Recommendations

A vintage boutique that looks to the past to find tomorrow's trends.

Guide: Stylist (Robbie)
Location: LES

Strengths

• Ellen is vintage heaven. The racks are filled with the styles of tomorrow's catwalks, for half the price. Designers like Marc Jacobs, Topshop and H&M have been coming to Ellen for years to snag her vintage pieces as inspiration for their latest lines.
• Founder Ellen Koenigsberg was a makeup artist before opening the store, which she did to satisfy her passion for vintage clothing. That passion comes through on the labels, which she hand-writes with comments about each piece.
• Her prices start around $85 for dresses- very reasonable.

Shortcomings

• The store is small, so the selection is limited.

Insider tips

• I love the store for dresses (because Ellen handpicks them and she is a dress fanatic!) but they also have a great selection of handbags, shoes, jewelry, hats, etc.

Anecdotes

• I walked into Ellen's last fall and saw an original 1920s turban. It was fabulous, but I didn't buy it. Months later similar turbans showed up in Prada's Spring/Summer 2007 collection.