At Paradise Club’s soft opening in late November champagne flowed, records played and fashionable people rifled the well-curated racks of Albuquerque’s newest vintage shop. The store, situated in the small commercial block north of Central Avenue near Corpus Arts and King’s Tattoo is decked out in a custom gold glitter floor, featuring hanger after hanger of finds—classic denim, one-of-a-kind retro tops, t-shirts, dresses and much more. In fact, Paradise Club doesn’t stop at wearables—they’re stocking their shelves with botanical sundries by the likes of Dryland Wilds and offerings from Ritual Goods, a small business offering spell kits and more that just got its start here in Albuquerque. A small selection of art prints and zines are hanging out amid the plants and super sleek furnishings inside the store, too. If Paradise Club’s opening offers any indication of things to come, our city is going to become a lot more well dressed very soon. Stop in and pick up a few things you aren’t likely to find anywhere else for your stylish friends, cool parents and anyone else who values things local, well-made and modish.
Donovan Discovers
Hometown hero Donovan Smith started his craft at 9 years old. Now just 14, Smith has been featured in People Magazine, Huffington Post and many more outlets, sharing his family’s story of struggling with homelessness and turning it all around through creative power and the help of local nonprofits like the Supportive Housing Coalition of New Mexico and St. Martin’s Hospitality Center, organizations that Smith now kicks back 14 percent of all sales back to. Smith is a teenage savant when it comes to creating detailed, super inspired soaps. These soaps take all sorts of shapes, looking like sweet confections, or well-loved pop culture icons like Darth Vader and Yoda ($6 each). Smith has even cooked up some holiday-inspired soaps—sweet smelling snow globes holding gingerbread men, wreaths and snowmen ($6 each or 24 for $144). Made from a blend of natural fragrances, oils and goat’s milk, these soaps and other things, like air fresheners, benefit the world threefold: Customers are clean and smell good (obviously), local nonprofits benefit from every purchase, and Donovan Discovers is one of those few altruistic businesses that just flat out deserve patronage. Stop in the shop or shop online anytime for stocking stuffers for friends, family, for yourself, for just about anyone—who doesn’t need soap?
