Shoptalk: Cork goes retro

Mustard, a cheery place with a sunshine-yellow facade, located on Academy Street in Cork, opened some eight months ago and sells retro-style homewares. Everything is displayed on old sideboards and tables, so the shop feels like a living room from the 1960s. On sale are mugs, clocks, cushions, notebooks, tins and ceramics.

The splendidly-named Patch Moloughney is the man behind Pure Crafty, a shop on Market Parade that sells an extensive range of customised and hand-made cards, as well as wedding invitations.

The shop also sells a number of craft items, all made by Corkonians. More than 30 craftspeople currently supply the shop. Standout items included hand-knitted tea cosies in the shape of sheep; and knitted animals and insects, including bees, pigs and rabbits.

Arthur Maynes on Pembroke Street has the kind of shopfront that makes you stop to have a good look at it, full of vintage medicinal and pharmaceutical bits and pieces. Originally an old pharmacy, it has been converted into a restaurant and wine bar. What makes it different is that many of the fittings have been retained, such as the original counter and display cabinets.

Vintage stock

When the current owners were renovating they discovered boxes of vintage stock in upstairs rooms. These have now been put on display, in striking colour blocks of red and blue and gold.

The cosmetics date to the 1920s, with the 1950s and 1960s especially well represented. There’s Yardley, Old Spice, Blue Stratos, and Helena Rubinstein, and the original ledgers from the pharmacy sit under glass at the counter, where you can sit and have a glass of wine by candlelight.

Mercury Goes Retrograde, on Drawbridge Street, has to have the best name of any vintage clothing shop in the country. The shop is beautifully laid out, with high- quality for men and women. Lots of vintage clothing shops squash too many items on to their rails, but Mercury Goes Retrograde displays everything with care and thought.

There are quirky T-shirts, jewellery, bags, hats, tea dresses, summer cotton frocks and, for men, cool shirts and jackets. While fur is not for everyone, the shop’s speciality offering is vintage fur. It has some lovely rabbit, Astrakhan and sealskin capes and coats that date from another era.

Naphisa Boutique is upstairs on Cook Street, and has been operating as an upmarket clothing consignment shop long before such outlets became popular elsewhere. It’s a big space, so give yourself time to trawl through the baskets and rails, because there are plenty of bargains to be had. Among the labels I spotted were Paul Smith, Versace, Moschino and Missoni.