By: Elaine Tan
It’s hard to deny the unstoppable trend of independant stores popping up lately. All you have to do is glance at the chatbox to the right to see scores of pre-loved, one of a kind, imported, vintage, limited numbers available clothing stores. Seems anyone with enough working knowledge of Blogger and a digital camera can set up their own store these days.
It does open up a whole new range of fashion, each really like peeking into an individual’s closet, and the competitive pricing and promotion helps too.
Personally, I haven’t bought anything from the online stores yet, but have browsed and found quite a number of unique items. However, my utmost favourite have to be the indie handmade stores, which boast handmade items that are literally one of a kind, having been painstakingly sewn or handmade by the individual, so each design is inherently different from the next.
The handmade scene has been around for ages now, with sites such as Etsy (which TiC covered in April) and Craftster helping to foster a community for DIY fashionistas.
Sham Bijoux is one such example of a local handmade online store I stumbled upon. Her brand ‘stuck between punk & retro’, is an explosion of bold fabrics (all imported from the US). As her brand name suggests, products are mostly punk or retro-inspired. Check out the little clutches and wristlets; they are designs you most likely won’t see sold everywhere and are just adorable to look at.
As with most independent handmade stores, the down side is that items are usually out of stock or discontinued, being that only limited quantities per item are available. Conversely, if you fo manage to snag a piece, you can be sure that noone else will show up holding the same clutch. Other than that, they have random bits and pieces of jewellery, accessories, laptop sleeves and free calendar downloads.
The owner and creator of BJX store, Shambie, tries to restock every Sunday and if she does reproduce the same design, the maximum quantity she will churn is 50, or until she runs out of fabric! She also sells the fabric on its own in half yards for those interested. Items are priced affordably from RM8 (for her ohinesan bags) to RM45.
