Retro 101

This place is wonderful to hang out if you’re a big fan of anything vintage, but especially clothes. This store not only sells vintage clothes but also: vintage jewelry, purses, shoes, accessories, artworks, lamps, coaches, tables, and weird/​quirky/​charming artworks/​paintings.
I didn’t buy anything during my first time here because I was just browsing, but I definitely plan to come back here again for another fun day and hopefully buy something.

By far my favorite place in St. Louis to spend a day shopping! I have been hopelessly devoted to this shop since the days of their three-​story spot down the street. I always had amazing luck at Retro 101. The staff is sweet and helpful. I always find something that I absolutely need (even though I didn’t know it when I went in). It’s a perfect place to treasure hunt. I can safely say I’ve gotten 50% of my dresses from this shop. In fact the last time I went in I found two ultimate dream dresses at one time! This black dress with a lace skirt and a dreamy turquoise velvet dress. Their price are always incredibly reasonable. They also have a more substantial men’s section than a lot of vintage shops and great furniture, lamps, and other doodads. Highly recommended if you’re looking for a fun, unique party dress or fancy hat!

This is the best vintage shop I’ve been to in the Midwest and closely rivals some of the best I’ve been to in Los Angeles. The staff is friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. They aren’t just trying to sell you something but rather trying to help you find pieces that fit you well. If an item doesn’t look or fit right they will let you know and help you find something else. Not to mention, the prices are all much lower than average in terms of quality vintage clothing.

I found out about this shop on a friends recommendation when looking for things to do while stranded in St.Louis. (See disgruntled review of Delta Airlines)
So glad I took her advice. It was easy to find and located in a cute little historic district.
They have an excellent selection and wide variety of vintage clothing.
I scored a great gab swing jacket for $ 65, a high quality 1940’s dress for $ 80. Very reasonable pricing for quality vintage. No moth bites here. The staff was eager to help with shipping. I’d be a regular shopper if I lived in the area.
I’m sure to make this a stop on my next trip.

We spent nearly an hour in this place searching and trying things. Staff was helpful when needed. Otherwise, they let us browse at will. We ended up with a great black & white linen dress for TH, and a vest for me.

Retro 101 is a retro clothier located on the west of Jefferson section of Cherokee Street. They carry retro clothes for men and women, jewelry, and some furniture, décor and odds and ends. They have nice things, especially hats, purses, and dresses. It’s a bit pricey, but everything is in top condition for a vintage store.

The section of men’s clothing is kinda small, no surprise. I didn’t find anything that I would consider wearing, and even if I had, the prices border on outrageous. You could easily pay less for brand new clothing. I wanted these neat highball glasses, but they were pretty dirty and I wasn’t sure I could get them back to drinking condition. That said, I’m giving an extra star because maybe retro clothing isn’t my thing, and the women’s selection seemed a lot better. They’re at least worth checking out if you’re in the area.

Vintage nirvana! Go! One of the largest collections of vintage clothing I’ve seen an the best in St Louis I’ve found! Be sure to ask the owner for assistance. He has some great items tucked away for special occasions and he has a great eye for styles! Loved it!

There are three kinds of places that sell old stuff.
1. The places that sell old stuff, know it’s old, and call them antiques making it so you can’t afford them.
2. The places that sell old stuff, know it’s old, but also know that just because something is vintage, it doesn’t mean it should be overpriced.
3. The places that sell old stuff, don’t have a clue how old it is, charge almost nothing, but who people like me never go to because I don’t have the patience to spend 3 hours rooting through racks of clothing to find a $ 2 sweater that looks aight.
Retro 101 is definitely in the second category.
If you like vintage clothing, this is a great place. I could walk in, close my eyes, grab a handful of dresses, and fall in love with all of them. They know what they’re buying and they know what they’re selling. Do people still watch Mad Men? It screams Mad Men, it screams mod, it screams whatever it is that people used to scream back in the day.
Pro Tip: get your old issues of playboy here.
They don’t just sell clothing, they have an entire basement of weird retro décor. I keep saying retro because honestly I don’t know any synonyms for retro. Funky lamps, wall art shaped like things that aren’t actually shapes, neat ol’ furniture, etc.
It’s just an all around fun place.
Pro Tip #2: Bring cash, and you might be able to get away with cutting a deal. Don’t tell them I said this. God I hope they don’t read this. I’m just sayin, they might give you that 25 $ dress for 20 $ if that’s all you’ve got in cash…
As far as price is concerned, I think they’re totally reasonable. 25 $ dress? Where else do you get 25 $ dresses? Forever21, so you can wear it twice before it rips? Do people not realize that a lot of the older clothing is made SO MUCH BETTER than a lot of clothing today? I’ve got stuff from there I’ve worn so many times I should be embarrassed, and we’re talkin dresses that are 50 years old. I’d trust them to protect me during the apocalypse more than I’d trust a bomb shelter ok!
We don’t have a lot of stores like this in the city, so just get off your bum and go ok!

