Mad Elizabeth Vintage

With the new lease of life breathed into the Corn Exchange came this fabulous little vintage shop. It took me a while to discover, having automatically disregarded the old shopping mecca after its long demise, but now that it is back on track to being one of the top spots it's like rediscovering a new oases of gorgeous little spots. Mad Elizabeth is one of those beauteous oases.

Whilst the space isn't grand, the atmosphere and bounty most certainly is, which can be rather tricky where vintage is concerned, I've come to learn. You can't bung in any old (literally) stock; in a vintage shop hard-core customers hunger for each piece to be a one-off delight with a story, a history and a statement and this is no easy feat. Mad Elizabeth seems to have married this concept with the old and the new. Let me explain!

For starters, their shirt rail is one of the best I've seen. And the cheapest. The majority of garments on the rail seem to be both genuine vintage and all gorgeously unique and, if it weren't for the tricky issue of sizing, I could have walked away with at least five of them. The dress rail held a similar fascination; a plethora of colours, styles and eras being readily available. Let's not even get started on the knits. There are too many to even begin!

But the jewellery is where the new really meets the old. The hand made delights are utterly gorgeous. I've been putting off purchasing one of the pendent time-piece necklaces for a while now (yearning for payday) but they are simply fantastic - the quality is self-evident and the look perfectly matches the vintage style, whilst being a newly and lovingly made item. The only problem you may encounter is in choosing which one you would like to take home with you... That's another reason as to why I've not bought one yet. I just don't know which one to gift myself!

As with all vintage shops, you have to keep revisiting to catch the best items, inevitably the most unique pieces quickly disappear. It does mean you get used to seeing the same stock too, but this has only proven to reinvigorate my interest in things I've been considering for a while! All in all this has to be on the hit-list for any vintage fan. The shop is laid out beautifully, with a range of gorgeous items, and is well worth a good rummage. Beautiful!