostly American-label vintage fashion on display in the shopfront, and piles of more secondhand pieces to hunt through in the back warehouse, leaving empty handed isn’t easy. Though the store’s focus is on vintage pieces, Global Vintage Collective stocks pieces from the 1920s through to the 1990s and beyond.

There’s that is something about vintage shopping – more than any other kind – which demands the tactile experience of feeling fabric, trying on for size and spending hours sifting through pieces to find a gem, and Ashley Tell knows that as well as anyone.

Before opening Global Vintage Collective in 2013, Californian model-cum-retailer Tell ran market stalls at the Camberwell Market and Queen Victoria Night Market for years. She now leaves Melbourne when summer wanes, traveling to Nevada, Oregon, Washington and then California to hand-pick vintage pieces from markets for the Richmond store.

With racks of mostly women’s clothes in the first room, it’s the piles of vintage stock – denim, leather, shirts, dresses and shoes out in the back room that area really worth a rummage. Go next door for any alterations you need.