Vintage, antique and art connoisseurs perused through an array of antiquities exhibited for sale at Pierce College over the weekend.
Convening every fourth Sunday, the Topanga Vintage Market is the San Fernando Valley’s only open-air flea market, according to co-founder Lori Rotblatt.
“About four years ago I was looking around the valley and I was noticing no flea market,” said Rotblatt. “The closest flea market for anybody that loved vintage was either in Pasadena or Ventura.”
“The valley was missing a vibrant, open-air flea market and I live here, so I came up with this idea to start one,” said Rotblatt. “We saw a void in the market and we decided to fill it.”
Vintage market co-founder Patrice Curedale said great success in the infancy of the organization rapidly outpaced the capacity of their original location in the parking lot of a west valley shopping mall.
“We started at the Westfield Promenade Mall on Topanga Canyon Boulevard,” said Curedale. “We outgrew that pretty quickly so we thought we would approach the college and maybe they would be open to it, and they said yes.”
Every fourth Sunday, Collectors browsing through more than 100 vendors, hunting vintage artisan items to add to their coffers, travel from all corners of Los Angeles.
“On average we have about 160 vendors and about 2,600 customers every month.” Curedale said.
Strong customer turnout for the event is a trend that varies with shifting weather patterns, according to Curedale.
“When it’s a really beautiful day, we will sometimes see over 3,000 people and when it’s a really hot day, we’ll see only 2,000.” Curedale said.
Fostering healthy business environments which function more like family oriented communities, is one of the many ambitions the Vintage Market strives to integrate into its operations.
“We wanted to build this business like a community,” said Rotblatt. “We wanted to really respect the vendors because they are the ones who make this market. Without the vendors there is no market.”
Curedale and Rotblatt further enforce their dedication to public service by donating vendor booths to non-profit organizations and academic clubs on campus.
“We often give a free space to local charities and nonprofits, and we can do the same thing for student clubs.” Rotblatt said.
Food and drink concessions are available for sale at any one of the food trucks that border the market.
Tommy Marudi, owner of the 2015 award winning food truck, The Middle Feast, from the Food Network’s “The Great Food Truck Race,” is participating as a vendor for his sixth time with Topanga Vintage Market.
“We’re here today from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., feeding customers our number one dish, chicken shawarma.” Marudi said.
The Topanga Vintage Market is open for business rain-or-shine from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. every fourth Sunday of the month. Free parking is provided and admission is $3 per adult. Kids under 12 are free.
