Home Shopping: Vintage and designer treasures at Reform School Rules

Absolutely fabulous items, a sense of humour and an ultra-cool web site design earn this shop top marks.

The high school friends Billie Lopez and Tootie Maldonado opened their first shop, Reform School Rules, in Silver Lake, California. Luckily for the rest of us, they expanded online last year and, while you can't yet participate in their fun in-store crafting classes remotely, you can get your hands on their fabulous products.

Their website design is very cool, too. Arranged like a messy notepad with pencils and school photographs, the stock is divided into fun categories such as Locker Room, Lost and Found and Organic Chemistry. Childish pencil doodles appear when you highlight a department. I particularly like the Student of the Month area, where the duo highlight the work of a favourite artist or designer.

As well as sourcing vintage treasures, the girls constantly scour the globe for unusual, beautiful designer items. You never know what you'll find from one visit to the next. I love their collection of quirky, knitted accessories from the Scottish designer Donna Wilson.

You'll find Anthony Burrill's amusing typographical prints here, too; His "I like it. What is it?" slogan makes me chuckle the most. Elsewhere, there is a family of blank nesting Russian dolls. Paint them with blackboard paint then decorate them with chalk. Cover them with Origami paper or glue faces to them. Or leave them plain and line them up on a shelf for a chic display. There is so much fun to be had.

Billie and Tootie describe their shop as eco-friendly but not too "in-your-face about it". They don't sell "all things hemp and bamboo". Instead, they support sustainable design, stock handmade products made from recyclable materials and find buys to help to make the world a little greener, such as vegetable plot kits. Top marks all around.

www.reformschoolrules.com For shipping rates to the UAE, call 001 [phone].