This shop is a fun place packed with all vintage clothing. It’s a little pricey for being used material, i think, but there are always a couple of great finds. Last time i was in a bought a faux pearl necklace for $ 15, and a butter dish for $ 5. They have everything imaginable, dont forget to check out the basement!

What a great shop FILLED with everything! Furniture, clothes, shoes, hats, jewelry! I could spend all day and a lot of money at this place. Can’t wait to go back!

If you are looking for vintage clothes, this store is probably the only place you need to hit. It is PACKED with clothes. Insane. All really high quality. Not for the thrifty. For those who truly appreciate the value of vintage and don’t just see it as «old, used crap». My sister commented on the price of a «USED dress» and the person working snootily told her the dress was high quality and was worth far more than they were asking. Thought the attitude was unnecessary, but understand their frustration at ignorant sticker shock.
I’d personally never buy anything here, mainly because obesity didn’t run rampant in vintage times, so nothing here would fit me, but I encourage everyone to go here. For real. Vintage dresses are SO HOT. Seriously. Classic, classy, and reminds you of a time when women couldn’t vote, didn’t work, and would shut the fuck up and make you a sandwich. Score.

Started Christmas shopping, ended buying myself all kinds of things. I love killing time on a Saturday wandering around Cherokee and taking my time. All of the antique stores there have so much to look at and explore.
Don’t forget to feed the meter!

OK ⁵⁄₅ stars.
Yes, a lot of it can be grandma-​y but DAMN. I scored some sweet finds here. And best of all? Even though some if it *can* be a little pricey, the girl behind that counter was super sweet and worked with my budget. She cut me a deal on the three dresses I absolutely could not live without! So yeah… great service and tooons of stuff to look at. Seriously come here when you have a lot of time on your hands! It took me nearly 2.5 ~ 3 hours to find what I found but it was so worth it. (Also I really eat this type of crap up, so yeah. Shopping = win for me!)
I got a red and white striped sailor dress from the ‘70s with huge awesome buttons, a pastel purple and white mod dress from the ‘60s, and a realllly cute floral dress which appeared to be handmade also from the ‘70s. So much love for this store. There were at least 4 other dresses I wanted but couldn’t afford to get at present.
*arnold voice*
I WILL BE BACK.

