Frances 10 West Camelback Road 602-279-5467 shopfrancesboutique.com This year, the boutique Georganne Bryant founded in 2006 and named for her grand- mother underwent a significant transition when Bryant sold the shop to Jade Noble. Instead of an abrupt change, Noble opted for keeping a lot of the store’s charm and slowly brought in new offerings that gave it fresh appeal for both longtime customers and first-time visitors. Frances continues to have that perfect blend of modern and vintage flair. It’s where you want to shop for others, whether grown-ups or little people, because you know you’ll find the perfect item that isn’t sitting on every other shelf around town. But it’s also nice to shop for yourself, because you can walk away with a new hat to jazz up your jeans look, a set of highball glasses to give your bar cart new life, or something as simple as a sticker or hair clip that adds that little bit of cheer to your day. Humorous objects abound, as do items that show local love. Comfy couches signal the fact that every- one is welcome here — and remind you that shopping can be more than merely gathering objects. ✥✥✥✥✥ Phoenix General 5538 North Seventh Street, #120 602-237-6922 214 East Roosevelt Street 623-248-8686 phxgeneral.com 102 When you step into Phoenix General, you’re in for a curated experience, with clothing that’s been thoughtfully chosen and displayed by owners Kenny Barrett and Joshua Hahn. They pride themselves on offering sustainable goods, created and shared ethically, and the items they select reflect a fabulous blend of refinement and comfort. This is your go-to place for our WFH-Zoom era of elegantly casual fashion — think T-shirts by Jungmaven and floaty dresses from Ali Golden. They’ve put a cre- ative spin on gift-giving with themed boxes, but make it just as fun to shop for yourself with a unique assortment of cards, candles, desk accessories, and other small items that help to brighten up your look and the spaces where you spend your time. Phoenix General carries a mix of interna- tional and local items, which means you can support the creative scene in Phoenix even as you shop for goods made far away. Kei Collective 2303 North 44th Street, #11 623-688-2746 keicollective.com It’s cuteness overload the moment you walk into Kei Collective; open the door, and you’re in a world of rainbows and baby animals and anime girls with big, sparkling eyes. The shop also stocks plenty of goods for people whose aesthetic runs more to- ward spooky than kawaii — plague doctor stickers, Victorian-style goth chokers, and devil earrings. What we love about Kei Col- lective isn’t just the eye-popping assort- ment of clothes, accessories, and home decor; it’s the fact that the shop celebrates and highlights the artists that create the merch. Kei Collective has more than 36,000 followers on Instagram and does a lot of its business online, which makes us feel lucky that the brick-and-mortar shop is right in our own town, allowing us to see all the cool stuff up close and in person. ✥✥✥✥✥ Antique Sugar 801 North Second Street 602-277-5765 antiquesugar.com Now that the world is opened up again, it’s time for those of us who dress in yesteryear threads to get out and show off our best cotton-poly blends — and there’s no better place than Antique Sugar to pick up some new-old vintage duds. A visit to our fave vintage shop always results in a pile of pur- chases, and last time we visited we nabbed a 1970s Nik-Nik shirt and a three-piece suit made entirely of spun petroleum. Women’s wear is this shop’s strong suit, though, and that daisy-patterned jumpsuit our friend Sue recently found there went great with a pair of Cuban-heeled slingbacks from 1967 — with the original price sticker still at- tached. Sizes small and large are always represented, and the friendly staff will give you their kind but honest opinion about what you’re trying on. Pour a little Antique Sugar on us, honey! ✥✥✥✥✥ Western Evil westernevil.com For threads that reflect your fascination with true crime, your love of Halloween, or Y ou really only meant to buy a box of moist towelettes and a can of string cheese on your way home from work the other day, but things got a little crazy. You were driving up Glendale Avenue looking for a convenience store when you spotted La Fama Bakery, thought, Ooh, empanadas!, and pulled in real quick. Certainly, there’ll be a CVS or a Walgreens, you thought to yourself once you were back behind the wheel and licking frosting from a pan dulce. You didn’t see a grocery, but there was a Value Village, which got you to wondering how long it’d been since you’d gone thrifting, and that’s all it took — you were inside and pawing through a bin of vintage Melmac before you knew it. Plastic dishware was better with serving pieces, but they didn’t have any styrene serving plat- ters. That orange corduroy bean bag chair was a steal, though, so it was worth the trip. Shopping made you hungry, and wasn’t Bitzee Ma- ma’s around here somewhere? You drove around for a while and there it was, right across from Murphy Park on 58th Avenue. You decided against enchiladas and instead sat under a tree and looked at Velma Teague Library, where you and your friend Mary Ann used to go for books 1,000 years ago. After a while, you got bored and then remembered about that string cheese you needed, so you headed to your car and back to- ward Phoenix. On your way home you passed Drawn to Comics and thought about the time you went in there and asked for Casper the Ghost and the girl behind the counter was real sweet and didn’t laugh at you or any- thing. Oh, and look, there was the Gaslight Inn where you used to go every Christmas for an eggnog before ducking in next door to Haus Murphy’s for a yuletide schnitzel with noodles. Then, you spotted the Astrol- ogy Store with its window full of plaster angels and its offer to photograph your aura, which sounded tempt- ing, but you kept driving because those moist tow- elettes weren’t going to buy themselves. Just then you spotted a place called Chandra’s Bling Bling and you thought, Oh, wait, I have to go in there because who calls their store Chandra’s Bling Bling? It turns out that a woman named Chandra does, and she sells things you had never seen before, shocking things in bright, unnatural colors, some of which you purchased. Afterward, you wandered into Smilin’ Jack’s Pedal Cars next door, because at this point, why not? And that’s how you happened to come home with a fully restored Radio Flyer wagon and a fake marabou handbag shaped like an anvil and a bunch of other stuff. But no string cheese or moist towelettes. BEST OF PHOENIX 2021 | WWW.BESTOFPHOENIX2021.C0M | SEPTEMBER 30, 2021 good Downtown Glendale s & s e r v i c e s B E S T B O U TIQ UE B E S T CL O THING S T OR E B ES T AL T F A S H IO N B E S T V INT A G E CL O THING B E S T CR EEP Y CL O THING
