Reflection On Sustainability

meatmarketvintage — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 20:04:21 +0000

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

One generation got old, one generation’s got soul

meatmarketvintage — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 18:50:12 +0000

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

Scott Harris Underground wears Meat Market Vintage

Have a great weekend!

Cory

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

meatmarketvintage — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 17:50:34 +0000

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

So Scollarly!

meatmarketvintage — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 22:48:07 +0000

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.

Featured Customer of the Week: Carmen B.

meatmarketvintage — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 17:53:14 +0000

Wow! Time certainly flies. I think I might have to rename this the Featured Customer of the MONTH, hehe.

Meat Market Vintage 1960s Dolly Dress

Meet Carmen B., a vintage-lovin’ gal who has some of the best taste in dresses I’ve ever come across, please check out her blog stat! I mean it. Every picture she posts makes me want to abandon my wardrobe and leave it up to fashion savvy people like her to remain adorable…UGH. She’s pictured above in a Meat Market Vintage mini dress with a cute peter pan collar and dropped waist line. I love how she updated the antiquity with Acne boots and scrunched ankle socks! Thanks Carmen!

Want to be featured on our blog? Photos can be sent to info@meatmarketvintage.com, please include your name and a little info about your outfit & photo.

All I Need Is The Air That I Breathe

meatmarketvintage — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 17:02:51 +0000

OMG! Family friends of ours started up a jewelry business this past year and we love their designs! They’re called A Place To See and their necklaces are blowing up! As a recycled apparel devotee, I love that the company uses old maps and recycled aluminum as the feature of their jewelry. Each necklace is hand made and individualized by city and by a unique number inscribed on the side of the aluminum plate. You can customize your order by choosing the city or keep things spontaneous. I vote for spontaneity, then make that city a future destination! Of course we had to get our hands on the necklaces and we’ve been having fun incorporating them into our photo shoots:

Meat Market Vintage wearing A Place To See jewelry

Oh, and you can buy the the 1970s Cowichan sweater (above photo, left) at our store right now!

These necklaces certainly give me the itch to travel. I love leaving town without much of a plan. Just a backpack full of necessities (usually 15 or so vintage dresses rolled up and packed as tightly as possible in case I score a few more on the road!), unfamiliar sights, yummy food and new people to meet. That’s my favorite way to do it, but for now I’ll just have to settle for a day trip to the other side of the city, hahah.

Happy New Year!
Cory

M.K. Ultra Took Control Of My Mind

meatmarketvintage — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 04:08:58 +0000

The Ultramatics (Photo by Edgar Cardenas)

Hello Hello,

Now that the store is finally starting to settle into its own again I’ve been able to focus on a few of my other favorite activities. For about seven years I was a passionate modern dancer, but I was forced to quit earlier this year due to an ongoing problem with joint ailments. Not being able to take dance has been really upsetting for me, I can hardly even think about it without becoming overwhelmed with sadness! Anyone that knew me in the dance community knew how completely obsessed with it I was, I miss it soooo much. I am hopeful that I will be able to get back into it someday, but for now I am forced to give my body a break from all of the physical stress it endured.

That being said, I’ve been dedicating more time to my love for music A few months ago, I was asked to play bass guitar for my boyfriend’s band, The Ultramatics. At first I was feeling nervous to join without really knowing the instrument very well, so I decided to set up bass lessons with a guitar teacher. If any of you readers are local and have been wanting to brush up or learn how to play guitar or bass, I strongly suggest going to Doug Mann in Scottsdale. I still have a lot to learn but he has taught me so much in only a short period of time!

In November, my band was picked in an Asian Man Records contest to open up for The Queers, Kepi Ghoulie and The Riptides. The show drew a great crowd and I had so much fun being back on stage again, enjoy the pictures from the show!

The Ultramatics (Photo by Edgar Cardenas)

Ben Ultra (Photo by Edgar Cardenas)

Cory Monoxide (Photo by Edgar Cardenas)

Rico Matic (Photo by Edgar Cardenas)

Brandon (Photo by Edgar Cardenas)

Featured Custy of the Week: Danielle Z.

meatmarketvintage — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 18:05:37 +0000

It’s finally happening! Every week we will be showcasing a Meat Market Vintage lover wearing something from our shop! Say hello to Danielle Z.: she’s a NYC-living grad student with an eclectic sense of style that’s always keeping people on their toes! She’s also a good friend of mine so I’m honored to have her begin our new “Featured Custy of the Week” column :] Here are two photos of her wearing Meat Market Vintage clothing:

Hanging out with Robert Plant and her pops in a colorful Oaxacan mini dress

Looking lovely in a 1960s cream lace cocktail dress at Jon Cain's 60th surprise birthday party

Thanks, Danielle!

Photos can be sent to info@meatmarketvintage.com, please include your name and a little info about your outfit & photo.

Catch Up With Cory & Meat Market Vintage At The Phoenix New Times

meatmarketvintage — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 15:55:05 +0000

I was recently featured in the Phoenix New Times fashion blog, check it out!

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/jackalope/2010/09/cory_martinez_what_are_you_wea.php#more

How To Transform Any Dress Into One You Love

meatmarketvintage — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 18:52:11 +0000

Hey everyone,

It’s so good to have our shop up and running again, and we feel really lucky to have had such a warm welcome back. Thank you to those who sent sweet little words of concern when things were at a low point this year, much love to you!

I thought I’d start the blog back up with an issue that a lot of girls approach me with. Frequently, I hear girls frustrated that their own thrift store adventures come up dry because they struggle to find cute, wearable items. Sometimes you have to see beyond what’s on the hanger to discover the full potential of a garment! Here is an example of a dress that we took from dilapidated to chic:

I’m not one to say that the dress above isn’t wearable as-is, because I’m all for dressing in questionable attire, but with a little bit of work this dress can become an instant sensation! I decided to go sleeveless and turn the skirt into a mini, and here is what you get:

Mmm, I’m so in love! The best part is that you can easily find dresses like the original one above for under $10 at a second hand store. If you have sewing skills then you are set with the coolest $10 dress out there! But even if you don’t have sewing skills, taking a $10 thrifted item to a seamstress and turning it into a completely unique dress is totally worth the $20-$40 fee a seamstress would charge! So next time you’re out thrifting, try looking beyond the seemingly unworthy item on the hanger, I think you’ll find your wardrobe growing at a low cost in no time!

But, if you’d still rather let someone else have the vision for you, then come see what we have for sale at our store this week!

hearts,

cory