There’s a dark underbelly to the vintage-hunting world, and it’s not that moment when you deliver a swift shin-kick to keep a competitor away from that perfect ’60s-era shift dress. Nope, it’s the allergies. Vintage-clothing stores encompass decades-old arrays of dust, accumulated in closets and attics, preserved in jean jackets and in A-line mini-skirts, and delivered to a communal space, to the non-delight of shoppers’ itchy eyes and runny noses. Sure, we have to mentally prepare ourselves for this each time we visit the
GARMENT DISTRICT, the enormous mecca of vintage goodness in Kendall Square, but there’s no other place in Greater Boston so worthy of a sneeze-filled shopping trip. The ratio of order to chaos is alluring. The ground floor houses a virtual sea of clothing, the famed $1.50 per pound section, which ebbs and flows as customers wade through it. Upstairs, racks neatly categorize clothing type and decade. Reserve an afternoon to peruse them — just don’t forget the tissues.
THE GARMENT DISTRICT | 200 Broadway, Cambridge | 617.876.5230