Palm Springs, the Perfect Vintage Shopping Day Trip From LA

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Welcome to Summer Getaways: Your guide to the best day trips outside eight major US cities — and where to shop when you get there. For each starting point, we’ve enlisted the help of a local to tell us where they go when they want to get out of town.

Your guide for getting out of Los Angeles is Virginia Calderón (@_chicadeoro), a shoe designer for the forthcoming line De’oro who has a day job in social media and marketing and an Instagram account full of awesome style inspiration. Her destination: Palm Springs, California.

I started going to Palm Springs at a young age with friends and family, sometimes heading to Joshua Tree after. I used to go every three months because my friend had a house there, and I would stay with her.

The appeal of Palm Springs is actually that there isn't that much to do — what you do is just lounge. And maybe you go on a hike, but it’s all about the lounging and relaxing. So there isn’t really that much to do, but the key is knowing the good places before you go. I heard about these vintage stores through suggestions from friends and locals when I was looking to discover something new.

The Frippery is a vintage shop for men and women. They’ve got a lot of mod, colorful things — stuff you could wear poolside in Palm Springs.

Top, from L to R: Racks of clothes at The Frippery; Vintage Chanel at The Fine Art of Design. Bottom: A view of Palm Springs.

Route 66 is this shop with awesome jewelry and collectibles. Everyone that goes there is older and retired. They sell a lot of home goods — vintage radios, glasses, and that kind of thing — plus their own personal things. You can find the best vintage stuff. The owner wrote a book about copper art jewelry, so you can find lots of that there, too.

Fine Art of Design is one store that has really nice designer things. It’s consignment, so it’s from all these rich, rich women from the area that just sell off all their stuff.

Palm Springs has the largest concentration of mid-century modern architecture, so if you have time, try to find an estate sale. They’re just everywhere, which is insane, and you can find great vintage and designer stuff. You basically go into these people's homes, which are just beautiful, and you can find amazing vintage stuff there, too.

On Saturdays, I also love going to the Palm Springs Farmer’s Market. There’s a mix of flowers and fruit and food and stuff, which is amazing because California has so much produce. There are a lot of people who sell things like homemade soaps, too. There are really good dates because there’s a date farm very nearby. Everyone that sells there is local.

In between the shopping, Ernest Coffee is a good place to stop. I always just get an iced latte, but their cold brew is really good, too. At night, it turns into an after-hours spot with cocktails and food. —as told to Tanisha Pina

Top: A customer shops inside The Fine Art of Design. Bottom, from L to R: Poolside at L’Horizon Hotel; Inside Ernest Coffee.

When You’re There:

The Fine Art of Design
73717 CA-111, Palm Desert, CA 92260
(760) 565-7388
Directions

Route 66 West
465 N Palm Canyon Dr Palm Springs, CA 92262
(518) 281-2517
Directions

The Frippery
664 N Palm Canyon Dr, Palm Springs, CA 92262
(760) 699-5365
Directions

Ernest Coffee
1101 N Palm Canyon Dr, Palm Springs, CA 92262
(760) 318-4154
Directions

Palm Springs Farmer’s Market
401 S Pavilion Way, Palm Springs, CA 92262
Directions