Sunday 16 October 2011

Deja Vu: Retail Fashion and Culture





Deja vu has a wall painted a fashionable deep dark blue and an African art display but it's a long way from a 'curated' vintage store.

For a start, it's cheap. I've bought pretty teacups here for ridiculously little money and their second-hand books go from the very highbrow (annotated 1950s translations of the Oresteia) to the very not (Agatha Christie hardbacks) without ever going much over a quid.

For another thing, the stock is interesting and worth delving through.



One of the teacups came with a free spider, there's fine 70s/80s tourist tat to delve through, and the staircase to the basement is risky for anyone above 4 foot.

In other words, it's the kind of place that makes me happy when it's raining and where the owners listen to the cricket on sunny days.

Where: 481 Hornsey Road

When: Mon - Fri: 10:30 am - 6:30 pm, Sat:10:30 am - 5:00 pm, Sun: 10:30 am - 4:00 pm

7 comments:

  1. When it first opened, I thought it looked promising, but I never find anything worth buying when I go inside. Charity shops are better.

    Interesting blog, by the way!

    Have you seen this postcard before?

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/mizhenka/5441691996/

    I picked it up from the Islington Museum.

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  2. Hi Mizhenka,

    Every time I go in there's something worth finding, at least to me

    The last thing I bought was a 200th anniversary of Trafalgar paperweight made for the Liskard Naval Association and containing, or so it claimed, a sliver of oak from HMS Victory.

    I love it not because I have much hope that it's real, but because of how much ingenuity went into it.

    I share the love for charity shops though (Crouch End has some good ones, and Mind on Stroud Green Road is worth a visit) and many thanks for the postcard.

    I hadn't seen it before and am now wondering how hard it would be to do a then and now post.

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  3. I'd never considered taking a recent shot of this same area before! I was happy when I found the postcard because I live in one of the buildings on it.

    I shall check out Mind next time I'm on Stroud Green Road. Crouch End does have some great shops, you're right.

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  4. Kept meaning to go in and have a look in this shop, but maybe I'm too late. I notice it's got TO LET sign up now (photo) Closed down already?

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    Replies
    1. Afraid so. It might have done better if they'd gotten rid of about a third of the stock - there was good stuff there, but you had to dig.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    ReplyDelete