MANILA, Philippines - Scene: With “The Neighborhood: A Pop-Up Flea Market,†the Manila Pop-Up boys turned the Rockwell Tent into a market of hip — or a study in marketing hipness. Despite typhoon warnings, cool-hunting kids surged forth for an assemblage of small businesses selling goods that wouldn’t be amiss in Girls-era Brooklyn.
The presence of stalls hawking local craft beer, third-wave coffee, and heritage menswear were proof we’ve become more background-conscious than brand-conscious these days. Artists did tattoos, graffiti, and drawings on the spot while shop girls and boys took their small-batch booze or streetwear a little more seriously.
Despite the rain’s arrival at night, a young upper middle-class crowd continued to trickle in, persevering at the food trucks outside, and staying on to watch a spate of indie music acts. After all, where there’s a Williamsburg, there’s a way.
Sights: The cultural cross-pollination was evident. Sarah Gaugler would leave her tattoo stall to perform with her band Turbo Goth, while Ed Lim was the main man behind the Bronuts and Lost + Found stalls, the latter being Neighborhood’s most decked-out vendor, boasting badass motorbikes to complement its selection of Japanese selvedge jeans and English heritage shoes. Lost + Found had also gotten Yardstick Coffee’s Kevin Tang to serve artisanal coffee.
At the stall of craft beverage authority, The Curator, were Manila Pop-Up’s Mike Concepcion and Erwan Heussaff, Belle Daza, and Stephen Ku, who showed Spidey-like reflexes when he caught a bottle of tequila from crashing to the floor. Sarah Meier, who’d organized a similar event last year, was present to give support, as did Anne Curtis, who sat outside by the food stalls — a midpoint between her boyfriend Erwan’s event and his new Power Plant restaurant, Hatch-22.
A nifty discovery was Team Manila’s futuristic DIY silkscreen machine, which allowed up to six people to crank out their own t-shirts. Also, the free mojitos at clothing stall Pormada made for a good incentive to shop.
Sounds: DJs played ’90s R&B through the afternoon while The Provibers, Synima, Nouval, Yolanda Moon, Your Imaginary Friends, and Turbo Goth took the stage in the evening.
Heard from the Herd:
“We didn’t go to fashion school or anything like that but we’re about putting out what we believe is good for fashion.†— UNSCHLD’s Julo de Guzman
“It’s passion. Everything in the store, we’ve been using for the past three-to-five years.†– Lost + Found’s Ed Lim
“I feel like the music [in Manila] is good right now, the art is good, the food — we’re getting so much inspiration from outside and really creating it, where it becomes Filipino in itself.†– Manila Pop-Up’s Dee Jae Paeste
“There’s nothing ‘flea’ about this ‘flea market,’ is there?†– Anonymous partygoer