Avant Garden

Portland, United States

4.3

Closed now

18 reviews

Accepts Credit Cards

Contacts

QR code, vCard

Telephone:
+1 503-283-4184
Address:
2853 SE Stark St, Portland, OR, 97214
Kerns, Southeast Portland
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
0.3 miEast Burnside & Northeast 28th
0.5 miNortheast Glisan & 28th
0.5 miSoutheast Hawthorne & 28th
Categories:
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Bussiness info

Accepts Credit Cards
Yes
Parking
Street
Bike Parking
Yes
Wheelchair Accessible
Yes

Today

Today 2:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Closed now
Local time (Portland) 8:14 AM Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Business hours

Monday 2:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Tuesday 2:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Wednesday 2:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Thursday 2:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Friday 2:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Saturday 2:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Sunday 2:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Description

Specialties

The shop primarily features men’s & women’s vintage clothing and accessories from the Victorian era through the 1980’s. Also available are a variety of novelties, ephemera, and housewares. Highlights are rock tees, eyewear, Asian movie posters, cultural revolution memorabilia, and fair prices.

History

Established in 1998.

Avant Garden is owner operated by a 4th generation Portland native whose love of vintage was born out of constant childhood exposure to antiques. Both parents were avid collectors. Also, she regularly played dress-​up at her grandparents house in their old 50’s clothes.

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«Wide array of mid century modern furniture & housewares with an emphasis on lighting.»

SMUT Vintage

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Used, Vintage & Consignment

Avant Garden says,

«Great household décor, records, & novelties.»

Simply Vintage Boutique

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Used, Vintage & Consignment

Avant Garden says,

«Beautifully curated shop primarily focused on 40’s & 50’s women’s clothing.»

