Thrintage: It’s A Small World, Berlin

January 06, 2011


FADER online editor Naomi Zeichner crosses boroughs, counties and states to find us fine thrifted and vintage pieces on the cheap for the column, Thrintage. This week in Berlin, Germany she checked out a local shop. Read her thoughts and peep the steals after the jump.


I happened upon this shop, that's name I have forgotten now and perhaps never even considered, on Christmas Eve around five. It had been night-dark for hours already and you could only cross each long block through small tunnels on the sidewalk where the high-piles of black iced snow had been cleared. We saw a plastic-furry purse in the window, moved toward it, knew less than a minute later what a mistake it was. The store looked like some we've sifted through on American drives from one coast to the other in small towns outside places like Santa Fe, Denver, Memphis, disorganized in such a way that no one else has found the gems. There was nothing great here though, not much that even seemed clean. The owners, a couple, kept only a small ring of footspace for browsing from. To be in that canyon felt like being surrounded by ghosts, vengeful for having surrendered or having ever worn these tattered fleece onesies and ill fitting euro-Limited casual work sweaters. We made one round in debt to those souls and on the way out, found this pretty-good-condition hat celebrating our hometown football team perched on a filing cabinet. Far from home in the dark, good to know the legend of Herschel Walker and the dirt we both walked on has traded so many hands, gotten so far.

Paid $0.00, got the creeps
On Friedrichstraße at the intersection of Besselstraße

Thrintage: It’s A Small World, Berlin