The Great Eclectic Jumble Sale was held in Newtown, Wellington on Saturday. Call it vintage, retro or antique – it was it all on sale and very well priced. Items ranged from 50 cents to $25 and there were lots of 'em. Everything vintage you can imagine was there, including clothing, fabric, textiles, shoes, bags, jewels, household items, hats and some in-between items.
Vintage-lovers flocked, with some lining up very early. There was very little room to move but it was evident that certain things catch individual shoppers' eyes, depending on their sense of style and past experiences. Many comments were made by buyers such as “This was at my grandmother’s house when I was a child”.
I spoke to two shoppers to ask what they had purchased. One had found a collection of 70’s fabric remnants; prints included geometrics, florals and paisleys in bright colourways. She aimed to cover some vintage chairs, which I thought an interesting idea to match antique chairs with 70's retro designs! The other buyer had found a fur coat she was going to cut up to make new garments from.
Vintage For Dummies: mannequins at the jumble sale
I managed to find a few items: a couple of vintage scarves, a gorgeous antique gold bracelet, a lace Italian top saying “Made in Venice” and some art deco fabric. The turn-out of shoppers was overwhelming- I counted 300 people in the space at one time- and my friends and I needed to go home and sleep to recover from the madness and excitement.
The Great Eclectic Jumble Sale is the initiative of a vintage connoisseur, Maria Henare, of fabulous vintage store Eclectic. Henare has bought up thousands of items from the ‘treasure trove of the South Island’. Based in Nelson, Maria has been collecting items from the South Island, most dating from the 1920s to the 1980s.
Although the jumble sale was a one-off event, if it were to happen regularly it would surely become a staple part of every shopper’s diet.
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