Today we’re bringing you another bundle of inspiration sourced from the vintage aisles of the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena, CA. African printing techniques and motifs have been trending recently, as seen in Burberry Spring ’12, and Marni’s capsule for H&M. Of course, the vintage vendors know this and have plenty of eye candy to entice the many hippies, hipsters, fashionistas. Oh yeah, and textile designers. duh.
The Rose Bowl flea market in Pasadena might just be one of the most amazing places on Earth. I always have a hard time committing to a purchase only because the urge to buy is so strong. Does that even make sense? Plus, if I weigh myself down with too much awesome loot I’ll surely inhibit my ability to snap photos. And that, dear friends, is always my primary agenda when I go to this; to share the beautiful eye candy with all of you out there. Be sure to come back next week for the vintage textiles edition!
On my last flea market excursion I found myself drawn to the vendors with the most eye candy, and time after time that led me straight to Africa…theoretically speaking. Woven and tie-dyed textiles, colorful masks, and entire tables filled with gorgeous, multicolored beads were almost too much inspiration to bear.
Here’s a special Christmas edition of flea market photos to help put you in a merry mood.
Earlier this month I made my way back to one of my favorite places on earth, the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market. I was only there for a few hours, which is not even close to the time you’d need to cover the whole location. It’s such a crazy mix of old and new, junk and treasure, vintage rarities and hand crafted items. I could never have a wallet or back seat big enough to take home all of the amazing things I found there, but at least I was armed with my camera. There was such a plethora of visual inspiration that I’m going to devote a regular blog feature to these flea market finds, starting off with this selection of gorgeous books. The vintage paper back instructional book for painting on textiles had to come home with Mama, of course.
