Fat Girl Flea Market September 29

For New York Area bargain-hunting plussies, the Fat Girl Flea Market on September 29 is a MUST go event. Fellow plus fashionistas from around the country donate their gently used and barely used goodies for a vintage bonanza that is the rarest of the rare for large women on the east coast.



Organizer Deb Malkin was gracious enough to grant an interview about this treat:



Please give me some background on the fat flea market. How long has it been going on? What started it?



The Fat Girl Flea Market started in NYC in 2002. I was having dinner with a bunch of friends and wearing a cute fuzzy brown sweater that I had bought at Housing Works Thrift Store. I wear like anywhere from a size 18-24. That launched a whole conversation about the lack of good thrift store + vintage shopping for anything over a 12/14 in New York City.



At the same time we were a group of queer fat activists involved with the Nolose Conference, a yearly weekend conference for our community. The previous one had been in October of 2001 right after the September 11th terrorist attack. The woman who was Nolose’s President at the time became unable financially or energetically to support the conference in the way she had before and we were trying to come up with fund raising ideas.



We decided that if we couldn’t get the thrift + vintage stores to carry what we wanted we’d do it ourselves. And not only that we’d do it under the non-profit banner of Nolose and be able to offer tax receipts and raise some money. Over the years the flea market has expanded beyond the gay community to everyone bringing “body positivity” and great fashion at bargain basement prices.
Tell me about NOLOSE. What are they trying to accomplish. How do the flea market funds help? Nolose started out as The National Organization of Lesbians of Size, a national social and activist group that mostly focused it’s energies on a yearly conference where fat lesbians could meet each other, find support, build community and network as Size Activists. We’ve had activists and artists from all over the world speak and present at the Nolose Conference like Marilyn Wann, Hanne Blank, Charlotte Cooper, the late Heather MacAllister and more.

Nolose now has expanded it’s mission to embrace fat trans-people, allies and people of a variety of gender expressions. This year they’re focusing on helping produce local events all across the country (or the world?) in February. Check it all out on www.nolose.org.



Over the past 4 flea markets we’ve raised over $10,000 for the conference, most of which helps subsidize the attendance fee for people wanting to attend the weekend. It also provides it’s own energy for fat activism and community building.



Where should people send donations to the flea market? Also, what caveats – i.e. no undies, *gently* used, and so on?



We want the clothing that you would buy at a store. So this means NOT the pants that are too worn or the shirt with the stain on the boob. It could mean the jeans that are in great shape but are too tight or too loose on you. It could mean the green sweater your mom got you for your birthday but you never wear. It could mean the dress that you bought for your friend’s bridal shower a year ago and you haven’t worn it since but you don’t want to give it to the Salvation Army.
Basically we take all clothing, all styles, sizes XL and up as long as there are no holes, no stains and no excessive smoke smells. We firmly believe in people having clothing in their closets that fits. Nothing is more depressing than having a whole bunch of stuff you never wear. Let it go and move on.



What happens to the clothing that doesn’t sell?



The clothing that doesn’t sell in the past has been donated to a variety of places, the local women’s shelter as well as Goodwill. There’s always stuff leftover no matter how much people buy. And buy they do. I think last year one woman had bought 45 bags worth of clothing.



What are the prize finds/donations of years past?



I think one year we had a gorgeous wedding gown. My favorite was this incredible vintage leopard print jacket, the girl who snatched that up was super quick. One year we had a bonanza of new sexy bathing suits and bikinis donated from Janelle at Love Your Peaches. That was very fun. Leather jackets are always a crowd pleaser. I love to collect crinoline skirts in lots of different colors.



Is there any chance flea market “leftovers” might be made available online?
Sadly no, we barely have enough volunteers to help us pull off this amazing feat.

We have a core group of dedicated fleamarkeeters who do everything from pick up clothing all over the tri-state area, to organize the day of volunteers as well as do the marketing and outreach. The weekend of the event is a ginormous undertaking and is very fast paced.



Honestly after the flea market is over we all take a deep breath and want to do nothing more with those clothes for the time being. Of course we all live in small New York City apartments, there’s no room for all the leftovers. We can barely find enough room for all the goodies that we’ve bought ourselves.

How many attendees have you had from year to year?

What are some shopping tips you would pass along to new flea market visitors?

Is there a space available to try on clothing? Is there anyone available with a tape measure to help people determine their sizing?

Has there been any discussion of having plus flea markets elsewhere in the country? There have been frock swaps and other plus size clothing swaps all over the country. Some of them benefit Nolose and some of them aren’t fundraisers at all, they’re just clothing exchanges. There’s a lot of different ways to do an event like this. It’s a great community builder as well as good for the environment as it encourages recycling.



Have you received any response or support from local plus stores – LeLe’s Valise, major brand carriers like Lane Bryant and Avenue, etc.?



We’ve always had great support from smaller plus size vendors. They send us boxes of goodies, all new with tags. We try to get a good selection of clothing sizes 4x and above as that especially hard to find. In the past we’ve gotten great clothing from alight.com (disclosure – I work for alight), Sanctuarie, Love Your Peaches, Junonia, B + Lu, and more. I think this year we’re also expecting clothing from Missphit, Sydney’s Closet, Fashion to Figure, and we’re still following up with vendors. Who knows, maybe we’ll even get Torrid or Lane Bryant this year. It’s hard as they tend to sell their overstock to jobbers and it’s totally different ballgame with the big guys.



Last year we also had a mini-Svoboda boutique inside the flea market. It was separate because the prices couldn’t be as low as the donated items. But it was a way for people to shop for this expensive designer brand at a big discount, less than 50% off. It was thrilling and fun to see the excitement for this talented designer. I think she made some converts that day.



A few years ago we had rented booth space to our friend Bertha Pearl who makes amazing clothing under the label Size Queen Clothing. She also made many shoppers happy that year with handmade one-of-a-kind dresses and skirts as well as her staple of boxer shorts and robes. She just relocated from NYC to PDX and will be opening her own studio/store very shortly.



Freestyle: What do you want people to know about the flea market?

1. It’s ridiculously fun.

2. We’ve got more clothing of all kinds in one room than you can imagine.

3. Come shop + make friends. That doesn’t suck.

4. It’s super cheap. Like most things are under $5. Everything is under $10.

5. We’re taking donations until Sept 22nd.

6. The venue is wheelchair accessible.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 20th, 2007 at 8:00 am and is filed under Fashion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.