Vintage Clothing Store in Shoreditch: Open Daily at Rokit

Rokit Brick Lane is at 101 Brick Lane, London E1 6SE, and it opens at 11am and closes at 7pm every day of the week. That means a Tuesday lunch break works as well as a Sunday afternoon, which is not true of most vintage shops in East London. It is the Shoreditch branch of a label that began as a market stall in Camden and has been selling second-hand clothes since 1986, and the shop gives students 20% off in store all year round. If you are looking for a vintage clothing store in Shoreditch that does not close at five, this is the one to know.

The shop sits at number 101 on Brick Lane, in the E1 6SE postcode, on the stretch that runs through Shoreditch and Spitalfields. The street is lined with Victorian brick terraces, curry houses, street art and a long run of second-hand clothes shops, so you will not need to hunt for it. Look for the racks of jackets and the big windows that Rokit dresses with its own displays. The store's own history page says its window installations have won awards, and the glass is the first thing you see from the pavement.

Rokit also runs a second, smaller shop a few doors along, called Rokit Accessories, which shares the same 11am to 7pm daily hours. The two shops are separate tills, so decide before you go in what you are hunting for. The main shop is for clothing. The accessories shop is the place to look at bags, belts and the smaller pieces that do not fit on a coat rail. Walking between them takes under a minute, and many people do both in one visit.

Getting there is easy without a car. Shoreditch High Street station on the Overground is a short walk, and Aldgate East on the District and Hammersmith and City lines is not much further. Both routes bring you onto Brick Lane from different ends, so pick the side where you want to finish your afternoon. If you arrive from the north you pass the street art first and reach Rokit as the lane turns busy, which is the more scenic way in.

Rokit's own about page tells the story plainly. It was born out of a passion for vintage American denim in the 1980s and was founded by the Shackleton brothers and their partner Patti, starting with a market stall in Camden. In 1986 they opened a shop on Camden High Street, a former butcher that kept its meat hooks for hanging clothes and used the old cold store as a fitting room. That first shop still trades, and the page lists Amy Winehouse among the people it has dressed over the years.

The Brick Lane shop came later. According to the company, it launched in 2001 as a pioneering vintage store in East London, and the success of that opening led to the neighbouring accessories boutique. Covent Garden followed in 2003 and became Central London's largest second-hand store. Rokit marks 40 years of vintage on its website now, and its Brick Lane shop is the one that tied the brand to the East End crowd, which is why it keeps the same late-closing habit as the clubs and bars around it.

The company says the Brick Lane store celebrated originality by offering a century's worth of designs, and that is a fair description of the floor. You are not shopping a single decade. A 1950s knit can hang a few feet from a 1990s sports jacket, and the shop sorts by garment type rather than by era, so you browse by what you want to wear rather than by what year it was made.

Rokit built its name on vintage American denim, and the site's menus still lead with Levi's, jeans and denim jackets, alongside leather, utility wear, sportswear and what the brand calls heritage pieces. Its current online edits include a Halloween capsule and vintage streetwear, and the brand names it features most often include Levi's, Nike, Adidas, Carhartt, Burberry and Tommy Hilfiger. Expect the shop floor to follow the same lines, with outerwear and denim taking the most room and knitwear, tees and dresses filling the gaps.

Do not expect the shop to carry the entire website. Rokit's FAQ says all online stock is kept in a separate warehouse, so you cannot try on an item from the website in a store. That works the other way too. What you see on the rails at Brick Lane is the store's own selection, and when a piece catches your eye you should decide there and then, because nobody can pull a second one from the back room. The rails turn over with each delivery, so a return visit a fortnight later shows you a different shop.

The company says every piece sold online is cleaned and pressed before it goes on sale, and the same care shows in how the garments hang. It is still worth doing your own check. Hold the jacket up to the light and look at the lining and underarms, run a thumb along seams and zips, and check buttons and cuffs. Vintage sizing runs smaller than modern labels, so try the piece on rather than trusting the tag, and test the shoulders first because they are the part a tailor cannot change cheaply.

Start with the question of what you actually wear. A rack of two hundred jackets is overwhelming until you decide you want one thing, such as a denim jacket in a size you can layer over a jumper. Walk the whole floor once without touching anything, then go back to the two or three rails that held your type of piece. People who browse this way leave with something they wear, while people who grab fifteen things end up in the queue for the fitting rooms with a heap they cannot choose between.

Weekday afternoons are calmer than weekends, and the shop's 7pm close gives you a useful option that few other shops on the lane have. Arrive at 5pm after work and you will usually have space to try things on. Weekends bring the Brick Lane crowd, and the aisles fill with browsers who are there for the street rather than the shop, so allow extra time for the changing room at those hours.

Be honest about what you will not do here. Rokit does not purchase items from individuals, and its FAQ says it also does not buy back anything previously bought from Rokit. So do not carry a bag of old clothes along hoping for a trade. If you want to sell or swap, you will need a market stall or an app instead. Treat this shop as a place to buy, and bring a student card if you have one, because the in-store 20% student discount applies all year.

Skip the accessories shop if you only need clothes. It is a separate unit and its stock is smaller, so go in only if you want a bag or a belt to go with the jacket you have just bought. Equally, skip the Covent Garden or Camden branches if you are already in Shoreditch, since each has its own stock and you will not find the same pieces there. The shop does not offer a try-on service for web orders, so do not plan a visit around collecting something you bought online.

If Rokit is busy or the sizes do not suit you, the Brick Lane Vintage Market is a short walk away and has its own Karpo guide, and the rest of the lane has a mix of other second-hand shops of varying quality. Treat them as a backup plan rather than as a promise. Compare the condition of a jacket against what you saw at Rokit before you commit to buying, and walk away from anything with a torn lining or a broken zip unless the price reflects it.

Between shops, the lane is a good walk in its own right. The street art on the side walls changes often, there are bakeries and curry houses a few steps from the shop door, and Spitalfields is within easy reach for a longer afternoon. A reasonable plan is to start at Rokit at 11am when the doors open and the rails are freshly arranged, then walk south toward Aldgate East for lunch. It makes a tidy half-day without any rushing.

Address: Rokit Brick Lane, 101 Brick Lane, London E1 6SE. Opening times from the official Rokit store page: Monday to Sunday 11am to 7pm. The official website is rokit.co.uk, and the store list is on its Our Stores page.

Discount: Rokit says it gives a 20% student discount all year round in store. Policy: the company does not buy clothes from individuals and does not buy back previous Rokit purchases. Website stock is stored separately from the shops, so it cannot be tried on in a store.

Plan the trip around the shop's 7pm closing time, bring a bag for your finds, and allow about an hour for a proper browse. If you add the accessories shop next door, which keeps the same 11am to 7pm hours, allow another fifteen minutes. Download Karpo APP to save the shop and find other vintage stops nearby.