Monis Londres Vintage Clothing: a review

In Portsmouth on Castle Road specifically, only a few minutes from my accommodation, resides ‘Monis Londres Vintage Clothing’. Being so close to me I have already had the opportunity to visit the shop a couple of times.

While you may associate 'vintage' with styles from the past. The store associates vintage with something that is “irreverent, [or] different” which is one way to describe the store.

What does ‘vintage’ mean to you?

Overall, the store is quite small but manages to fill itself with cool and interesting pieces that are more modernistic in style with bright-coloured garments reflecting the yellow storefront.

On my second visit, the staff member had their dog outside the door, which you may find cute (as I did) but for the customers scared away by the barking, I doubt it was.

The shop itself is pretty contained but is organised in a way that makes it easy to find specific items as different pieces of clothing are kept together in their own sections.

What you find in this store which I haven’t seen in many independent vintage shops is changing room facilities. This gives you the opportunity to try before you buy something which is missed in other shops.

However, the changing room is in a very awkward position behind where the staff member sits. The stress of trying on clothes without touching the curtain that is right behind the desk is nerve-racking, as well as the awkward “excuse me” when coming out isn’t the most comfortable interaction.

Therefore I give it a score of 4 out of 5. The score would have been higher if the proximity between the desk and changing rooms wasn’t so close and the dog hadn’t been scaring customers, although, it didn’t affect me ;-).