(upbeat music) So I don't know about you, but I really like gazing at Olde Stuff, and as I happen to be presently in process of finally setting up a
real, proper workspace, I have found myself in the rare position of actually being able to
possibly purchase some Olde Stuff. So what better opportunity
to take you along on a little jaunt through some of New York City's weekend
antique flea markets? I've got four stops on
my list for this weekend, each open on either or
both Saturday or Sunday, so I've strategically plotted things out so that I can get to
all four in one weekend. This video is once again kindly
sponsored by Squarespace, but more on that in a bit. For now, I am headed off to my first stop, the Chelsea Flea Market. This one's on 25th Street
between Broadway and 6th in what is, during the rest
of the week, a parking lot. I've actually been to this one
before and really enjoyed it, so starting off with high hopes, I think. (upbeat music) Good morning, who thought
it would be a good idea to go antique fare hunting
in the middle of August in New York. I have just been to the bank
machine to fetch some cash. Cash is a very good idea to
bring to these sorts of things, not only because some of these
places don't accept card, but also it gives you
a very strict budget. So you can decide in advance exactly how much you want to spend, and then you've run out of money obviously you've run out of money. I am a simple human, I do not like things, I do not like clutter, I do not have space for things or clutter so I don't really intend
to buy a whole lot here. I am primarily interested in two things. One, in sewing supplies
that I can actually use, and I'm also interested
in potential things that could assist in my
sewing room endeavor, a video of which is to come. PSA that they did require a $1 admission, so that's something to
note if you are coming. But now we are here. (upbeat music) This was the only market that I went to that charged an admission. Once again, only a dollar, but
something to be prepared for if you plan on coming. This wasn't the biggest
that I visited this weekend, but I'd say it was probably
the most antique-heavy. Some of the other markets, as we'll see, also include food stalls,
and crafty stalls, and modern things, but this
one tended to focus mostly on antiques, which I
personally really appreciated. (upbeat music) Friends, bought stuff. Didn't think I was going to buy stuff. I bought stuff, including,
this is a most momentous day, an actually, real, antique,
19th century, proper iron. I know you'll be so proud of me. But anyway, so I have finished up at the Chelsea Flea Market. I am now heading to go stop for some lunch before I head up to the Upper East Side where I shall explore the
East 67th Street Market. (upbeat music) Getting to the Upper East Side involved getting to take the shiny,
new Second Avenue line, which I was probably
way more excited about than the situation actually called for. I also may or may not have spent an inordinate amount of
time wandering through the 72nd Street Station to
behold these incredible mosaics. But what brilliant dress
and cultural research these are going to make in a
couple decades' time, right? Anyway, the East 67th Street Market claims to be the longest running
of the local flea markets, but contrary to this morning's escapades, this market turned out to be
the least antique-focused. I think there were maybe two or three antique specialists here, but mostly it was modern,
new and thrifty stuff, craft things, and most
prominently, a farmer's market with actually the most glorious
array of local produce. Definitely not something to disregard on a hot August afternoon. (upbeat music) So I am now heading out of
the East 67th Street Market, I bought a very glorious,
nice, large tomato that Cesario will very
much enjoy when I get home. So that is all that I have
on my to-do list for today. I've got two more
Sunday-specific flea markets that are open tomorrow
that I will go and visit, and so I shall see you then. (light music) Good morning, it is Sunday, we are at the Crossroads of Hell as every New Yorker will know. So I am off to go see what
sorts of antique fair options are available for Sunday. I've got two fairs on my list for today. Fairs? Markets? One is the Brooklyn Flea Market, which I am headed to right now. (upbeat music) We are here at the Brooklyn
Flea Market in DUMBO, Down Under the Manhattan Bridge
Overpass, hence the noise. This is supposedly,
according to the internet, the most popular New York antique fair, so let us be the judge of that. (upbeat music) This probably ended up to be my favorite market of the weekend, primarily just because it was such a quintessential New York experience. I mean it's literally right
under the Manhattan Bridge and, at least in the under cover bits, you get to look up at the
beautiful vaulted ceiling, so just the market
itself was an experience. This market was probably
the best mix of everything, plenty of flea market crafty things, food stalls, and also
a really nice selection of antique things, which of
course I was happy about. On the day that I went, I found a lot of the antique things to be mostly mid to later 20th century, but there were also some
really nice early 20th century and later 19th century things to be found. Yes, this is America, we don't really do the earlier stuff very abundantly, so stay tuned for my English
Antique Market exploration which shall involve mostly
incredulous screaming at getting to be in the causal presence of something from the 17th century. Anyway. (upbeat music) So I have just finished up
at the Brooklyn Flea Market, I cannot wait to show you what I bought, I'm so irrationally excited about it. I'm gonna tell you and
you're gonna be like, "Why are you so excited about this?" But I'll tell you in the
haul when I get home. For now, it is off to the Upper West Side where we shall explore the Grand Bazaar, which claims to be the
biggest antique flea market in New York City. (upbeat music) And so it was off to said Upper West Side where I took strategic advantage of the proximity to Central Park for a gloriously scenic picnic lunch, then headed over to our final stop, the Grand Bazaar at 77th and Columbus. The internet claims that this is the biggest antique
flea market in the city, and it was certainly very big. There was this whole outer bit as well as an indoor area as well, but part of me weirdly feels like the Brooklyn Flea was bigger? Or at least very similar in size. But this one was nice too, again, a nice mix of antique things,
as well as crafty things, modern small business
products, and food stalls. I would suggest that if you are likewise a heat-intolerant vampire like me, you do not plan to come to this one in the middle of the afternoon in August as it is very much a lot of sun. So, I had a nice look around here but didn't actually buy
anything this time 'round. (upbeat music) Hello, the literal worst filming setup I have ever probably achieved so far, and the worst audio because guess what, I'm in process of