First off, i was surprised when I first Unilocaled this shop and it had an average of 3 overall star rating. This place is awesome! Just goes to show one’s individual experience won’t always agree with community Unilocal review ratings! So if you are ever curious about a business, go and find out for yourself!
I am so glad i went to Retro 101!
I’m really picky about my vintage, and i must say this is possibly my favorite Vintage shop i have ever set foot inside! Why?
1) Items are truly authentic
2) Items are priced fairly (the older pieces (pre 40s) will obviously be more expensive than the newer (post 40s) items).
3) The selection is so extensive that you could easily spend hours browsing.
4) Lots of dresses means… lots of sizes: some vintage stores are great but only carry larger items, this one has plenty of choices for petite women too! Yeih!!!
5) your imagination will run wild wondering where these pieces come from, who might have owned them previously and how they ended up here.
6) the owners are relatively friendly and have a real passion for their garments. All items are cleaned, steamed, stitched up.
7) If an item has tares or stains, it will be priced a lot lower than a piece in mint condition. I bought an authentic 1940s dress that would have normally been $ 90 but because it had a small (permanent) stain and some fixable tares, they sold it to me for $ 35. A beautiful silk pale blue skirt with ivory deco designs on it for $ 10 (also because of a stain on the bottom back).
There’s two things that really piss me off about Vintage shops:
1) When they try to pass off a Gap dress or Payless shoes as authentic vintage, or when they cut of the tag off what is clearly a Sears reject clearance skirt that they found at the Goodwill less than a month prior and that they are trying to sell to you now as if it were from the 1950s!
2) When clothing is in terrible condition (tares, stains, rips, broken zippers, smelly, worn out, etc), but because it’s old or it’s made out of «silk» or «cashemere» they price it as if it were brand new!
Well, I am happy to inform that Retro 101 does neither of the above! Their items are genuinely old, and their torn, stained clothes is either fixed or priced at a much cheaper price, nothing is too smelly, though the natural smell of old people prevails at most vintage shops across the board! This place is B-​O-​M-​B!
The only thing i did not like (and the reason it receives 4 stars instead of 5):
1) I wanted to buy three items and i asked for a discount, but lady would not budge, Because the 40s dress i liked was not tagged when i asked for the price, she thought about it a little too long before she threw out the number $ 35!
Because the dress did have a permanent stain and was torn, i requested they knock off $ 5 and give it to me for $ 30, but they refused even though the dress had no price tag to begin with. This bothered me a bit, especially because i was trying to negotiate and offered to buy a third item, but owner was stubbornly unwilling to entertain my request, so i ended up only buying two items and spending $ 45 instead of $ 70! I don’t think i was being unreasonable. I was requesting a $ 5 mark-​down from what would have been an overall $ 70 sale (with the third item), that’s less than a 10% discount!!! I believe owners can respect their products and business while still being flexible when it comes to negotiating (especially when customer is offering to buy more products and give you more business and more liquid cash!!!). Stubborn and rigid store owners tend to trip over a dollar to pick up a dime. All that said though, Retro 101 is definitely the best of the best as far as authentic vintage is concerned! They do have reasonably priced items and I will definitely shop here again when in St. Louis, MO!

To steal a theme from Cher in the movie Clueless, I often wonder to myself: Things can be overrated and things can be underrated, but can things just be ‘rated’?
After careful research and introspection, I can now conclude that yes, there are some things that can be just rated. New York style pizza, grilled cheese sandwiches, laying on the beach, and riding roller coasters are all rated. And in addition to them, you can add Retro 101.
In a city the size of St. Louis, with it’s eclectic history, you would think that retro stores would come a dime a dozen. After all, this is a city whose heyday was over 100 years ago, and with each passing decade gets a little more behind the times. So there’s got to be a bunch of kitchy little shops filled with furniture and trinkets from the 50’s and 60’s, right?
Wrong.
The king of retro shops in St. Louis is TFA, no doubt. And after that you have… well…umm…do antique malls count? Nope? Well I guess next up is Retro 101… and then a bunch of little places that open and close at random. So I guess what I’m saying is that after TFA, Retro 101 is the best of the rest.
So what do they have? Well, they have a few pieces of furniture, some dinner sets, a bunch of knicknacks, a lot of jewelry, and an explosion of clothes. This place should actually be called «The place to get a cool vintage piece of clothing for your next theme party (plus a few things you might remember from childhood)», but I guess all of that wouldn’t fit on the sign.
They’re not really consistent with their theme, unfortunately. «Retro» could mean anything from the 1920’s to the 1990’s, so they catch a wide berth with their selection. It’s not unusual to see a 50’s dinette set next to a Garfield «I hate Mondays» glass. This is both good and bad, for obvious reasons.
Also, the condition of the items they stock is not nearly as nice as TFA. In fact, it almost seems like they get the castoffs from what TFA didn’t deem «nice enough» to keep. So as a result you get dinnerware with the odd chip, clothing with the occasional stain, and magazines that have been read. You know, stuff that’s actually been USED before. Again, this is not necessarily bad, but you can’t trust everything you see, and the prices are usually reasonable.
They have a basement, which is a bargain basement is pretty much the truest sense of the term. It’s the stuff that isn’t quite cool enough/​nice enough to be on the main floor. Trashcans, velvet paintings, suitcases… stuff that is either cool yet not functional, or stuff that is just too sad to display in your house. Every once in a while you can find something worth buying down there, but you gotta dig.
And that brings me to the last point. Unfortunately, Retro 101 is a sort of victim of it’s own size. This place is way too small, and way too cramped to have a fantastic buying experience. You spend most of your time wiggling around the store, trying to avoid racks of clothing, narrow aisles, and random displays that block your path. I’m sure that the owners do not plan it this way, but organization is not their strong point. They have way too much stuff in their little store, and they try to organize it as well as possible, but it ends up just being a shitshow.
They honestly either need to curate their inventory better or get a bigger store, because right now as I type this the only thing I can think of is how cramped it is and how much more I’d like it if it had a cleaner layout. I really want to give this place 4 stars, because after TFA and this place, I have no idea where I can buy vintage furniture and antiques from the 50’s and 60’s. But cmon guys, help me help you. Narrow your focus and clean up this place a little, and for the love of God throw out some of that junk downstairs.

