PALM Beach has a little secret, and it’s not bulk-buy Botox. This tony, manicured town is a mecca for secondhand shopping. Why? It’s pretty simple. Local women buy designer labels as furiously as the rest of us scour H&M. These same women live on a merry-go-round of a social circuit where double-dipping on an outfit is a greater faux pas than refusing to share the name of a favorite plastic surgeon with your friends.
“In Palm Beach, nobody can wear anything more than once,” chuckles Paulette Cooper, rifling through the bulging racks of one of the city’s best-known consignment stores. Second later, she pounces, eagerly, on an unworn Escada suit that still sports an original $1,000 tag.
A petite whirlwind with a terrier-like nose for bargains, Cooper is the doyenne of shopping discount in the area — she has written what many consider to be the bible for the pursuit, simply titled “Bargain Shopping in Palm Beach County.”
A onetime copywriter on Madison Avenue, Cooper moved here full-time with her retired TV-executive husband four years ago and became the self-appointed sheriff of Palm Beach deal hunting.
She dismisses the wealthy women who disdain buying pre-worn frocks.
“All it takes is one bargain to change your attitude to consignment,” Paulette says, recalling one trip where her haul included $5,000 gowns donated, it was said, by Ivana Trump. At consignment, they cost $100 each.
Cooper volunteered to lead me on an official tour through her favorite consignment shops, where she says the finds have never been better.
This year marked the first time a vintage show and sale was held at Palm Beach Convention Center. It seems everyone here feels a little less wealthy right now. For this, thank Bernie Madoff. The Ponzi wizard’s effects are nowhere more acutely felt than in this close-knit enclave, a historic resort town that often feels like the Upper East Side with plaid slacks and better weather.
One storeowner told me how a regular consigner, the wife of a multimillionaire in pre-Madoff times, had arrived a few months ago, her arms loaded with gowns.
“I told her to bring some back tomorrow, and not to worry, but she looked at me and said ‘I won’t even have a car then, they’re taking it.’”
In Palm Beach, clothes are now as much a revenue stream as a red-carpet staple; the once-wealthy need our money, so it’s time to shop. After all, 2009 is the year consignment shopping came out of the closet here.
“Lots of people who would have donated [to charity] last year are now consigning,” says Kathi Irace, who owns the kid-focused Flower Child Consignments.
“They’d have given the stuff to their maids, but now they bring it in here and don’t want their maids to know they’ve taken it out of the house.”
Irace’s store is part of the unofficial consignment complex on the manicured city’s Royal Poinciana Way. A half-dozen such stores sit steps from each other, including Tanya Pierce’s Collectibles ’n’ Gifts.
Pierce, a 12-year consignment veteran with a hoard of housewares and ornaments, resembles Joan Kors and has a similarly steel-and-velvet manner.
“Over the last year, I did very well with costume jewelry. The women who shop here love to go to Worth Avenue, Van Cleef or Cartier, and buy $25,000 baubles twice a month. But now their husbands have said ‘No, you can’t do that anymore,’” she explains.
“So they still want something and come here for wonderful vintage for $250 to $2,500.”
Doubtless, some of them pass off the gems as just-discovered heirlooms.
But while a few women may still be furtive about buying (or donating), there’s no shame in shopping this way in Palm Beach. Wealthy art collector, socialite and philanthropist Beth Rudin DeWoody does it, after all. The mod DeWoody is a regular at Groovy Palm Beach Vintage and usually ends up acting as an unpaid sales assistant while she shops.
“She hugs my customers, she does styling for people — she’ll stay in the shop to help, throw a necklace on someone to show how to wear a dress,” says owner Douglas Fredricks.
Fredricks is a regular fashion Wikipedia, with a throaty laugh and an infectious enthusiasm for classic clothes. Don’t expect to leave the store without buying something. Festooned with topnotch Pucci and Pulitzer, the place looks like the inside of Rachel Zoe’s mind.
“Last year, after Madoff, I was fearful we wouldn’t have a good season, but when the story first broke, there were women coming round the corner, holding up the paper in the air, banging on the door saying ‘Do you have a purse of Ruth Madoff’s?’ We’ve had a record-breaking season.”
Peggy-Sue Middleton, who runs Avenue Revue consignment store, agrees.
“We’ve had three sables since Madoff,” the glamorous ballroom-dancing champ says. “And one was a real Russian sable — it was written in Russian on the label.”
Even at consignment, Russian sables will be an investment, but for real bargains, the best thing to do is drive.
“Cross the bridge to West Palm Beach, and prices drop about 50 percent,” explains vintage enthusiast Sarah Gavlak.
While Paulette Cooper showed me the Palm Beach treasures, Gavlak — a gallerina with a longtime space on the mainland soon to relocate to Worth Avenue — has offered to take me to West Palm’s vintage heart.
We drive to South Dixie Highway. Dotted with strip malls and chains, it’s also home to some of the best secondhand stores in the county, like Glam Vintage.
Kathryn Jacobson has run the place for 17 years. With her silver, cropped hair, jangling jewels and brightly colored shift, the lithe woman looks like a supermodel who has retired to St Barts.
Kathryn’s noticed a post-Madoff bump, too.
“Just this past spring and summer, German tour companies were flying groups here so they could go shopping. And they bought up every bit of Hermes.”
