10 Cool Euro Brands I Spotted While Vintage Shopping in Lisbon
Where to shop vintage in Lisbon + 50 picks to bring the stores straight to you
Hello from New York. I just returned home after nine days in Portugal, mostly spent playing cards, hiking up city hills, and laughing to the point of tears with friends both old and new. Absolute bliss!
A travel diary of sorts will be in your inbox soon, so I won’t spill too many details yet, but I’m over the moon to share the souvenir I brought back for you:
All the cool European brands behind the best pieces I saw while vintage shopping in Lisbon, PLUS more than 50 secondhand finds by those labels — including flirty skirts, summer halters, and insane ‘70s vintage leather.
I love exploring the local vintage scene while traveling (I’m guessing you do too if you’re reading this newsletter), and the Lisbon circuit felt so special. I had researched and saved a few promising places before arriving in the city, but at only my first stop, the shop worker gave me a free map of all the best stores in the area. She noted that there was a discount deal between a few of them — buy something at one, get 10% off at the rest — which indicates how tight-knit the community must be.
Everyone I spoke to was so lovely, and I even ran into a friend from Australia while shopping. Brought together halfway across the world by a pile of Y2K low-rise denim — that’s gotta be a good omen, right?
While shuffling through the racks, I kept tabs on the brands that came up frequently and noted the tags stitched into the most standout pieces. This is something I often do while shopping IRL — take detailed notes on what I love about the piece in front of me and jot down potential key terms to test search later. Doing it on another continent allows you to tap into a whole new world of brands you may have never come across in your home country.
(Side note: I love how so many shops in Europe feel dark and cavernous, fit into insanely old buildings and rock formations. I feel like a primitive caveman hunting for Prada.)
It’s primarily Italian, French, and Spanish labels that made this list — ones that seem to have enjoyed their heydays between the ‘70s and the early 2000s. I know that I would have seen these in shopping catalogues as a kid and desecrated their photos with black Sharpie circles.
These 10 brands stood out during my boots-on-the-ground research, and I went internet deep-diving to bring the Lisbon vintage shops straight to you.