Flavour’s New Secondhand Shop is a Tasty Addition to Fashionable Johnson Street: Victoria BC

If the recent Christmas splurge-fest has fleeced you of all but the lint in your pockets, you’ll appreciate my first shopping tip of the New Year. Flavour, an affordable men’s and women’s retail clothing shop on lower Johnson Street, has expanded its offerings with a new second floor devoted to secondhand fashions.

Honey and I lucked onto the store when it opened last fall, a week before Halloween. It was as if some vintage perfume was wafting down to lure bargain sniffers up the steep set of stairs from street level. (Word of warning: accessibility was far from the minds of the early builders of this two-storey heritage storefront.)

This funky addition to Flavour mixes gently used designer and thrift-style fashions for both sexes. The large, open space feels even larger because of the high ceilings and tall windows overlooking Johnson Street. Yet the store was well stocked for its opening day, with racks and racks of fall sweaters, long-sleeved shirts, and well-washed blue jeans. Leather boots and shoes—from near-new to toe-curled models—were lined up on the floor, the shelf tops, and the long table under the north windows.

I joined two other women eagerly pawing through a mound of handbags, including a kitschy coconut-shell number and a smart red-leather clutch. Most purses hadn’t even been priced yet, adding a jumble-sale thrill to the hunt.

“What do you think . . . $20?” the friendly clerk suggested when I took interest in sweet little suede Dävid Project tote.

“Maybe $15?” I countered.

Sold. How could she say no, when I’d already latched onto a pair of brown leather Frye boots—a great match for the bag, and a super-steal at $59.99, tax included.

“This is fun, pricing as we go,” the other sales assistant remarked to his colleague. “It’s like we’re street vendors!”

Honey came away with an amusingly absurd new T-shirt for $13. The graphic on the chest shows a squirrel holding a nut high over its head; he’s being held at gunpoint by a second squirrel with a bandit-style kerchief hiding its face.

One of the most striking aspects of this second-storey space is precisely that . . . the space. Shoppers can move freely around the racks and really see the clothing, unlike some consignment and thrift shops where merchandise seems shoehorned into every dark corner.

There is a real mix of merchandise here, not all of it high fashion or high quality, none of it high priced. I recommend a quick taste of this fun new Flavour to restore your appetite for affordable post-Christmas shopping.

• Flavour (250-380-3528; www.madflavour.com), 581 Johnson, Victoria, BC