A Look Around The Lil Flea

I don’t know about you, but my friends and I get into a rut sometimes. We always end up going to the same three restaurants, shopping at the same stores, watching the same kinds of movies…you get my drift. Which is why, when we heard that there was going to be a flea market in town over the weekend, it did a lot more than just pique our interest.

Intrigued, we wandered in to The Lil Flea only to be greeted by a slew of bright pinwheels spinning merrily in the breeze, old windows painted in pretty colours, a cotton candy tree and stall after stall of magical treasures, just waiting to be found! It was a lot to take in. I mean, how do you choose which to go to first – the indie movie screenings, live music station, shops, cafe or totally cool rickshaw photo booth?

Predictably, we chose the shops and were pleasantly surprised by the stalls’ selection of quirky shoes, tribal bags and stunning statement jewellery. We bumped into the darling Mohnish from The Snazzy Man and fell head over heels in love with Sheena Sitlani‘s collection of OTT vests and mirror-work brogues I just couldn’t get enough of. And fashion wasn’t all it had to offer, there were stalls that sold everything from plants, to polka dotted lunch boxes, vintage photo frames, dream catchers, diy supplies and used books being sold for a song! All the vendors were were warm, friendly and happy to meet and greet new people. They all seemed passionate about their work and never hesitates to offer custom-made options to the customers, in case they ran out of stock.

We mulled about for a while, weighing our options at the stalls and taking in the street style – Bandra locals dressed in the coolest jumpsuits, crop tops, maxi dresses and combat boots I’d seen in a while all descended out of nowhere to grace the event with their fabulousness! After which, we wandered into the pop-up cafe, perched ourselves on the brightly painted crates that serves as seats and took in all it had to offer. Apart from the usual array of sandwiches, pizza and dessert, I was personally thrilled to find a stall selling Parsi cuisine (my favourite!) in addition to exotic, freshly brewed coffee, fruity drinks named after pop stars (Lychee Minaj, Lady Guava and Kiwi Perry!) and a little corner tucked away for us health nuts.

Live acoustic music played over the speakers as we grabbed a quick snack and took on the photo booth. About thirty seven takes later, we decided to call it a day and I walked home in my brand new tribal oxfords. What we loved most about the event, though, was how pro social media it was. Every little corner was selfie-friendly, designers and stall owners all had Facebook stores and ready hash tags and nobody even once declined if you wanted to take pictures of their work for Instagram.

It was such a fun, refreshing way to spend the weekend, we can’t wait for the next one! A big congratulations to the organizers who put so much thought into every little detail. Believe me, it showed.