By Paige Thompson

When walking through any mall one will see the usual Forever 21, Old Navy, Pac Sun and more.  But all of these stores are lacking one thing: uniqueness.

The bad thing about always shopping at these same stores is that there is a greater chance for someone else to have that same great top or the same cute necklace. Sick of never finding anything truly unique? This is when I turn to the eccentric shops on and off-line.

For local shops, I recommend a handful of places:  For those who love a laid-back, cool bohemian environment, spend a day on Bardstown Road.  They have an endless supply of uniqueness to go around.  My personal favorites include Cherry Bomb and Dot Fox, but other great places include Hey Tiger, Discoveries, and Why? Louisville, where you can get witty, Louisville themed t-shirts.  Cherry Bomb carries clothing that is both vintage and new, as well as clothing items from American Apparel. They also carry many handmaid pieces of jewelry, coin purses, headbands, bows, and soaps.  Dot Fox, while similar to Cherry Bomb, is different in it’s own way.  They carry mostly new items from brands that no one has really heard of.  Their prices are fairly high, but if you love adorable outfits it is the place to go.

A little closer to home, I recommend the Dandy Lion.  A little shop in downtown New Albany they offer a large variety of cute vintage clothing, to handmade jewelry and bags as well as prints of various artwork by local artists.

Since our side of the river is lacking in unique, cute shops, I turn to thrift stores.  For this there is Goodwill, where you never know what you will find.  They have everything from that awesome old camera you have been looking everywhere for to that perfectly imperfect ugly sweater that is sure to make you stand out.

For those who don’t feel like going out and dealing with the traffic due to the bridge closure, I recommend the greatest thing ever invented: the Internet.

The Internet is the best place to find unique clothes, accessories, bags, shoes, anything.  Urban Outfitters may not be ideal, but since we do not have one down here, there is a smaller chance that someone around here will have the same thing.

My favorite place to shop online is Etsy.  It is a website with a ton of online stores, full of mainly handmade or vintage clothing and jewelry.  However, they have a bunch of other things too such as furniture, stationery, and even Harry Potter themed items for the Harry Potter aficionado like myself.

Etsy is one of the best places to find jewelry because there are so many different stores and types to choose from.  You can even shop local online shops on the site.  It is also easy to search for anything you might want.  Type “French” into the search bar and you will be faced with pages and pages of French-themed clothing, jewelry, notebooks, and even t-shirts.

So next time you’re out, you’ll be guaranteed not to be wearing the same shirt as anyone else. Have your own unique style courtesy of unique on and off-line shops…and Goodwill.