Best Shop to Discover What Your Betters Are Dispensing Of

Dolce & Gabbana shoes. A Coach handbag. An Yves St. Laurent evening gown. The fact that these are sitting in the window display of a thrift store, of all places, says a lot about how the Cathedral School Shop goes about its business. Located at the foot of Nob Hill, the Cathedral School resells what socialites happen to consider dispensable -- off-season shoes, that Louis Vuitton clutch bag that Muffy had the gall to call "gauche," massive art books the help wouldn't take. So it's there for the rest of us schlubs. A fund-raising operation for the private Cathedral School for Boys just up the hill, the shop makes for a nice way to snoop on what the well-heeled are getting rid of: Brooks Brothers suits, assorted kitchenware, embroidered throw pillows, fine silver, bad spy novels (oh, how the wealthy love Robert Ludlum!), and stacks and stacks of old issues of Vanity Fair. It's such a good thrift store you're not quite sure you deserve it.