Bobby From Boston

4/16/2014

I thought my days of thrifting were over until I found this place about 2 years ago.

Bobby is (I believe I heard) a 70ish Jamaican dude with an eye for timeless fashion.  The place has everything from about the 1920's to the 1980's.  Bags, shoes, socks, jeans, jackets, shirts, belts, cameras...seriously everything.  It's like stepping back in time.

This isn't your average thrift store though, everything is of the highest quality.  You won't need to do much picking through here and chances are you will probably end up with too much stuff by the time you're done.  It's hard to not empty your bank account.

I will be honest that the store is mostly men's but there is a small section for women.  In any even it's worth checking out.  I know the business is deeply involved with costuming for a variety of movies filing in Boston.  Even if you don't buy anything the visit is worth it.

The items are higher priced than most thrift stores because they are true to the period and in mint condition.  If you've a Levi's fanatic like myself you can find a wide array of red line Levi's priced well into the $200's (I haven't been able to afford a pair yet).

Take your boys, boyfriend, fiance, wife, and dad here for gifts and a fun pit stop on the weekend while you run errands.  You won't leave empty handed.

6/15/2015

Prepare to travel when you enter the door's of Bobby's. There are all sorts of pieces from different times and categories. Love this place for the unique selection. Bobby is incredible as well!

4/15/2015

I like vintage clothing and had high expectations for this place. If you think F. Scott Fitzgerald was a snappy dresser, or aspire to the Ralph Lauren lifestyle, you might like this place. But if you, like me, are looking for something Elvis Presley, or Frank Sinatra would have worn, you won't have much to look at. And even if there is something to look at, the extremely dim lighting will likely discourage you. This place is either way overrated, or the East Coast vintage market is completing different than the West.

3/9/2014

It took me WAY TOO LONG to go here. I always assumed it was all men's vintage. NOT TRUE! Though, there is some swank men's here, there is also a lovely ladies collection in the back room. I found a gorgeous 1940s evening dress that fits perfectly and is just darling. I get compliments all the time. My boyfriend has gotten some incredibly dapper pieces.

Thing is, with any vintage store, things are not brandy new. That's the whole point of vintage (except deadstock, which is a different story. And Bobby's does carry some excellent deadstock!). You have to really have patience when it comes to vintage, because there's a lot of searching you have to do for the vintage stars to align-- size, style, condition and price. Bobby's keeps a great stock of clothing, shoes, and accessories. I enjoy following their instagram and FB page, and it's always my first stop when I'm that part of town.

I've always had friendly and helpful service at Bobby's, and can't wait to go back!

11/19/2014

This place is well worth the trip. Mostly menswear, lots of amazing clothes and accessories from Long Ago. Being in the store feels like being in a movie dressing room, or back in time... It's wonderful!!!! You'll want to spend hours poking around. The staff is very nice as well.

3/21/2014

This place has a nice interior, although it mostly caters towards men. The women's section is incredibly small and there's nothing for anyone who is built petite. All of the dresses, even the ones marked as 'small', would have fallen off of me.

Small girls will continue to suffer and either have to stick to online shopping or custom creations.

7/3/2014

I had the privilege of meeting Bobby while he had Strutters near north station. I was  a freshman in high school, and became so enamored with the spot, that I would hook school to hang there. It was not  just the awesome, wall to wall, floor to ceiling vintage clothing, but Bobby himself. He is as real, funny  and as knowledgeable of a guy about vintage clothes you will ever meet!  If you are in Massachusetts and looking for top quality, authentic vintage attire and accessories of any type, you would be wasting your time going anywhere else. It's vintage nirvana.

1/21/2014

Embarrassed to say I have lived in Boston for years, love vintage cloths shops and never found this place before today.

The best way I can describe this place is to say that  it is so good, the selection so fun, that  I felt I was in a Twilight Zone TV show and if a week later  I tried to take a friend there it would just be an empty storefront.

This store has every category covered for a guy who wants to shop and see a wide selection of vintage apparel.

So I walked out with a Borsalino hat and can't wait to go back again.

Hope I don't find an empty storefront!

4/16/2014

A+

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• See all photos from Margaret G. for Bobby From Boston

5/13/2012

Carefully selected vintage men's (and a few women's) clothes.   The store has an amazing old times ambience.  It is immaculately organized with sections of tailored shirts,  jackets,  suits,  sweater vests,  ties,  shoes, hats etc. Fun to browse but a great place to find an to suit your style and budget!

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  Men's shoes section

  Men's shoes section

1/13/2014

I really wish I could give Bobby's five stars. It's been an establishment for nearly 20 years and has a fantastic inventory of neat collectibles. However, the service is abysmal.

