For Tiffany Dubin, it started with shopping - first as a pastime while growing up in New York and Palm Beach, then a hobby, a passion, an escape during family European trips and now a career.

Dubin, the former founder and director of Sotheby's Fashion Department, owns a one-of-a-kind vintage boutique on the second floor of Henri Bendel at 712 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Lair by Tiffany Dubin is an ever-changing shop of delights for the home, a colorful world of vintage and collectible home accessories, furnishings and furniture that Dubin selected from her travels around the world.

"I love digging," admits Dubin. "I'm constantly on eBay or at Salvation Army stores and flea markets, always the first person at tag sales on weekends. I literally shop everywhere. I love the hunt, the story behind the item. Recently, I was in Gstaad, Switzerland, with my family, and I took off by myself to find new shops. I needed to do that. And I bought an array of treasures."

Many such treasures can be found while exploring Lair, an eclectic shop with walls painted a bright pink covered in lime green drapes. Lair overlooks Fifth Avenue and is filled with irresistible, out-of-the-box treasures like the mosaic coffee table with a rainbow sunburst, charming benches, 1950s bowling bags, trunks, a bust of a sexy woman and a mirrored face made of dice. Then there are atomizers in orange and brass, plastic pinball sets Warhol would have loved, glass pitchers painted in red roses Barbara Cartland could have designed, barware sets and lots of bric-a-brac.

But don't expect to see all of these collectibles because the offerings change daily. "We have something different each time you visit Lair," explains Dubin, who designed the funky lifestyle environment to demonstrate how to use her unique finds in the home. "The style of vintage furniture ranges from Deco to contemporary. But each piece is different, colorful and stylish to the eye," she says.

Indeed, Lair is glamorous and young and fashionable, yet has a retro antique shop feel, designer Betsey Johnson meets "I Love Lucy's" Ricky and Lucy. The Deco merchandise stands out, but there is so much more to this large curiosity shop.

Totes scattered about come in red, pink, green, cantaloupe orange and cool baby powder blue. There is a little table with six drummers and a martini set on top, a lamp created in black horses with a shade made of red and black heart cards. Pictures hang on the wall, and a disco ball takes you back to the days of Studio 54.

"We also have books for cooks, tips for the home decorator and an extraordinary collection of out-of-print books and magazines," says Dubin, who spends as much time as possible helping sales clerks in the boutique.

Born in New York City, Dubin grew up there and in Palm Beach; her grandparents lived at the Biltmore. She has vacationed in Palm Beach every year since she was 14, and spends every Christmas holiday on the island with her family. (Her stepfather is Al Taubman, former Chairman of Sotheby's.)

She even dated her husband, Louis Dubin, a Manhattan real estate developer while on holiday in Palm Beach, where his family had a home. "I actually met him briefly in New York, but we didn't start dating until we saw each other in Palm Beach," says Dubin.

She went to school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and graduated with a degree in International Relations. Since she wasn't sure what to do next, she took a retailing job at Woodward & Lothrup, the now defunct Washington department store.

"I bounced around a bit until I started working for Sotheby's where I started the fashion department and stayed for ten years," she says. "I created fashion themed auctions with handbags, photography etc. All of my work was related to the auctions."

For example, she conceptualized and produced fashion/lifestyle based auctions, staging fashion sales as high-concept happenings which became New York social and media events. She took the buying, selling and collecting of vintage clothing from a private circle into the public arena, making people of all backgrounds interested in buying and wearing these clothes.

Dubin's sales and exhibitions were given clever titles like To Have and to Hold (for handbags) and Pulp Fashion (for paper products). These humorous titles attracted a younger, hipper crowd that Sotheby's wasn't accustomed to seeing. Her shows were chronicled in The New York Times, Vanity Fair and Vogue.

In 2000, Harper Collins published "Vintage Style," a coffee table book she co-wrote on buying and wearing classic, vintage clothing. Dubin also did freelance styling for fashion shows, including opening her Manhattan home to Swarovski, the world's leading full cut crystal maker.

This creative opportunity was the prelude to Lair. Bendel's executives, especially VP and General Manager Ed Burstell, encouraged Dubin to open the store on the fourth floor, with a cafe serving specialty coffees and cookies.

"I thought the customers bought more cookies than couches so when we moved downstairs to the second floor, I eliminated the cafe," laughs Dubin. "Now things are rolling, and I am really excited."

In addition to writing another book on accessories, Dubin plans to travel to Midwestern states and remote parts of New Jersey and Florida to find undiscovered thrift shops and flea markets. She is looking for new shopping ideas, and one-of-a-kind pieces for Lair that nobody has seen.

"Paris is overdone," she says. "People want new looks, and they don't know how to shop for them. This is my job, and I love it."