Retro was one of 4 vintage stops I made last weekend on my virgin vintage shopping tour of St. Louis.
Completely different than the other 3 stores, this one was fun… but a bit overwhelming as it was pretty crowded on a Saturday and the racks where crammed in tight.
I did really enjoy looking at all of the ‘vintage’ stuff from my childhood in the basement. Seriously, that 70s stuff was ugly and boring back then… who would want it now? But I did see one piece that I could have bought for my house if I needed it, which I didn’t.
This one gets 3 stars because I doubt I would find much to buy here, and definitely wouldn’t make a special trip to Cherokee St for it. That said, if I was there anyway, I’d stop in again and look around.

Your stylish-​but-​eccentric grandma’s attic threw up, and Retro 101 is the result.
This is a fun shop on Cherokee Row that combines glamorous retro with grandma retro. There are a ton of clothing options on the first floor, and you’ll find everything from velvet dresses to miu-​mius to sequined mini skirts. I haven’t purchased any clothes yet, but I have had great luck with their accessories. Retro 101 has cute hats and jewelry, but its their sunglasses that I keep returning for. I constantly get compliments on one particular pair of pink with white polka dots that are 50s vintage replica, and they were only $ 10!
Down a set of creepy stairs into a dark basement, you’ll find some home furnishings like ashtrays, steins and stools. I never seem to find anything that I like down here, but then again, I’m always anxious to leave because it smells like, well, basement. Plus it’s the kind of place where giant imaginary spiders live.
Prices are pretty reasonable for all pieces.
Retro 101 is a fine stop for a day on Cherokee. Yay for cute accessories!

I love vintage clothing shops and St. Louis has had some of the best I’ve seen. This shop goes beyond just clothes… I really had fun stopping in here (the glass in the windows pulled me in!!) but the mustiness of the basement would hinder me bringing something home.
However, if I wanted a period piece of clothing and was hunting for something specific… I’d definitely start by looking here!

Retro 101 is the bomb diggity. Am I too old to say that? Doesn’t matter ’cause I like it very much…
First of all, this shop always has a cool window display. They say you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, but I beg to differ. Sometimes what compels me to go into a shop is its window display. Retro 101 takes time and though into what they put in their window and I totally respect their efforts!
Also, they do a pretty nice job of separating out their merchandise. Furniture is towards the front, women’s clothes in the middle, men’s clothing in the back and housewares/​random «stuff» in the basement. I will say that their prom/​formal dress selection is enviable! I’m always looking for an excuse to wear a costume and this is the kind of shop where I could get in some serious trouble.
The staff seems attentive without bugging you. They greet you when you walk in, ask if you need help, then leave you alone. I’ve not yet purchased anything at Retro 101 but would be happy to for the right item of clothing or accessory.