Top ten vintage shops

Vintage Underground
Browsing through the piles of heavy costume jewels at this Wicker Park store feels a lot like rummaging through your grandma’s basement—that is, if your grandma also hoarded wares like 18th-century paintings (on sale for, uh, $85,000). The shop also stocks a handful of more budget-friendly home furnishings.

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Angela Finney-Hoffman, ditched her design job at Goliath Holly Hunt to open this warm, warehouse-like establishment, with one goal: To cull quality, lesser-known modern design items and sell them at friendly prices.

Dovetail
This Ukrainian Village shop aims to marry modern aesthetics with mostly mid-century vintage items. Attire for men and women, like button-up vests and taffeta party dresses, range between $20 and $200, respectively, while furniture pieces such as Heywood-Wakefield chairs go for up to $1,200.

Una Mae’s
The main floor here houses a hipster-chic selection of menswear and womenswear (skinny jeans, jumpers and adorable jackets) with a vintage flair, but wind your way up the spiral staircase to the second floor to find the real-deal moth collectors.

Lenny & Me
Vintage and thrift attire (and occasional housewares) share the floor space in this rather sprawling resale store, where you can buy, sell or trade. Keep an eye out for steals like a gently worn Diane von Furstenberg wrap.

Silver Moon
Owner Liz Meyer, a fashion stylist for Aerosmith, has compiled a beautiful collection of day wear and formal attire. Standouts include striped taffeta cocktail dresses from the 1950s, along with a heavy focus on Vivienne Westwood.

Kokorokoko
While this off-the-beaten-path vintage shop stocks plenty of looks from the “Me Decade” and beyond, ten percent of the merchandise is new items by local designers such as screenprinted T-shirts and scarves by Kiyomi Kimble. All resale items are under $100.

Clothes Optional
Thanks to its main floor and basement area, you have plenty of opportunities to score an awesome old-school find at this Lakeview resale shop. The store stocks used clothes from brands like Levi’s, Lacoste, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Le Tigre, as well as retouched vintage clothing lines such as Katemade and SquirrleyGee.

Haystack
As store owner Phil Tadros developed a friendship with a set of 70-year-old twins, he learned about their massive collection of vintage clothes and antiques. And when the twins decided it was time to part with their goods, they turned to Tadros. Voila, Haystack was born. In addition to old-school clothes, the Lakeview shop also features new graphic T-shirts by Isotope (two for $30) and a growing collection of Schwinn bikes with banana seats.

Knee Deep Vintage
Tired of traveling from Brighton Park to the North Side for cool, thrifty finds, Trent Marinelli and Carlos Lourenco decided to take matters into their own hands by opening this vintage shop in nearby Pilsen. Just off the Pink Line, the store (in a former meeting space the duo renovated) specializes in clothing and accessories from the 1940s to ’80s ($10 and up).

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