I went to the Salon du Vintage recently with my friend Quinn. I had marked it in my calendar for months. I love vintage things and was hoping to see the mother-load of vintage things.

Salon du vintage, Paris 2011

The cost of entry was 3 euros. I found that surprising for a Parisian event, where most things are much more costly. But I believe this is the first year they have held a vintage salon. I am assuming that next year the price will be at least 10€ for entry. It reminds me of the first year I went to the chocolate salon, it cost me 2€. Now it’s 25€. Ridiculous.

Anyway we stood in line for a while to gain access. There was a lot of people. But we noticed that those people who were leaving did not have shopping bags or purchases, at least none that we could see. So for some reason people were not buying or spending money. I wondered why. Well we found out when we finally got in. The entry fee may have been low, but there were few items that were priced reasonably. Everything was so expensive!

vintage lacey things

There were two sections of the salon, a vintage section selling items from the 20th century; and a créateurs section selling contemporary items made by current designers, most of them young and/or unknown.

vintage shoes, of course!

There may have been some interesting things to see in both sections, but because of the amount of people that were there and the price tags on most items, we were reluctant to explore the booths. And I think most of the other visitors felt the same. There was a desperate vibe coming from the vendors, who were probably disappointed by their sales over the past 3 days and were mentally comparing it to the price they probably paid for the space they were occupying. I can imagine it was steep. The salon du vintage was raking in money on both sides, from the vendors who pay to have space, and from the visitors who pay to have access to the vendors. Yet neither the vendors or the visitors seemed to get what they wanted from the salon.

We left after making one long slow lap around the entire salon, where we had to fight for every inch of space in order to just at least catch a glimpse or two of the wares for sale at any particular vendor. It was hot, ncomfortable and I propably will not return next year.
They should really consider holding it over more than just a weekend, so that the people don’t have to packed in there like herds of cattle. But then those who run the salon don’t care about the comfort of the visitors (or the vendors) it would seem. We are all just good conforming consumers to them and money in their pockets.

Quinn and I decided that it was to better to make things rather then buy them.

There was only one booth where I felt welcome. The créatrice of Raven Blakk who was happy to allow me to take photos and wrote down the name of my blog so she could see the free publicity that I would put up about her brand. I liked her gentillesse and her creative clothings which was a line of “réccup” style clothes. She takes vintage clothing and distorts it to make it sexier, even a little trashier, more rock n’ roll… She has style and creativity, and most of all was nice.

Raven Blakk