I went to the Vintage Kilo sale in London several weekends ago. I was curious to see how it compared with Dollar-a-Pound in Cambridge, MA, where I was a frequent visitor in the 1980s. There are many differences that make the Vintage Kilo sale nowhere as much fun as the Cambridge event. At the London event, clothing was 15 pounds per kilo. (roughly $11 a pound), and all the clothes were displayed hanging on racks and accessories were on tables. I wasn’t that impressed with the offerings. The only true vintage items I saw were stained and ripped.
Many still had their charity shop tags on them (like I want to buy stuff that doesn’t sell at a charity shop.) This 70s dress I'm examining had a great print, but was in rough shape.
At Dollar-A-Pound, clothing and other textiles were literally $1 for a pound. One day a week, I lined up with all the other insane bargain hunters at 6am. Once the doors opened, each rabid shopper ran inside, grabbing large plastic trash bags on offer, to where several 850-pound bales of clothing and textiles had just been cut open. You grabbed whatever looked interesting and threw it into the bag. Within minutes, we were all walking on top of textiles piled 2 feet deep. After a couple hours, each person retreated to some corner and sorted through their bags. I found incredible vintage treasures – Pucci dresses, Yves St. Laurent sweaters, 1950s barkcloth curtains, and more. Those were the days.
The current incarnation of Dollar-A-Pound is called By the Pound since the price has gone up to a whopping $1.50 a pound. Now, it’s every day of the week, with the price still $1 on Fridays. Here are some photos and a little history on Dollar-A-Pound. I don’t know if anything good can be found nowadays. I’ll have to give it a try again.
I bought five items, slightly more than a kilo, but I was only charged 15 pounds. I'm not thrilled with my finds, but didn't want to leave empty-handed. My take included:
Too big, but I really like the teal and lilac paisley-like pattern on the dark purple background. Plus there are sparkly designs printed on it to give it a little Bollywood touch. The slit neckline appears to have been sewn closed. I’ll figure a way to resize it. By Ara Modell, W. Germany. I’m guessing 1980s.
1970s polyester dress with a cartoon-ish blue, pink, green and white floral print. Also too big, plus the elasticized bodice and cuffs have lost their stretch. I doubt I’ll re-do the elastic, so I’ll probably cut it up to make a skirt. Another German dress by VEB Jugendmode Oranienburg.
Polyester red shirtdress, which My Man declared "hideous." Not sure what I’ll do with this.
Modern brown and white striped, long-sleeved t-shirt. I’ve never worn horizontal striped tops, but will mix it with prints for a 70s feel.
After all that bargain hunting, it was time for tea and cake.
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 12:03AM 
Jerry Hall for Vogue Patterns, Spring/Summer1975. I recognize this as at the Peacock Gate in Jaipur.I'll make a shorter (and polyester) version of this. But, I'll probably skip the turban. More images from this fashion spread here.