Remember thrift shops, those dim and dusty charity outlets with truly undesirable seating, lamps and home accessories? The big advantage was prices in the low two figures.

Thrift shops like this still exist, but they aren't cutting edge. Wouldn't you rather shop at a charity shop that stocks antiques and home furnishings with some life left in them, even if prices do go into the hundreds and even thousands?

Guy deVille runs the antiques department at the thrift shop of the Irvington Institute for Immunological Research on New York City's east side. He says recent "bargains" have included a $2,800 French art nouveau bronze figurine, a circa-1950 carved Chinese screen for $1,000, and an early 20th century Noritaki coffee set for $150.

Not every thrift shop gets items like these, but Irvington makes a specialty of home decor. This contributes to the estimated $650,000 a year the charity raises from its shop, according to Stephanie M. Hyacinth, director of development. The money supports post-doctoral fellowships in immunology.

"There are good thrift shops all across the country, so everyone has access to this type of shopping," says Charlotte Moss, a decorator in New York.

Moss purchases books at thrift shops to fill library shelves, or perhaps the odd textile, for her clients. She was chairman of a recent event at the Irvington thrift shop in which six decorating experts, all thrift shop "hounds," created vignettes from items they found at the shop.

Although the store did squirrel a few things away for them, the items were all part of regular stock which any shopper could find.

Julia Gray, one of the vignette designers, repainted and reupholstered an old dining chair in her display. Gray, who heads a Manhattan workroom where old furniture is redone for resale primarily to decorators, says some of her best finds come from thrift shops. She usually strips, paints, or recovers the items and says shoppers should be prepared to do the same.

"I don't go looking for a specific item, but every week or so I poke my nose into some of the better thrift shops in Manhattan," says Kevin Clark, another contributor to the Irvington event.

"Many of my clients want to start a collection, so if I see something that catches my eye, I buy it," says Clark, who is a decorating stylist at La Jolie Maison in Summit, N.J.

Clark's extensive collection of kitchen and cooking gadgets from 1930s and 1940s come mostly from thrift shops and garage sales.

Those with qualms about shopping down may feel better if they heed Clark's words: "When you recycle something you found in a thrift shop, you are doing something wonderful in two ways: you're showing creativity, and you're being earth-friendly."

"I'm not embarrassed to shop in thrift shops," Clark says. "To tell you the truth, I run into a lot of interior designers in them."