A shopping spree at the mall, however exhilarating, only allows you to fish the shallow pools of ready-to-wear clothing and everyday decorating items, which companies produce in mass quantities in order to accommodate mainstream tastes. Can you use your purchasing power to completely express yourself in this way? Maybe, but consider this: Thousands of women have that same Coach bag you just bought. But how many women have the vintage Balenciaga bag that you found at a flea market booth for a liquidated estate?
Whether you want to shop for that which is obscure, vintage, forgotten or antique, flea markets provide a direct venue to these personal treasures. Victorian lamps stand crowded next to rotary phones, Felix the Cat memorabilia, hand-sewn quilts, pulp fiction books from the 1970s, traditional Hebrew records, birdcages, fur stoles, antiquated fashion magazines, black and white photographs of mysterious strangers and checked tablecloths. This effluvia can jump-start your creativity, inspiring you to make choices you never would have come to by shopping at a bed and bath store.
When you shop at a retail store, you're shopping for products that were recently designed and manufactured. The items available at a flea market come from a wide window of time, and carry the romance and history of the past. You can buy imitation vintage products in retail stores, but when it comes to true vintage, flea markets are best; flea markets, after all, are largely made up of that which is vintage and antique. A store contains products that fit into a certain aesthetic style, and products that make specific statements in terms of branding. At a flea market, you'll encounter an explosion of different themes, themes that are crammed together, taken out of context and made new. This presentation creates an alternative way to shop, and one that takes you outside of the box.
Flea market shopping isn't just about finding pricy or valuable antiques. Whether you want to decorate a nursery or find an evening handbag, expand your china cabinet or acquire new records or build upon your library of books, flea market shopping allows you to collect new items in a creative way that draws upon a vast resource. One of the best things about flea markets is that the assortment of wares challenges you to make design decisions and begin to define your personal aesthetic--without the influence of traditional retailers.
Retail stores have their place in the world. You wouldn't want to buy certain products used: Can you imagine inheriting someone's old pumice stone? What's the use of a 1960's food processor that weighs 50 pounds? Is there anything charming about a clunky personal computer from 1991? But when it comes to finding that "aha" moment, in which you encounter a bewitching set of vintage baking dishes, or finally discover the cashmere cardigan that you can really, truly call the perfect sweater, these moments define what it means to elevate shopping into a real creative act--a work of art.