Shopping
Chapel Hill Vintage Market offers unique game-day shopping experience
This week’s market featured vendors like SabyThreads, a store selling pieces from the 1980s-2000s, and 704 Thrift, featuring Y2K and vintage items alongside shirts with cartoon graphic designs.
Jane Tomlin, a seller at Nifty Thrifty, said that she has been selling vintage clothing for about four years, since she started her business during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tomlin said that the market started to get crowded over an hour before its official opening and continued to be busy for the majority of the day. She said that her store has a little bit of everything.
“If it’s cool, I pick it up,” she said. “I don’t really try to get into a niche, because if I don’t like it, someone else might.”
The variety at the market appealed to students like Joslyn Bakion, who said she visited Chapel Hill Vintage Market in March and bought a red purse that got many compliments.
“I love it,” she said. “Everyone showing each other their cool finds, and the prices aren’t horrible. And it’s nice to get stuff you can only get in one place.”
Frazier said that Chapel Hill Vintage Market is a great option for buying UNC gear before game day, especially uncommon pieces that nobody else is going to have.
“I love Shrunken Head, but everybody has the same Shrunken Head T-Shirt, everybody has the argyle game day bibs, me included,” she said. “Be a little different, be a little special. Get something fun. Get something funky.”
She also said that part of the market’s appeal caters specifically to the next wave of UNC students, who seem increasingly interested in sustainable fashion and shopping second-hand.
Frazier said that the current student body is creative and self-expressive, and that the Chapel Hill Vintage Market is a celebration of these characteristics that can continue the upward trajectory of creativity among students.
140 W. Franklin St. will host the next Chapel Hill Vintage Market on Sept. 13 from 3-8 p.m.
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