I’m on a quest and hope you can help. I’m talking to those of you who have lived here a long time, and have memories of a favorite store or two you used to love to frequent that is no longer around. I want to hear them! Dreamland? Retro Viva? Lipstick Traces? Klopfenstein’s? John Doyle Bishop? 

For example:

I have memories of I. Magnin, the upscale department store with a Seattle presence from 1926 until it closed in 1993 and think often of the soft silk pants I got there during their liquidation sale.

Thrillingly, I’ve been emailing a bit with Ruby Montana, who closed Pinto Pony in 2000, and high tailed it to Palm Springs. I used to love to get lost in that shop and have a vague memory that it used to be located in what is now called The West Edge, before she moved it to downtown proper—anyone remember?

I used to love SRH Caravan at Bellevue Square with its faux Moroccan bazaar exterior and eclectic inventory (wish I still had this amazing jumpsuit I bought there in middle school).

I often escaped the torpor of Mercer Island in the 1980s and 90s for the vintage shops along the Pike/Pine corridor and a downtown shop whose name I can’t recall (Sweeties, maybe?) on the bottom floor of an office building on one of the east-west hilly streets like Seneca.  Man, I wish I could get in touch with the people who owned that place. Anybody know them?

I used to love going to Sbocco on Sixth Ave. with my mom for her fancy dresses and there was an amazing shoe store nearby that I have no hope in remembering the name of. Can you help?

Of course, shopping has always been a love of mine, which is why I have the job that I do, I suppose. Perhaps I’m the only one obsessed with the idea of revisiting these old shops, but if you’ve got something to add to my informal history of shopping in Seattle, I’d love to hear from you. Email me at ali.brownrigg@tigeroak.com with your memories. Photos? A+.