2012 Arizona Matsuri Festival

Posted on February 27, 2012 by

The annual Arizona Matsuri Festival has come and gone yet again. Held this year at the Historic Heritage Square in the downtown phoenix area many locals were able to immerse themselves in delightful Japanese food and culture. So what exactly is this festival for? As the Phoenix New Times says:  “The Japanese festival commemorates the centennial of the gifting of cherry blossom trees from Japan to the U.S. and features bonsai displays, live martial arts demos, calligraphy, food, Asahi beer garden, Kendama tournament, and three stages of live entertainment, including Taikoproject drummers from Los Angeles and other traditional music.“

The art of candy-making

Taiko Drummers

Guests in kimonos

Of course, many visitors don’t just come dressed in kimonos but also as their favorite anime/video game characters. Anime and video games have become such a big part of Japanese culture that this trend was soon followed by the culture’s enthusiasts in the West and gave birth to cosplay culture.

One of the guests dressed as Zack Fair of Final Fantasy 7

So in case you missed this cultural event this year, no worries! They will be back again next year to celebrate! There are also plenty of other opportunities to enjoy Japanese culture. Like in cosplay conventions: Phoenix ComiCon, SaboTen Con, etc. Also, on March 23, 2012 an Anime Night will be hosted at the Japanese Friendship Garden of Phoenix in conjunction with Himeji Sister Cities Committee.

Written by:  Gillian Tomimbang

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Spring Is Almost Here!

Posted on February 20, 2012 by

With the winter season soon drawing to a close, make way for the lovely season of Spring! You know what that means here in Arizona? A prelude to the scorching heat of Summer! So start rummaging through those closets for your personal Spring collections.

Photography/Model: Tricia Gosingtian

Photography/Model: Tricia Gosingtian

So, what’s trendy in Spring? Well, you can never go wrong with floral patterns. On dresses, tops, skirts, accessories, and even pants!—get creative with your Spring looks!

Ralph Lauren Spring 2012 pastel solids

Spring is also all about those lovely pastel colors. Not a big fan of color blocking? Wearing a simple pastel colored piece in your outfit can be more than enough. But if you really love color, go ahead and be inspired by Ralph Lauren’s Spring 2012 collection (picture above).

2012 Pantone Fashion Color Report Spring

Spring is a time when plant life awakens from its long Winter slumber so celebrate this with lovely pastel colors, floral patterns, and your creativity!

Written by:  Gillian Tomimbang

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MMV IRL: We Are Now Open!

Posted on February 7, 2012 by

The wait is now over! The new Meat Market Vintage store is now open at Mill Ave. So vintage lovers and fashionistas rejoice because we have great pieces that await you here! Come stop by any time between 11am-7pm TUES-SAT and 12pm-5pm SUN at 1020 S. MILL AVE. TEMPE AZ (480-968-1118).
As with our Ebay store, we have pieces that embody the fashion of a range of eras:  from the full skirts of the 1950s to the hippie fashion born out of the late 1960s. So don’t waste time and come see what Meat Market Vintage is all about!

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Photography by Amy M. Phillips

I think this will be our official holiday post as we only manage to post about once every 2 months! Things have been very busy at the shop and we are extremely grateful for that. Ben and I are very excited to be a part of a fashion show fundraiser this Saturday night at one of my favorite venues in town, Bragg’s Pie Factory. The fundraiser is being put together by The Museum of Science and Sustainability and the goal is to raise money for a future children’s sustainability museum in Phoenix. You can find more information on MOSS at themoss.org. My sister works for MOSS and is in charge of organizing the fashion show, it has an eco-chic-o theme and she figured vintage clothing was an obvious must! Not to mention Ben also went to grad school for sustainability so we were immediately interested.

