Most of the year, Brimfield is a sleepy, semi-rural town in south-central Massachusetts, about an hour from my hometown of Northampton, MA. Things wake up considerably when the Brimfield Antique Flea Market or just “Brimfield” takes over for a week three times a year (in May, July, and September), attracting thousands of vendors and tens of thousands of shoppers. The shoppers range from the hardcore collectors and resellers who show up at the crack of dawn on day-one with their comfortable shoes, wagons and carts, and fistfuls of cash to the bargain-hunters hoping to make a deal as people are packing up on the last day. Somewhere in between is me, looking to have an adventure for the weekend, get some color/design/pattern/typography inspiration, eat yummy lunch from the Hearty Eats food truck, pour a little vodka in my Dell’s frozen lemonade, and just take it all in.
There is so much ground to cover and so many things to see that it can be a bit overwhelming. And it’s really easy to lose all perspective. $150 for a vintage Levi’s kids’ jean jacket covered in patches? Seems high. After about 5 minutes of negotiating I get him down to $100 and feel elated—that’s 1/3 less than he was asking! Wait… Did I just spend $100 on a jean jacket my kid will probably fit into for a few months two years from now? Yes, but it is SO. FREAKING. COOL. that I will hang it on the wall… So it’s art too! What a bargain! And can you imagine what it would have cost if it was at the Brooklyn Flea…?
Some of the tents are beautifully merchandised, set up almost like mini boutiques. The proprietors create little vignettes and take the imagination work out of the process. Then there are the tables so cluttered with items you can’t help but dismiss it all as “junk.” I’m sure it’s in these junk piles that the real steals happen and I’m sure that you end up paying more at the chicer, prettier booths because the same items seem higher-end.
I remember falling in love with gorgeous hand-dyed indigo textiles at the upscale Love, Adorned boutique in The Hamptons. How perfectly bohemian for a picnic; how gorgeous they look hanging from those hooks! Sure, I thought at the time, $175 sounds about right, too bad it’s way more than I am willing to spend for something pretty that I unfortunately don’t really need. Ah well.
Had I not seen them there, I may have just passed them by this past weekend when I saw a whole bunch of them sloppily piled on a folding card table. I ended up getting two, and although they are smaller than the ones I’d seen in Amagansett, at $35 each, I couldn’t be happier.
All this made me think about my work and my clients. While I am happy as a consumer to be on the “getting a steal” end, as a business, I would rather be a chic boutique than a table full of junk. It seems so obvious, doesn’t it, that looking great (and for sure better than the guys next door) and displaying your wares (or service or whatnot) in a beautiful, organized, and stylized way will not only get you noticed and keep your “tent” crowded, you will most definitely sell more and can set your prices higher. It’s all about branding, people!
Anyway, here are some things that caught my eye at Brimfield, from an extensive collection of vintage Lilly Pulitzer to neon-bright Moroccan rugs, those infamous African textiles to African barber shop signage, piles of kids’ toys and blocks to industrial signage, and everything in between:
Have you been to Brimfield or are you planning a trip? Share your favorite scores or ask me your burning questions in the comments section below: