A vintage vintage store

SEATTLE ANTIQUES MARKET | SEATTLE | WASHINGTON

WORDS AND PHOTO BY JONAS LARSSON

The antiques market has been there for 45 years, but even though I’ve been to Seattle 10-15 times, I have never seen it before. At last I realize why: the bi-level highway that used to run between the market and the waterfront has been torn down.

At Ken Eubank’s Seattle Antiques Market, nostalgia reigns supreme. The chock-full vintage store creates in intense need to have it all. Belt buckles, old Coca-Cola signs, license plates, clothes, a whole section of vinyl records. Everything you can imagine is here, including gorgeous mid-century furniture that definitely will not fit in your checked luggage.

Ken tells me his clients are both Seattle locals and tourists. The locals snag the furniture, while the tourists get the smaller items and vintage clothes. Mark runs the fashion department, and I can immediately tell that he has a good eye. A leather jacket that looks supremely cool - just not on me - remains on its hanger. Instead, I make off with a belt buckle from a Chicago (the band) tour and a couple of older Playboy magazines, the ones with illustrated covers and articles by Norman Mailer and Ray Bradbury. After all, isn’t that how the saying goes? I buy them, only for the articles…