As obvious as it is to the ultimate vintage lover, I find people do tend to forget that there are more reasons to wear vintage other than its inherent value and rarity. The majority of vintage we sell was made in the United States and many garments were manufactured by Women’s Garment Workers Unions. Stores like American Apparel would’ve seemed redundant because the majority of clothing was already being made domestically. Another sustainable aspect to vintage would be simply finding a new use for an old garment time and time again. It disturbs me to see how quickly we tear through most of contemporary clothing. It’s made cheaply, sold cheaply, and treated cheaply. Yes, second hand & thrift stores are a huge benefit to society, but we’re turning over clothing so quickly that even those stores can’t keep up with the unbelievable volume we’re discarding every day. Mary Kincaid from Zuburbia has done a great job instilling environmental awareness in vintage fashionistas, if you haven’t stumbled across her website already I suggest clicking the link!

I think the two biggest environmental drains to my business are the fuel used for shipping packages and the packaging materials required to transport these items. In a perfect scenario I guess I’d be selling used clothing to my local community rather than shipping it around the world, but for now I hope I’m making even a small contribution to sustainable business practices.

Phewww! I suppose Thanksgiving week is an appropriate time to shed light to issues like these, right? In any case I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! Ben and I will be working at Green Vegetarian on Thanksgiving day for their 4th annual “ThanksLiving” event. For those who live in the greater Phoenix area and want to spare a turkey this year please join us at Green in Tempe!

-Cory

Posted on November 22, 2011 by | 1 Comment

One generation got old, one generation’s got soul

Posted on September 16, 2011 by

Hey everyone! We’ve been neglecting our blog like always, but we’ve been so busy at the shop! Lots of changes happening over here, we’ve been working diligently preparing for the fall/winter season and we’re really excited about what’s to come! Start checking in at our shop for tons of amazing winter coats, Nordic sweaters, leather jackets & more!

In the meantime I thought I’d share a few fun side projects. We recently collaborated with two local businesses/organizations on wardrobing their photoshoots, it was so nice getting in touch with our local community for once! When you spend so much time online you forget about all of the incredible things happening right in your neighborhood. We helped wardrobe a shoot for Conder/dance, one of the leading dance companies in the Phoenix area. Carley Conder was a former dance teacher of mine and helped refine my dance technique in ways I could never thank her enough for, so I felt honored to work with her on a photo shoot! We also worked with Scott Harris Underground, an up-and-coming über hip eye wear company. Enjoy the photos!

Conder/dance wears Meat Market Vintage

Conder/dance wears Meat Market Vintage

Scott Harris Underground wears Meat Market Vintage

Scott Harris Underground wears Meat Market Vintage

Have a great weekend!

Cory

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How To Transform Any Dress Into One You Love: Which Way Is Better?

Posted on June 26, 2011 by

It’s rare that we come across duplicate dresses, but when we do it gives us freedom to experiment with different ideas! I did a post last year showing how you can update an overlooked thrift store dress into something chic & modern, so I thought I’d try for Part 2 of “How To Transform Any Dress…”. We got our hands on identical 1960s floral/heart print long sleeve maxi dresses, I immediately fell in love with the color combination and intricate print work:

close-up details of 1960s printed dress

We decided to transform each dress into a different style. For the first dress, we took the sleeves off and left the skirt floor length. For the second dress, we kept the sleeves long, shortened the skirt to a mini length, and then took the bottom tier of the original skirt and attached it to the mini skirt, I didn’t want to lose the signature heart print at the bottom! Marlene and Kalia are modeling the two different version below:

Which version do you like better?

So my question is, which dress do you prefer? I can’t decide! We sold the long dress a few months back, but the short dress can be found at our store right now! I hope you enjoy this post as much as we enjoyed playing with different ideas, I’d love to hear what you have to say so please leave a comment!

<333 Cory

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So Scollarly!

Posted on June 20, 2011 by

I was at a family friend’s loft the other day flipping through the pages of a design magazine when I came across these Eleven Objects collars, what a perfect addition to your business-savvy attire! Because let’s face it, it’s far too warm for the entire dress shirt, so the collar alone will do.  The chunky metal and leopard print collars are two of my favorites, and the severely pointed edges are a nice departure from my lifelong weakness: über cute peter pan collars.

Posted in Accessories | 1 Comment