RETRO TO GO
Vintage Vendors Ditch Storefronts for Popups
The hobby of thrifting has seen a powerful resurgence in vintage-aimed consumerism. Scores of young fashion-fanatics are hitting the local thrift stores, flea markets, and vintage boutiques with a sartorial vigor. NoDef's Katherine McGuire explores a growing NOLA trend, the “Pop-up” vintage seller.
Transient vintage sellers are putting a new spin on shopping for vintage, by freeing it from stationary storefronts. Instead of settling for picked over Goodwills, shoppers can visit their neighborhood markets and peruse several vintage racks. Piety Street Market, Night Market on St. Claude, and Frenchmen Art Market have all featured vintage vendors this year, selling everything from 60’s frocks to 90’s acid-washed jeans. Piety Street Market, in particular, has attracted a variety of vintage vendors to its monthly markets, due most likely, to its supervision by long-time Flea market Icon, Cree McCree. McCree runs the Piety Market and has been a staple of local New Orleans flea markets since she moved here in 2001, even writing “Flea Market America” in 1983 about her Market-selling success.
Setting up at markets around the city, rather than opening a shop allows vendors to sell their product without the hassles of permits, insurance, and storefront rent. A variety of locations lets sellers expand their exposure, and their clientele.
McCree sells a variety of garments, from tailored 60’s-80’s vintage clothes, to customized costumes, to decorated corsets. She will frequently have rummage bins with items that sell for $1-$5, cheap and easy stops for people stocking up on Mardi Gras garb.
“I never wanted to own a shop,” McCree explained, “I wanted my sales to be a spontaneous event that takes a life of its own. I won’t be stuck in an empty shop on a rainy day, or in the horrible summer months.”
Daisy Cross, a vendor who sells as Blanket Fort Thrift and Vintage, explains that she was drawn to selling at local markets due to the flexibility and fiscal benefits.
“I want to be able to travel,” justified Cross, “I am trying to build a mobile shop, similar to a food truck, and sell out of my van. I want to be able to sell at musical festivals, markets. Travel all over the country. To be able to travel, is so much more exciting than staying in a store you can’t leave”.
Cross predominantly sells vintage clothing from the 60’s-90’s, as well as bags, jewelry, and shoes from those eras.
McCree and Cross both reaffirmed that without a store’s cost. One can focus on the clothes, and keep the sales inexpensive in comparison to some vintage stores that have to jack up costs to cover their overhead, “I want to be able to keep my vintage items under $20” Cross asserted, “Unless they are really special or rare”.
Budgets aside, another huge attraction to market vending is the community of fellow thrifters. Sellers share the space of the market with each other, able to trade or sell to each other and network. Rather than competing, the market can offer an opportunity for collaboration.
“Even if I don’t have great sales that day,” McCree acknowledged, “I can get great things and trade with the other sellers. It’s not about making your monthly nut as an individual entrepreneur, but being a part of the market community, the New Orleans community.”
The next St. Claude Night Market is set for June 8th. Piety Street Market (612 Piety) in the Bywater is open every second Saturday of the month, and Frenchmen Art Market is open every Thursday through Saturday from 7pm-1am, and Sundays from 6pm-12am.
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