I recently went in to buy my dad a vintage watch for his 60th birthday. Just a freshman in college, I told them I wanted to spend a couple hundred on a watch. The options were awesome! Several cool old watches ranging from $150-350. Then I asked for help from a salesman, who could care less whether I left the store having spent $350 or $0. After buying a watch (and confirming from the salesman that it was tested to work), I brought it to a different store to have it rebanded and I gave it to my dad. By the next morning, my dad realized that the only hand moving was the "seconds hand", whereas the minutes and hours hands were staying in the same place. Disgruntled, the following day I took my dad into Bobby's to see if there was anything they could do to fix the problem, switch the watch for one that would actually work, or simply get my money back. I explained the situation to a different employee than I dealt with the day before (it seems like each time I walk in here they have different employees - where do they find these people? Home Depot?!?). The girl looked at me and my dad, and, as if reciting her line for her role on some shitty reality show, and said "what do you want me to do about it?"

Interesting question for a store's employee, seemingly taking her "customer service" job as a joke. We asked if they could switch the watch's band back to the one it came with, so at the very least we could exchange it for another one (who knows, maybe they have one watch that still ticks. However, she said they had no one to do it or no tools to do it with. Bullshit! We walked over to their "fixing" table to find several tools to do the job.

After all this, I had my dad pick out a new watch, which happened to be $50 more than the first one. Virtually making a new purchase (paying the difference in this exchange), again I found the employee to have no interest in whether I bought something or not. Her cold, disinterested demeanor was reminiscent of someone who has worked a triple-shift at a mcdonalds drive thru in Cleveland, Ohio.  

If Bobby's truly sends all of their watches in to be inspected and fixed before resale, why don't they compensate when they sell a customer a useless watch for hundreds of dollars? Hopefully Bobby can send these clowns running his business to either hospitality school, or a psychiatric ward, as soon as possible. The store has awesome products, it's just too bad they don't have people to sell it. Shop at Bobby's on your own, and only use the employees to open the locked cabinets, nothing more. They will NOT assist you.

1/2/2013

I love this store. I love walking in and immediately being immersed in the space--just dark enough, spacious, and full of old leather, plaid, and denim.

This place probably has the best selection of men's vintage. But their women's selection is a lot smaller (so knock off one star), a bit overpriced, and their selection is uber specific. So if you don't like the Western-meets-prep-meets-Brooklyn look, you probably won't find what you're looking for here.

My favorite things to get here are:
- hats
- belts **BEST vintage belts I've ever found**
- bags
- pocket squares/ties/suspenders

My boyfriend has liked (and therefore, there is a good selection of the following for men but not women):
- tailored shorts
- old leather shoes, perfectly worn in
- button-up shirts

9/2/2012

UNF.

The best men's vintage selection I've ever seen. Certainly one of the most impeccably curated vintage stores in New England. In fact, Bobby provides clothes for costume dramas and period pieces. Titanic and Boardwalk Empire are just a couple of productions that have benefited from Bobby's encyclopedic selection. Visiting the store feels like walking into Bertie Wooster's closet. The collection of celluloid collars makes me drool.

The clothes here are so jaw-droppingly gorgeous that I am upset I'm not a man... or a Tilda Swinton type! There is a smaller selection of women's clothes, but I've never found anything I just HAD to have.

The prices are surprisingly reasonable, especially considering the age and quality of the clothes. Boston is full of overpriced vintage clothes that were shoddily home-sewn and are sold in unwearable condition. (I'm looking at you, Garment District!) You'll find none of that nonsense here.

I only wish it weren't so out-of-the-way for me.

10/25/2013

GREAT STUFF HERE! Wow, I found so many items I wanted and the condition was superb and well presented! Staff was very cordial, knowledgeable, and friendly.

This will become a favorite for sure.

8/4/2011

this is about selling, so im rounding up to 4, but really im think 3.5 or so.

My wifes grandfather passed (i know, thank you) and we were cleaning, ok, scavenging, ok, ransacking his house looking for anything of value. at first glance he had nothing but junk, but as they say, one mans trash is another mans treasure, although, sometimes it really is just junk. anyways, instead of just throwing or donating everything, we came up with the bright idea to consign his crap. he was in hartford, and as you know, there is no culture or hipness in the whole state, so we had to haul all his stuff up north to the south end, enter, bfb.

What we brought was about a dozen suits, dozens of sweaters, several pairs of shoes, shirts, bowling shirts and some tie tacks, cufflinks and maybe 200 ties. channel and van clef and arpel this stuff was not, but I figured there was a few hundred bucks of stuff here....not the case.

bobby, nice man, had his lackeys, also nice guys, open every article we brought in and checked labels and composition of the clothing. turns out, polyblends and acrylics are not welcome in his shop, cant blame him really. all in all, he took about 5 jackets, all with labels and all wool, a scarf, 5 bowling shirts, a few button downs and 3 pairs of leather shoes and gave me 175 bucks. i was able to get him to go to 185, so a small victory for me.

better than nothing and if you did have a stash or an ailing old person, worth a shot. key stat, get them hats. women and mens hats from the 60s and earlier are big big business. alas, we didnt have any and i believe they even threw out the ones in the house well before it dawned on us to sell it.

as far as being a buyer, well now that i know what he pays for clothing on the back end, kinda hard to digest what he is asking on the front end.