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18 reviews of Avant Garden

No registration required
Place rating: 5
Toronto, Canada
So incredible. Almost like a curated museum. I’m a fiend for this stuff and people should consider this a gem.
Place rating: 5
Portland, OR
A wonderful store with a wonderful owner. I love the posters and pins especially. Conveniently located in my neighborhood. I also love the home goods section. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a great vintage shop with nice prices.
Place rating: 5
Portland, OR
Great stuff, open late, awesome owner. Isn’t this the stuff Portland is made of? Definitely stop here.
Place rating: 4
Pacific Grove, CA
This shop was actually recommended to me by another store owner down the street at SMUT Vintage, as I had arrived right around closing time. Avant Garden was a nice little store with tons of great deals on vintage clothing. The buttons and the jewelry with both well priced and I got a great skirt for a dollar in the $ 1 bin. I’d certainly recommend it. Something I don’t see mentioned on the page is that this store opens fairly later on in the day (usually around noon to two) and is open late into the night, far after other stores close. Because of that fact alone I love this store.
Place rating: 5
Portland, OR
This store is open late and has GREAT stuff, including some rad vintage corsets. I found a 1950’s dress there in perfect condition that fit like a glove and was incredibly well priced. I highly recommend you check it out and you can stop for a cocktail up the street when you’re done!
Place rating: 4
The Dalles, OR
Excellent selection of a variety of vintage items. I enjoyed looking through the books, cards, and pins, especially. They have a big selection of vintage clothing. Some of it looked like the things my grandma wore in the 1970’s. Although I wouldn’t wear them today, they did make me smile.
I was really looking for an old suitcase that could decorate and repurpose. Sure, they had a few, but they were so pricey I just couldn’t consider them. Too bad, but it was fun to look, anyway.
I would return if I were looking to purchase old costume jewelry or vintage clothing to be worn as a costume.
Place rating: 3
Los Angeles, CA
The Zinesters Guide to Portland had a recommendation to head here so I figured why the heck not? There were some great finds here. Got an 80s style waitress dress (straight out of Twin Peaks minus the coffee) and a 60s slip nightie that I’ll be donning for all the sleep over parties that I complain about Sandra Dee at.
The owner had a BUNCH of great real vintage frames but (thankfully for my wallet) none of them fit. Not a bad little spot to check out for zinesters and non-​zinesters alike.
The pug that greets you at the door is also adorable.
Place rating: 4
Portland, OR
Truly what I expect a vintage store to be. It’s a rather cozy place but its packed with lots of genuine and quality vintage pieces available at crazy affordable prices! It’s hard not to feel nostalgic for another time and place wandering through this little gem of a shop.
Place rating: 2
Portland, OR
Although this place does have the occasional good vintage dress in the right size for me I’ve always been underwhelmed by the atmosphere. Every time I’ve been there the employees have been gossiped away about such topics as «which of their friends was wasted last night», «why Jenny and John aren’t dating anymore», and «how long Diana is going to be in rehab». Most of the time I want to leave just to avoid such pointless chatter.
The owner, Andrea, has always come across as rude, distracted, and unhelpful. By far not my favorite vintage store in Portland. Zero stars for customer service. Two stars for the the clothes.
Place rating: 5
Portland, OR
This place is awesome! They are open late (sometimes you have to call the number on the door to get someone to come down) and they have tons of good stuff for low prices! I’ve picked up vinyls, old Atari cartridges, and other games for cheap (no more than $ 5 a piece). Love this place!
Place rating: 4
Manhattan, NY
When I went the store was closed for the day but because I was from out of town Andrea was nice enough to open up the store just for me! There was a wide range of vintage clothes from multiple different periods at reasonable prices as well as funky sunglasses, jewelry, shoes, bags, vintage photos etc…
Andrea was extremely helpful and friendly and I would definitely recommend the store to anyone looking for unique vintage clothes or accessories!
Place rating: 4
Portland, OR
This is one of my all time favorite vintage shops in Portland. It’s a tiny boutique with an array of vintage apparel and miscellany from various eras and man, it is marvelous. I’ve gotten some of my favorite dresses there, although it’s pretty hit-​or-​miss when it comes to finding one that suits/​fits you as they go through over 45 dresses a week. The owner and employee (s?) at Avant Garden make sure that the clothing has been thoroughly looked over and fixed up before it’s on the racks. Their prices are also quite reasonable.
The one reason this shop didn’t get a five star review is because their hours are ridiculous. I never know if they’ll be open or not even if the owners says they will according to the hours on their answering machine.
Place rating: 5
Hillsboro, OR
You can’t get better than this, especially in Portland! An adorable little shop packed with cool trinkets and excellent vintage clothing, eyewear and accessories (as well as a Max Headroom t-​shirt hanging on the wall); the owner of the shop is helpful, considerate, awesome and friendly. As is her little pug! All in all, I ended up finding three pairs of frames that I liked after finding none anywhere else! There isn’t a thrift-​loving soul I wouldn’t recommend this shop to! After my first visit I know I’ll be back! Definitely the unsung hero of Portland vintage shops.
Place rating: 5
Portland, OR
I can’t really say anything other than to reiterate the other Unilocalers comments that this place rocks! I got the cutest little dress for $ 9, a steal! These are garage sale prices, but better quality. And, get this, they are open until 10pm– what? You can get drunk next door and then do my favorite thing… shopping tipsy. Hells yes.
Place rating: 4
Portland, OR
Ooh, the numerous times I’ve walked by avant garden, glanced at the rack outside, and just kept walking.
What a fool i’ve been!
I finally stopped into this vintage store and was super impressed.
There are a bunch of clothes (many dresses!!), a ton of accessories, a handful of housewares, and a cute cute little pug dog who wants to be your best bud. I accept, and thank you!
The owner is super nice and friendly and I love it when people working at stores like this know their merchandise and make suggestions cause they know what they have that would work for you… She showed me a dress that she hadn’t put out yet because she needed to do a tiny bit of mending to it and while I looked around, she fixed it up, I tried it on, and bought it. Wise woman.
Lots of cute vintage glasses and girly such and such.
Oh, there’s dude stuff too! Great shirts and jackets and so forth.
also…“avant garden”? love it
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
Usually thift shops are either dirty and cheap, or cute and pricy. Avant Garden is a rare combination of a carefully and lovingly selected stock of vintage ware for totally bargin prices. Leather jackets from $ 10 – 15, sweaters for a dollar, strange accessories and décor. Great find.
Place rating: 5
Portland, OR
Avant Garden is a well stocked vintage clothing store on 28th and Stark. Count on it being open at around 10 pm on any give night (but never noon!), so go after dark if you want to find the doors open for you.
In addition to well-​rounded vintage clothing for both men and women, Avant Garden stocks accessories and a fair amount of old foregin posters.
The friendly proprietor brought out the vintage glasses frames collection she keeps behind the counter and her prices are better than most!
Place rating: 4
San Francisco, CA
Every time I’m up in Portland, I go visit Andrea and her pug Milo at Avant Garden and always find something cool (clothes, jewelry, chotchkes, furtniture). She has great stuff, great taste, great prices (especially compared to SF, which is ridiculous!). And she has this cool old massage chair that still works — so nice to sit in after a half hour of looking through the racks. Her hours are a little funky — she usually opens around 2pm and stays open late to take advantage of the evening foot traffic to the local bars and restaurants. She just lives upstairs so she’ll also leave her phone number on the door and will run down and open the shop just for you. She also buys clothes, so if you’re cleaning out your closets, have her take a look at your stuff. And then go get some pizza at Stark Naked Pizza next door, or a beer at Bonfire.