Starfish

Maybe its the retro Steve Austin Toy trying to mount Jamie Summers above the counter, or the fact the t shirts are faded and have a sense of history — worn by some spotty kid in the mid west on summer school vacation — but this place has everything you imagine the Laine to be. It’s all old chequered shirts, Wrangler, Farah and Levis, old shades, long collar polo shirts, and a whole mountain of sassy girls dresses out back. Also a good selection of jackets, from Man In A Suitcase cool to Kerouac grungy denim.

Dresses and jumpers and jackets, OH MY! Starfish is tiny and a bit pricey, but nevertheless, I can’t help loving everything about the place, from the cute name to the Coca-​cola fridge in the window. Even the dressing room fills me with joy as I bundle into the impossibly small space and basically wrap the curtain around myself. An experience that would irritate the hell out of me elsewhere somehow makes me chuckle in this shop. How? And why do I rave so? I don’t know, it’s just a really satisfying little shop that makes good use of space, displays its merchandise well and never fails to have a cool pair of shades or earrings waiting for me at the counter! On top of this, they have a really great selection of vintage dresses in all shapes, sizes and styles, from strappy sun dresses to 80’s prom dresses, whatever you need, you’ll probably find it (or something else too good to be true) here.
I was in here today and I noticed they have a really good selection of woolly v-​necks at the moment– I think I might have to pop back and snap one up myself!

Starfish might be half the size of other vintage stores like Dirty Harry and whisper it, American Retro, but it’s still well worth checking out next time you’re in the Lanes. They have a cool fridge in the window, great music on the stereo and racks of clothes from the 50s to the present.
I know vintage is supposed to indicate decades of wear and tear but hey, you can’t make people carry on wearing flares when everyone else is wearing drainpipes! As a result, you can find lots of flares and checked shirts in Starfish alongside old Levis, leather jackets, skirts, dresses and distinctive coats. The clothes smell fresher than in other vintage and charity shops in the city and the staff are usually pretty friendly.
I’m just waiting for an original Johnny Cash tee to come in…

Most vintage clothing shops are very similar– they all stock vintage t-​shirts, leather jackets in both biker and sixties style, they often stock tweed jackets, party dresses, nowadays even shiny track suits like the ones of my childhood that I try to block out. Starfish fits into this mold, they stock a similar series of items as other vintage stores in Brighton (Brighton is a great source of vintage)…except that in Starfish I always find that amazingly soft vintage t-​shirt that I am dreaming of, or that fifties rose print dress, or the perfect leather biker jacket for my boyfriend to enact the James Dean fantasy. Starfish looks like other vintage stores only they have edited out a lot of the crap and kept some really great vintage items, which means I often find something worth buying. Most of their prices are reasonable although some of their t-​shirts are a little overpriced– but then how much is an original AC/​DC tour shirt worth?!