London is a city where the most precious gems are more often than not found in the least assuming of places, a maxim well proven by Twos . Indeed, at first glance, neither of the cult vintage dealer’s East London locations reveal themselves as the fashion devotees’ pilgrimage sites that they are. Passing by its original location – a nondescript gallery space on a stretch of Hackney Road that, until the Japanese pottery shops turned up, was better known for its puzzling bounty of luggage shops – you’d hardly expect to find a hub for the neighbourhood’s many fashionphiles.
On a dreary mid-week November afternoon, however, that’s exactly what it is, with a single file of directional dressers poring over a rail populated with a pleated Comme des Garçons skirt in a hefty grey knit, a super cropped Jean Paul Gaultier bomber from 1989, nylon Andre Walker baguettes and a lurid green jersey sweater by cult Japanese label Hysteric Glamour. If its first location is a non-descript treasure trove, its second location – a hop, step and jump away just off Broadway Market – is an if-you-know-you-know Aladdin’s Cave. It isn’t exactly somewhere you discover on a whim.
Tucked away on the seventh floor of an industrial block housing Deliveroo ghost kitchens and designers’ studios, it takes a light trek to find. Efforts are well rewarded, though, with the airy space stocking an expanded array of the impeccably curated vintage that Twos has earned its reputation for, alon.