Vintage Shopping In Montreal

I recently took a trip to Montreal to visit my family and I got explore the vintage and second hand scene there. It was amazing! I had a lot of fun exploring the many stores scattered throughout Montreal, there was so much variety. On Saint-Laurent you can find all kinds of vintage and second hand stores from high-end second hand designer items, well curated vintage, designer vintage, all the way to cheap bargains - Saint-Laurent really has it all. I did most of my shopping there, but there was also an amazing second hand designer store at Rockland shopping center which is near where I stayed (my dad’s house). There were some other stores on my list that I didn’t get a chance to check out, so I will save them for next time!

Below are all of the places I went to with a brief description of my experience. I took a few pictures, but they aren’t that great because I was very in the moment and enjoying my time shopping with my mom. I did take some cool videos though which I am going to post on Tik Tok - so please follow me there.

Wearing my vintage Todd Oldham vest on a terrace in Old Montreal with my mom after a successful day of vintage shopping.

Retyche

IG: re.tyche

Address: 2305 Rockland Rd. Montreal, Quebec

“Your trusted Canadian destination for authentic, pre-owned designer goods”

This was the first second hand store I visited in Montreal. I discovered it when I was doing my research and noticed it was the closest second hand store to me. When I shop second hand, I shop mostly designer second hand, so I had to check this place out. When I walked in the first thing I noticed was their immaculate display of bags. You can tell that bags are their main focus, and they do a great job displaying them. I would say all of the bags were in excellent condition from what I could tell. They had all of the major brands - Bottega, Balenciaga, Fendi, Celine, St. Laurent, Gucci, Prada, Chanel, and a lot of Louis Vuitton. Unfortunately second hand designer bags are still largely out of my budget, but I could still appreciate the beauty of these bags. My favorite one was a vintage Y2K gold Fendi Baguette, much like one Samantha wore on Sex and the City. It was priced at $1400 CAD and while still out of my budget, I think it was priced well. They have a smaller selection of clothes and accessories, but the selection was very nicely curated and they had a lot of great items. They didn’t have a ton of clothes, but the clothes they had were great! I ended up buying three clothing items. I got a Love Moschino shrug that reminds me so much of something The Nanny would wear and a pair of bright orange 100% cotton Moschino shorts. The shorts are perfect casual/leisure wear for San Diego where we can pretty much get away with wearing shorts year round so I’m always looking for funky, comfortable shorts. These two Moschino pieces actually go really well together. I also found a beautiful Dolce & Gabbana little black dress. It is all lace with a slip under it and it fits me perfectly. See below for pics of the Moschino items, and I will share a pic of the dress once I have one of me wearing it (you can’t really get a feel for it when it isn’t on). You can also shop this store online and I believe they ship to the US. Click the link in their bio on the Instagram page.

Ruse Boutique

IG: ruseboutique

Address: 5141 Saint-Laurent, Montreal, Quebec

Next I went to the strip of Saint-Laurent that has a lot of vintage and second hand stores. I would say this strip is mostly between St.-Joseph and Bernard. I know there are a few more further south too, and I also found a really good one north of there, closer to Little Italy (which I discuss later in this post). I started with Ruse Boutique, another second hand designer store. This one was more focused on clothes than Retyche, but also had bags, accessories, and shoes. I thought the items were well curated, and the clothes were organized by color which was great. I liked that they had a good variety of the most well-known designers (Gucci, LV, Bottega etc.) and then some smaller brands like Acne, Kenzo (I know these are still big brands, but not as big). I found a lot of really cool items including a denim Balmain minidress, beautiful St Laurent trousers, and a yellow Rick Owens cardigan (pictured below). I didn’t end up buying anything because the denim dress and the trousers didn’t fit and the Rick Owens sweater was in a summer color but the fabric was so hot, so I didn’t think it would be a good choice for me.

You can also shop this boutique online and they do drops on Instagram a few times a week with some awesome items. I am pretty sure they also ship to the US. While I was in Montreal they dropped a black patent leather Vivienne Westwood bag on Instagram. I called them to buy it literally ten minutes after it dropped and it had already sold, which was sad. The girlies are on it! This store gets some really cool stuff though, so its worth following them on Instagram, and be ready to buy something that you already know you want! I would say the in-store experience is pretty good too, they merchandize everything well and it is always good to be able to try something on and look at the quality/fabric in person.

Seconde

IG: seconde.vintage

Address: 5274 Saint Laurent, Montreal Quebec

This was my favorite store on the Saint Laurent strip. I thought it was so well curated. The vibe was very 90’s and Y2K which, along with the 80’s, are my favorite fashion eras. It was one of the few vintage stores on this strip that was actually vintage. I noticed a lot of stores called themselves “vintage” but were more vintage-inspired because they were actually selling new items. There were a variety of price points starting at 20 dollars CAD and going into the hundreds. They had a lot of the brands that were popular in the late 90’s and early 2000’s (that I used wear) like Dex, Mexx, XOXO, and Bebe. There were also a few designer items like Roberto Cavalli, Versace, and Dolce & Gabbana. I would say overall the items were unique and interesting. This store was so much fun to shop. I bought a leather jacket with tons of silver studs on it for $150CAD (which is like 110 USD)- an amazing price for a leather jacket, and a Roberto Cavalli tank top for $55 CAD ($40USD). The Cavalli tank is soo Y2K, and it still had its original tag on it, with a different currency on it. I thought these were incredible gems. I tried on a long sleeve Cavalli shirt too that I loved and I didn’t buy it initially because this was only my second store of the day, so I wanted to save some money for other places. I ended up going back to get it it the next day because after that store, I didn’t end up finding anything that I loved. Luckily my dad’s place was nearby.

Annex Vintage

IG: annexvintage

Address: 5364 Saint-Laurent, Montreal, Quebec

This was a cute store, but it wasn’t my vibe. It sold a bunch of random things like home stuff, and then the second hand stuff was in a small area at the back that felt very cramped and crowded. The items in the store didn’t feel that well curated to me, and they weren’t my personal taste. I think that this is for a younger, Gen Z, student type of crowd. The prices and quality seemed lower. On their website it said that they get in a lot of vintage t-shirts, but I didn’t see any. Apparently they sell very quickly.

Inedit.e

IG: inedit.e

Address: 6370 Saint Laurent, Montreal Quebec

Another fabulous, super well-curated vintage store! I loved this place. This is the one that I mentioned which is closer to Little Italy. The space is beautiful and well-organized, and the items are unique and cool, like Seconde. I tried on a few things - a black leather jacket with little star cutouts, a green tweed blazer, and a corset top. The corset top is actually made by a local designer from up-cycled fabric! Unfortunately none of these items fit me, but they were all really cool and I would definitely go back here.

If you want to see some videos of the shops and my haul check out my Tik Tok!