Pasadena’s new Curio Emporium is a set-dresser’s dream and eccentric’s delight.
Costumed pseudo-Victorian salespeople and an entire section called “The Macabre” make Pasadena’s new Curio Emporium a modern knick-knack hunter’s Shangri-La. A store “for those who can’t live without unique antiques and oddities,” according to its turn-of-the-century website, the emporium offers visitors the opportunity to “travel back in time… at fair prices.” (Time travel has been an exclusive luxury of the rich, until now.) Essentially a museum on a fire sale, inventory is summarized as “antiques, oddities, militaria, taxidermy, and Steam punk accessories;” the latter term being a subculture of hypothetical futuristic Victorians. If you’ve ever wanted to visit the Pasadena Flea Market but can’t seem to have the idea on the second Sunday of the month, think of The Curio Emporium as that famous marketplace crammed into a California bungalow and manned by a strangely dressed cast of characters from some vague period best described as “days of yore.”
1020 Fair Oaks Ave
South Pasadena, CA 91030
(626) 399-0417
www.thecurioemporium.com
- The Curio Emporium
- The Curio Emporium
- The Curio Emporium
- The Curio Emporium
- The Curio Emporium
- The Curio Emporium
