Originally from Cleveland, where they still have a store, this Short North vintage dealer sees themselves as a museum as well as a shop. I agree. A walk through here is as valuable as any exhibit in town, and brings you back to the time when doctor lit cigarettes in consultations, people dressed with flare, and furniture was crafted with the divine curves and colors known in design as Mid Century Modern.
The nearest of its type is the Clintonville shop Boomerang; both take great care in their displays of 1960s chic. Flower Child is larger, on par with the Antique Mall in size. Though its cliché name focuses its wares around that one decade, items from a far as the 30s to as near as the 80s are found here too, as well as the time in-between.
Cleaned immaculately, the displays jump out at with fresh, inviting colors; you just want to hang out on its furniture all day, drink from its sparkling sniffers with aged bourbon, nap on its retro bedding
One vignette is just delicious. It has comfy black floor riding sofas, glass end and coffee tables, front of a line of panel led credenzas. Behind it hangs modern scripted art, 60s Native American paintings, glass table top bling, small red accent lamps, and a portable record player. Add the paneled armoire and I am tempted to spend my life's savings to dress a basement.
Other items of beauty include: oriental sphere chadaliers, doorway beads, egg chairs, shapey glassware, plastic ware in primary brightness, floral designs, checkered pillows, vintage bikes, LSD inspired glass art, collector crack like ad lights and barber poles, green partnered curtains, bar tables with large circular mirrors, and Warholish pop art. The basement features lots of vintage clothing, for women mainly, as I don't think menswear of the 60/70 will ever be back in style, rightfully so. You can also find records in a box here. Some are good albums, but a lot are of unknown artist.
For me MCM has been in an out. As an early 1970s child I grew up in its midst; it was for me the original normal, nothing special was about it. When the 80s came it looked goofy to me, kitschy, I grimaced at photos I was in bell-bottoms, and laugh at my mother flower dresses and Jackie-O haircut. Today I see it as high art. The furniture, the paintings, the obsolete tabletop telephone reminds me of my young childhood. Now I realize that it was a cool time to be alive.
It's a place if you are in the market for retro goodies, or to have a walk through during gallery hop, when they are open until 9. read more