Tucked into an Anglican church on a small street in the inner suburbs of Brisbane is a vintage gold-mine. Who knew?
Answer: I did. St Augustine’s Anglican Church in Hamilton, Brisbane hosts a vintage jumble sale every month on the first Wednesday of the month, and I went for the first time just last week–wow, what a treasure I discovered! I’m excited to share the pictures with you.
I entered from the church-facing-side and I had to wander over a little grass field to find the place because my GPS was sending me all sorts of mixed signals, but if you enter on Racecourse Road, you’ll see a sign and that’s the entrance to the main public. I must warn you in advance–It’s not a place for the claustrophobic. This place was PACKED!
There were too many people to take very detailed pictures, but I picked out a few of the highlights.
One of my favorite parts was the women’s shoe room (it’s a whole room, albeit a small one) filled with shoes of all colour, sizes, and varieties. I found a gorgeous pair of tan vintage-style Mary-Janes from Wittner ($7.50) and many other styles that were regrettably not my size. I quickly snapped up the Wittner heels and bustled on upstairs. There’s an area of neatly-filled women’s clothing from size 4 to 24 on the stage, and baskets filled with belts and ties and other accessories. Among a few gorgeous leather belts (not in my size) were also a selection of silk men’s ties in very good condition with gorgeous patterns on them. I resisted a navy one with giraffes, though maybe if it’s there next time..
Then when you continue on backstage, that’s where all the real treasures come out. Behind the stage is a section with women’s couture clothing, designer dresses, and silken suits. Gucci, Armani, Fendi, lots of other labels ending in “i”.. Among some of the bigger labels, I found a gorgeous black little number from Le Zinc (I think it’s a French label, not sure) with black and white polka-dot sleeves and cutouts in the skirt (I’ll show it to you sometime later) for all of $5. It’s the second time I’ve seen weird sizing about in vintage shops–this one was a size 9, and even stranger still, it was slightly too big for me, like it was a size bigger than advertised. All the same, it’s a gorgeous dress made from crepe de chine fabric and sits very nicely. Perfect for work!
I give St Augustine’s a 10/10 for vintage buys and I’ll definitely be going again. Vintage and thrift shopping is huge nowadays and among all the little “vintage” shops like the ones in Paddington that will charge you $50 for a dress, it’s nice to know that there are still places where you can get away with only bringing along a tote bag and $20 in your pocket. (And do actually bring along a bag to carry stuff in as you shop, you’ll definitely need one!)
4 Comments
Wow this place looks awesome. Wish I could explore a place similar to this
c:
There ought to be a few church jumbles around your area as well! I looked up some more around Brisbane on the net today and I found a couple more so it’s probably not unheard of where you live too!
haha “i did”. this looks SO fun- i should really check if any churches around me are planning to do this. i always REALLY want to find vintage hats, but never can. i bet a lot of classier older ladies donate them there :)
xo marlen
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Oh they did! There was a whole stack of millinery in the corner, but I am only just starting to get over my phobia about wearing other people’s shoes, I think it’ll take a while before I’m not freaked out about the prospect of wearing someone’s hat.. (Seriously, it’s like underwear for your head!)
Church sales are apparently quite good, because they care more about the donation aspect than trying to rip people off because of the vintage shopping “trend”, I guess.