Next Saturday is the awesome Round She Goes vintage market at Marrickville Town Hall, Sydney. These days I don't get to do many markets and events - 10 years of rain and snow in Manchester made me quite picky about the ones I choose, valuing sewing or family time over than a day sitting on a market stall and just about covering the cost of the stall (which happens more than you think). Round She Goes is one of the few events I am a regular stallholder at - even if it's just 3 events a year!
Preparing for an event is a lot of hard work. Even without having to make (or remake garments) which I also do, just the amount of steaming and pricing all the garments, packing, organising and generally preparing to have a full stall is a few days work in itself.
The actual event on the day is also a lot of hard work lifting and carrying - sometimes you can't get parked near the event and you have to walk 2 streets with 8-10 market bags and three rails, sometimes a few suitcases and props. Often 5 or 6 trips and at the end of the day you have to pack it all back up again!
I like to get ahead and do as much preparation as I can the weeks prior - Round She Goes is next weekend but my rails are already steamed and sorted. I have some garments to finish sewing and a few things left to price and also some new signs to make which I will do this week so everything will be packed and ready in the van in plenty of time for market day.
As I don't drive and also have dodgy hip and shoulder, setting up for a market becomes a family affair with my partner Gordon helping out for set up and packdown and these days Mabel likes to help too - but a toddler can be hard to wrangle at events and we often end up dancing around whilst daddy does all the heavy lifting, leaving me to 'fluff' and finish the stall.
As I don't drive and also have dodgy hip and shoulder, setting up for a market becomes a family affair with my partner Gordon helping out for set up and packdown and these days Mabel likes to help too - but a toddler can be hard to wrangle at events and we often end up dancing around whilst daddy does all the heavy lifting, leaving me to 'fluff' and finish the stall.
In the 5 years I've been in Sydney I've been all over researching different markets and trialing a few out but there's a lot of competition and logistics of set up and packdown with a small person in tow make a lot of the Sydney markets unrealistic for us. One of the problems with vintage selling is that a lot of the markets can be "Trash & Treasure' where people clear out their wardrobe very cheaply - such as Glebe and Kiribilli. Or the other end of the spectrum the Vintage Markets can be more tailored to an older style of Vintage - like the Rock & Roll Market and some of the out of town markets such as Terrigal Vintage Fair. My vibe of grungey 80's and 90's vintage just doesn't really fit with these kind of events!
I used to do a great market in Redfern called Dear Pluto which was a 'Makers Market' and take my upcycled range but a lot of makers markets don't like to see fashion and vintage style clothing as they want to steer well away from being a vintage market. One of the reasons I'm creating my own handmade range which is more of a 'fashion label' is because I want to steer in this direction myself and to reach a point where I can comfortably and easily be a part of an artisan market.
One of the reason I love Round She Goes is that it encompasses all the areas of vintage selling and does it really well with not one type of stall dominating - there's always so much to choose from. This curated event is a great day out whatever your secondhand style - there are people selling their own wardrobes of designer and not so designer clothing very affordably and there's also stallholders with the chicest Vintage 70's Gucci, Chanel and other sought after labels. Then there's people like me in the middle - small little businesses created by people passionate about clothes, fashion and saving the planet - one loved secondhand item of clothing at a time.
Fact to Remember - extending the life of a garment by an extra nine months reduces its environmental impact by 20-30%.
If you want to know more about Round She Goes - Check out the website here - with markets all over Australia it's definitely worth checking out!
Round She Goes is Sydney's largest and most loved market for women’s preloved + vintage fashion!
The market is held inside the Marrickville Town Hall and features 60 handpicked stallholders who will bring you the very best selection of women's preloved designer fashion, quality vintage and retro fashion, handmade jewellery + accessories.
10am-3pm, Saturday 31 August
(one day only!)
Marrickville Town Hall
303 Marrickville Road
Marrickville NSW 2204
entry is $2
A sneak peak of what's in store:
And here's a few pics of the things I'll be bringing along...
My high double rack will be full of upcycled crop tops, skirts and separates at 2 for $50 and my dress & sweater rail will be a fabulous saving at 2 for $60.
This Rack - 2 for $50
This Rack 2 for $60
My third rack will be given over to the new kit//ten range - I'll be previewing 3 designs from the 10 piece collection.. The Collector Dress, The Creator Top and the Wanderer Pant. More info on these coming soon...
