Guitars & Gladrags

Guitars & Gladrags was my next port of call after being a little disappointed by Revamp. I could tell before I even crossed the road that I was going to leave happy!
The principle behind the shop is that it covers more ground, more life than your average vintage place. The front room is dedicated to guitars — acoustic, electric, bass, even a couple of ukuleles — and their accessories, like strings and amps. They even have tiny little amps (no bigger than your average alarm clock) and their own custom plectrums. The range is really good, and the staff know their stuff — they even do lessons! — although if you’re a leftie, there is only one left-​handed guitar, an acoustic Fairclough. Their brands are all good stuff (as it was put to me: guitars they can shift and not have to worry about getting back!), from Fender (~£450) to Vintage (~£200) and Fairclough (~£160 for the LH I was looking at). Most of them are in-​keeping with the vintage aesthetic — soft colours, specific retro designs from Fender and all classic shapes. Their electrics selection is delicious — lots of smooth shapes and glossy colours here. I got loads of help, too — I haven’t bought a guitar, but I’m definitely looking to G&G if I get one when I’m in the Midlands.
The second half is the clothing. You can see as soon as you glimpse the front window that it’s going to be vibrant, truly distinctive clothing — and it is. Lots of colour, lots of details, but subtle enough to be able to wear most of it and not feel like you’re dressing as an old person. There are some heart-​flutteringly romantic gothy pieces — a satin brocade bustle skirt, a gauzy, rich black and plum prom dress, milky-​white, ruffly blouses — as well as leopard pattern faux-​fur coats, a bizarre pastel patchwork dressing-​gown coat, teddy bear appliqué culottes…
What’s more is that they have modern-​made candles, tins of plasters, ha;f-aprons and little knick-​knacks to make the average room a little kitschier.
The pricing isn’t bad. Again, things are a little pricier — £12 for a simple skirt? — but we are talking about a bricks-​and-​mortar shop in a middle-​class market town, so I can deal!
I left the shop with a grey pleated skirt, a little handmade zine, «Cut Grass» and a head swimming with ambitions of my own dreamy, curvy toffee-​coloured bass. Definitely a memorable place.

Not only do I adore the name of this place (I mean come on, it’s clever and it’s catchy) but I am in love with the actual concept: guitar-​shop-​come-​vintage-​treasure-​box. It’s individual and it’s genius. Now that I’ve got all those adjectives out of the way, I guess I should start telling you why…
The front of the shop offers you a neat little collection of guitars. Now I’m no guitar buff, but there did seem to be a decent selection, and the guy behind the counter seemed to know his stuff. Plus they specialise in guitars only, so they’re likely to be more expert than general music shops.
The back of the shop was far more up my street. Another neat little selection, this time of vintage goodies. There wasn’t a very good selection of shoes or accessories, but I thought the clothing selection was pretty impressive. This was one of what could be called ‘real’ vintage shops, i.e. the garments have been left exactly as they are, and not reworked to adhere to modern fashion. They are ‘raw’ and therefore to the taste of the more daring/​eclectic/​quirky dresser.
The clothes are helpfully categorised by type: dresses on this rail, trousers on that rail, jackets over there in the corner etc. I was most impressed with the range of trousers, of which there were many stylish shapes in a variety of colours. I mention this because finding good vintage trousers can be something of a difficulty sometimes.
A final pro and con… the air conditioning was most gratefully received after an afternoon’s shopping in overheated and stuffy shops. However there is only one fitting room, which can get a little problematic when a large group of girls traipse into the shop after you, wanting to try on everything in the shop.
All in all, it gets my thumbs up, and it’s definitely worth a gander should you be in the area.