setting up my sewing room which means this entire room is empty. Pardon the echos, I hope anon there shall be a proper workspace. Anyway, I'm going to tell
you, I'm going to show you what I purchased, what I have discovered at these antique fairs. It's not very much because if you know me then you know that I do not like things, I only like useful things, and I have come across a small collection of things that I have indeed found useful, or that I perceive to be useful. I found this at the Chelsea Flea Market. This is the glorious iron that I found that I am super, super excited about. It's approximately late 19th century to turn of the of the 20th century. I have yet to figure out
how to set up some sort of apartment-safe hot plate situation to actually get it to work. This will be an endeavor to
be explored at a later time. This was a most wise thing to purchase at the beginning of the day, so this was fun to carry
around for the rest of the day. But you know what, it was worth it. I wanna say it's like
eight or nine pounds, it's really heavy, so this will be an excellent experimental
thing to be working with and I'm very excited to give that a try. She sold it to me for $10 because I also, whilst I was there, bought
this little thimble. This, I think, was like something stupid like $5 or something. I wanna say it's 19th
century, I don't really know, I have yet to purchase the epic, new-release book on thimbles. I was really intrigued by this thimble, not only is it beautiful, but it's my, well, vaguely my size. I will probably do a whole
separate video on thimbles, and the art of thimbles,
and how to find a thimble that actually works because
a lot of people just think, oh, I'll buy a thimble,
and they buy thimble, and it's like, well, it
doesn't work very well because it doesn't stay on your finger. Well that's because
thimbles are actually sized and you have to find a
thimble that's in your size. I can't often find these
solid, hard thimbles that fit. This one's a little bit dented, but because of this indentation it sort of wants to fit. The way that you test to
see if your thimble fits is you have to put it on your finger, turn it upside-down, and
if it doesn't fall off, then it fits, and it's great, and you can actually sew with it properly without having to constantly fumble with your thimble that's
falling all over the place. So, maybe I will give this some use, maybe I will use it as
decoration, we shall see. I have wanted to get
into using hard thimbles just because this is the
more historically accurate tool to be using, as opposed
to the leather thimbles that I do so very much love, but not quite so historically accurate. So that I also bought at
the Chelsea Flea Market, I did not purchase anything at
the East 67th Street Market. I did, however, on Sunday
purchase some things at the Brooklyn Flea Market, which this is probably
my most excited purchase. I didn't mean to be a tease there, but like I didn't wanna pull them out in the middle of the street. There was a little shop selling old maps, and old subway cards, and old city maps, and old books, and old photographs. I found these three, they are
New York City street guides. This one is from 1881,
this one is from the 1890s, and this one is from 1901. This one's just a Street Number Guide, so it just lists street numbers, and street names, and street addresses, and businesses and stuff, so that's really cool. This one, the 1890s one, it lists banks, it lists churches, it lists theatres. It's even got seating layouts
for some of the theatres, some of which are actually still here, and still running shows today, and are theatres that
I have done shows in, which is super cool. This has also got
advertisements for businesses, and it's got addresses. And these kinds of
things are really amazing contextual, cultural, social history. Just to get a sense of what life was like in the area surrounding
where you're studying. We study the clothes,
so these are the people who were wearing the clothes,
this is what they were doing, these are the places that they went. And especially because
I live in New York City so this is such a perfect, brilliant, personal, local history for me. I can now walk down the streets, mostly downtown because downtown was more of a thing in the 19th century, so now I can walk by buildings and go, oh, this used to be the location of that shirt manufacturer in 1881. I'm just really personally such trash for that kind of thing. This one from the 1881 is a
guide to the City of New York, so it's got a lot more text, it's got engravings of buildings. A lot of these buildings
sadly have been knocked down because skyscrapers, I guess. It's a directory, so it's
got the names of railroads, it's got a whole directory
for the elevated line, which was a thing in the 19th century, it's no longer a thing because all our trains are underground now. So cool to see all this
history right here in my hands, and outside my window. I don't know, I just got
really excited about these. They were not cheap, but so worth it. I'm going to be reading
these cover to cover because there's I bet so
much information in these. Did I say there were advertisements, 'cause there are advertisements, which is even more cool
because you get to see, well they've got addresses,
you get to see what brands, what businesses were at what locations that I can actually go to,
and a lot of these places are shirt manufacturers,
shirtwaist, corset manufacturers, clothing, socks, hosiery, so it's very relevant
to my field of study. I can actually go to these places and I can just see
history, it's really cool. I'm just fangirling now, but
you know what, I am excited. I don't wanna say like this
fair had really excellent stuff, and this fair had a poor selection, and this fair had more clothing
versus more trinkety stuff, I don't wanna say that because
the nature of antique fairs is that there's no
regular stock of anything, everything is just what people can find, and bring, and present. So of course you know
this is a regular thing, if you go once, and you go back they won't have the same stuff. So, once again, this
video is brought to you by Squarespace, the online web
development platform which, if you watched last week's video, you will know I have been using to build my very own website empire. I was actually really looking forward to finally putting to
use that one HTML class I had to take in my
first year at university, but apparently you need to know absolutely zero coding skills to make a really awesome website
which, on second thought, is not at all a disappointment
because let me tell you, it has been so easy. Anyway, if you wish to join
me in web design explorations, then head to Squarespace.com
for a free trial, and when you're ready
to launch your website head to Squarespace.com/BernadetteBanner for a 10% off your first purchase. And with that minor
distraction from the dress that I am supposed to be making right now I shall see you next week with the dress that I will hopefully be finished with. (upbeat music)
