Get Real: Where Did You Shop?
We sometimes like to think we are wayyy cooler than we actually are. :) It's good to pause for a second and recall our roots because it helps us to appreciate where we are today and what we have at our fingertips. It's not like we always shopped for Eames chairs and Cole & Son wallpaper, and most of us certainly didn't have a Target or IKEA handy when growing up, am I right? Maybe you were in-the-know but frankly an Eames chair meant nothing to me until I was twentysomething. I'd seen them before but had no clue that those waiting room chairs from the '70s were Eames and were actually considered cool. I had no idea they were destined to become a design classic and that people would go nuts bidding for originals on eBay in modern times.
I started thinking about my shopping habits, where I go, and where I've shopped in the past. I dug pretty deep and went as far as childhood. We shopped at Sherwin Williams for paint and wallpaper, and lived at the weekly flea market for anything and everything, Kmart for home basics, and Waccamaw Pottery for linens and dishware and everything else under the sun. My mother made a ton of stuff from clothes to soft furnishings in the home, and she loved to paint and wallpaper, so I remember her hitting the local hardware store often. But we didn't have a Home Depot or a Lowe's back in the day...We also loved some of the little gift shops in Litchfield and Pawley's Island and I had a favorite stationery store that I hit on Friday when my parents gave me my weekly allowance money. That's where I shopped for all of the Sanrio papers I craved, including smelly stickers, puffy stickers, and anything else I could get my hands on from My Melody to Little Twin Stars and Hello Kitty. As for clothing, my mother made lots of my stuff until I became aware of trends and brands, then I had to have the latest from Chic, Jordache, and Gasoline Jeans of course. When I was little, I was content with Kmart and Sears. As a young teen, I was more into Belk or the very few outlet stores we had around. I was also obsessed with OP (Ocean Pacific) and all of the other surfing brands so I lived in surf shops buying shorts and brightly colored, graphic t-shirts. I couldn't get enough.
When I was in my late teens and we relocated from South Carolina to New England the 90s had begun. Being in a more metropolitan area just north of Boston we had more choices, minus my beloved surf shops, and Target, West Elm, Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, DWR, those were not even around here back then. We also didn't have blogs or online shops (or email for that matter). Most decorating magazines and design books were quite dull. It's funny to look back and think about how much we have today that even just 10 years ago did not exist. I think this is also why interior designers back in the day really stood out as being quite unique and amazing. Today anyone can access design and find amazing things. Back then you really had to work for it. Ideas didn't come easy. You had to be innovative if you wanted to infuse your home with a style all your own.
So for fun, I want to know -- where did you shop with your parents as a kid? For clothes or the home, it doesn't matter. Dig deep and think about it, I'm dying to know... And on the flipside, where do you shop today?
Care to share?
