andrea ashworth; A collage-making, whimsy-loving English writer mines the vintage stores of Los Angeles-uncovering old lace and inspiration in the racks' fairy-tale depths.

Byline: Sally Singer

The writer Andrea Ashworth is settling her bill at Hidden Treasures, a good-old-things emporium in Topanga Canyon. She has drifted through rooms containing weathered quilts and flapper dresses and heavily used Wranglers and beaded cardigans, and emerged with two fifties party frocks and a silvery sixties sheath. Hidden Treasures is the sort of vintage store that Ashworth likes best: inexpensive (her dresses are all under $75), unsnobby, and not enslaved to mainstream fashion tics and trends.

As her frocks are folded and bagged, Ashworth exclaims to the salesgirl, "They should have a party together!" The salesgirl gives a slightly ...