She points out how it isn’t just amateurs who have amped up their vintage shopping here, but high-profile designers, too. But where once they might have bought old stock to serve as inspiration, now they’ll simply clone what they’ve purchased.
“Michael Kors bought a vintage pendant here, and a few months later, I’m sure I saw it in the window in New York,” Jacobson says.
Another West Palm treasure is the brand-new City Girl store, which owner Tami Rowe opened just 10 months ago in a post-Madoff hurry. She commandeered an entire 1920s house and filled each room with different stock.
“I hear from customers all the time ‘When I think of all the clothes I used to give away .¤.¤. ’¤” she laughs.
Rowe also occasionally provides that other big lure to consignment shopping — the accidental bargain. She remembers mispricing a Stella McCartney dress that arrived bundled in a bag with other clothes at just $125. She shrugged and sold it anyway.
THE BARGAIN BLACK BOOK
Here’s our pick of the best vintage and consignment stores in Palm Beach County. Just remember two restrictions: few of them carry much impressive menswear (we’ve noted the exceptions) and expect sizes to run small — those Palm Beach matrons can make supermodels look zaftig.
ATTITUDES
212 Sunset Ave., Palm Beach, (561) 832-1666, http://www.attitudespalmbeach.com
One of the larger consignment outlets, the stock is carefully vetted and protected with plastic covers. At the back is a corner full of snowbird ski suits, as well as an entire rack of that Palm Beach staple, St John. It runs an online store, too — a rarity among the shops — so you can browse and buy without flying to Florida.
AVENUE REVUE
227 Sunrise Ave., Palm Beach, (561) 655-3235
Peggy-Sue Middleton’s store is only open from 7 a.m.-1 p.m., but it’s worth an early visit, whether for $600 full-length fur coats, $100 brand-new Ferragamo bags or even a lime-green leather skirt-suit from Escada at $250. A ballroom champ, she also stocks “Dancing With The Stars”-esque sequin gowns costing up to $4,000.
CITY GIRL CONSIGNMENTS
2417 S. Dixie Hwy., West Palm Beach, 561-820-0075 http://www.citygirlconsignment.com
Painted bubblegum pink and covered in trinkets, Tami Rowe’s shop is homey and welcoming. Duck into the designer room on the first floor to find Temperley London tops for $60, a rack of crisp designer jeans costing no more $100 and a Tracy Reese cocktail dress for $205, for example.
FASHION EXCHANGE
702A Lake Ave., Lake Worth, (561) 547-9521
On a quiet strip mall in unglamorous Lake Worth, just south of Palm Beach, this unassuming store is worth a detour. The walls are pasted with snaps torn from magazines and homemade signs like ransom demands — one has letters pasted together bellowing “Wanted: Real Designer Handbags for Consignment.” It specializes in evening wear, whether fur shrugs for $350 or a rose silk Christian Lacroix coat dress — which must have cost thousands when new — for just $600.
FIORE VINTAGE MENSWEAR
116 N. County Rd., Palm Beach, (561) 655-9965
The only men’s specialist, this small store is crammed with jackets — Loro Piana, Brioni, Ralph Lauren — as well as some very expensive vintage Lilly Pulitzer sportcoats starting at $800. The accessories — belts, shoes, etc. — are especially strong.
FLOWER CHILD CONSIGNMENTS
219 Royal Poinciana Way, Palm Beach, (561) 366-8466
Onetime nurse Kathi Irace opened this small boutique to fill the gap in children’s consignment outlets. Her stock is heavy on Lilly Pulitzer dresses, Marie-Chantal and, of course, Ralph Lauren (a Kelly green cashmere sweater for a 2-year-old was $120 at retail, but is just $47 here). She also has a small stock of wooden toys and some books.
GLAM VINTAGE
3300 S. Dixie Hwy., (561) 533-7557
Kathryn Jacobson’s stock is painstakingly curated — from a 1960s red wool shift for $40 to a Bob Mackie gown Dolly Parton might have worn for $499. But Jacobson does say she’s less label-driven than many of the other stores, so come here for bargain-priced taste more than for boldfaced names. The groaning counter of costume jewelry is a major plus.
GROOVY PALM BEACH VINTAGE
108 N. County Rd., Palm Beach, (561) 628-9404
The first stop on anyone’s itinerary should be this astonishing store. Hanging from the ceiling are high-end Pucci and Pulitzer shifts from the 1960s and 1970s, while the racks are stocked with mod frocks, like a lilac shift by Courreges, bought for $2,400 at Jeffrey according to its tag, that’s now $475. There is also a selection of men’s blazers and shirts, running from $200-$1,800. “But that’s still 50 percent less than Madison Avenue,” laughs owner Douglas Fredricks.
RAZAMATAZ CONSIGNMENTS
208 Sunset Ave, Palm Beach, (561) 655-2135
Ignore the treats in the main room here and head to the back of the store through a door to what looks like a stock room. It’s not — this is the insanely cheap bargain room, with $30 Escada blouses and barely worn $40 Hollywould satin shoes.
TANYA PIERCE COLLECTIBLES’N’GIFTS
219 Royal Poinciana Way, via Testa No. 3, Palm Beach, (561) 659-6333
After 40 years working retail on Worth Avenue, Pierce opened her Aladdin’s Cave-like shop and filled it with posh trinkets — Lalique, Steuben, Baccarat — as well as an impressive case of costume jewels. A bonus: Pierce offers free gift-wrap.