5/22/2013

I have been buying vintage men's clothing for years now.  No doubt about it, Bobby from Boston has the best quality men's and women's vintage clothing and accessories around.  And his prices are cheap, real cheap.  The same vintage clothing in New York sells for three to five times what Bobby sells it for.

To top it off, the clothing is displayed exquisitely in/on old fixtures -- it's like walking into times past.  And Bobby is a real great guy who will freely share his extensive knowledge of vintage clothing with you.  

If you love vintage clothing, Bobby from Boston is the place to be.

6/25/2011

Do you remember when you were five years old and tried on some of your dad's clothes and pretended to be a grownup? well this store is like walking in to your dad's old closet and finding that jacket that he had always worn or that silly looking hat he use to wear or that colorful tie that you tied around your head when you played ninja,
but now we are all grown up and found out that those clothes that your dad use to wear isn't so silly anymore and infact, fits pretty well

12/3/2011

Ever wonder what it would be like rummaging through your grandfather's closet for an hour (that is, if your grandfather was a dapper Ivy Leaguer with impeccable taste)?

Just go to Bobby's. It'll do the job.

(P.S. Walked away with a leather trim canvas tote for $45 from here. Beat that.)

7/9/2010

I regret reviewing this place, its like I am letting everyone know about my dirty little secret. Sorta like an addiction you keep from loved ones, or a child from a past relationship. Well a kind soul told me about this marvelous place, and it is only fair, and as karma has it: mandatory that I bestow such important critical details for other gentlemen of our fair city Boston.

My love affair with Bobby From Boston started in the Fall of last year after long and intense interrogation over a few pints of bitter with an older gentlemen well dressed in tweed after we road together in a pack of savage Eglish three speeds decked out in canvas and leather bags, springy Brooks saddles, and woolen knickers. There we were in the North End drinking porters at the moment when I changed the friendly conversation between strangers to a more personal one. I asked where did he get his fine threads, for I am in the need of period correct turn of the century British cycling clothing myself. And that is when I found out about Bobby From Boston I will always remember that day, the weather, how the clouds were puffy but not too perky. The wind bit away at the summer air, and the flavorful aromas from our pint glasses.

Being in the vicinity of the barber shop I frequent monthly, I naturally stopped in for a gander after my trim and shave. Walking up the stairs wide eyed mouth agape, I peered at the wonders in the display windows. Brand new Levis Jeans from the 1950s, woolen plaid shirts when they were wool and not cotton!, Suspenders, bow ties, fedoras, briefcases, letterman sweaters, have I just found Mecca? Was it not these stairs I climb to a clothing store or something much greater. I took a deep breath before opening the door to this marvelous tomb which my wallet was about to do its magic upon. There would be no budget, there woud be no second thoughts, there would be precise decision making and instant gratification. Finally a vintage clothing store that tailors to men!

Over the past year, my whole sense of self worth has increased, there is more bounce in my step, more vigor in my rhetoric, I have tasted the nectar of the gods and it is Western bow ties, handmade sweaters from the 50s, Western shirts, fancy hats, and a tweed briefcase that I turned into a guitar effects pedal board. My life is complete, I can die a happy man now. Perhaps I will carry this secret longer in my heart before handing it over to my first born son. For surely he must be a man before he can enter such a holy place. He must earn the right to be dapper, and not just assume its a birthright because he father is a daddy-o!  

Beware of the urge to buy it all, beware of the regrets for things not obtained. For Bobby From Boston has something for all of us, and upon each visit, the treasures sparkle brighter. The price for perfection is not cheap, but not unattainable either.

7/23/2010

Ready for a bombshell?

I'm giving Bobby's  one star.  No, it's not an accident. I didn't mean to select all five.  One star.

Why, you may ask.  Well.  I'll tells ya.

I work a lot [*A LOT*], and I need a new wardrobe. I wanted to keep the budget low, but really invest in some awesome clothing so I thought. . . BOBBY'S!

No.

After looking at their hours, and comparing them to my tight schedule I called to make an appointment,  after all appointments are preferred,  and no one called me back.  I even called back during normal business hours and no one answered.

Sorry Bobby, I'd love to drop some cash in your store and review you on the merits of your vintage ability, but when you and your staff care so little about the customers to even return a phone call to set an appointment, I have say "no thanks" and "one star"