Fashion Trends at the Rose Bowl Flea Market

What people at the world's best flea market were wearing.

Mar 17, 2023

I spent my Sunday morning at the famous Rose Bowl flea market. Considered the mecca for flea markets and probably the most renowned in the world. The market is situated around a football stadium and takes up several separate carparks, making it quite extensive.

You can find everything from vintage furniture to $7 hotdogs that are gone in two bites. The main reason most people go is for the incredible vintage clothing stalls selling everything from Louis V to obscure band t-shirts.

People watching at the Rose Bowl is world-class. You'll see everything from occasional all-leather Berhgain inspired get-ups to teeny bobbers who are somewhere between Y2K XTina and a rave queen. Then you have the hypebeasts decked out in $10,000+ outfits while others are (subjectively) looking better with all thrifted outfits. Money definitely doesn’t buy style - and if anybody ever disagrees with this, send them to a bar in West Hollywood.

I only thought of this idea on the way home which is why it’s lacking photos but here is a written recap of the trends I noticed:

A lot less Salehe crocs than last time(August 2022).
This I found very interesting. I saw three pairs of Salehe Crocs in total. Perhaps this contradicts my previous newsletter about 2023 being his year but that being said, I think it’s just the crocs that people were giving a rest and not the artist.

The Salehe New Balances.
I saw atleast 20 different pairs of the NB Salehes in a variety of colour ways. These were getting worn in countless ways but a lot of people often choosing to match these with..

Cargo pants.
No fucking around, straight up camo cargo pants. If somebody ran the classic gag of ‘it’s a floating body’ for every time camo cargo pants were spotted, they would have been walking home. I honestly lost count of how many people were wearing these. Perhaps they wanted to go incognito and not be seen, or perhaps they love to abuse colour coordinating and throw that out the window with their DGAF attitude to having an outfit that makes sense. Cargo pants and Jordan 1s as a combo is like Kobe and Shaq for me, although it’s not something I would personally wear or pull off.

Vintage cigarette brands.
These seem to be very in. This is having a moment due to its nostalgia but also it has been given a ticket back to relevancy via Tyrell Winston, whose name obviously ties back to the ciggies. Or is he making a name for himself off the trend of vintage cigarettes?
For those who don’t know, Tyrell Winston is the artist who makes art out of deflated basketballs that is currently a feature on the Aime Leon Dore walls. He has also been featured in a few ALD campaigns as a model. He has also had some collabs with Reebok Classics (Shoutouts to James Chan, the man shoots at a better clip than Steph Curry).

(If I was on the Juul team, I would seriously be considering some merch designed to target the rebellious gen z and millennial who idiotically smoke them)

OG’s in vintage Supreme.
Some of the older statesmen of the Flea, were still flying the flag of the one and only, Supreme. Talking 2014-18 type Supreme. The type of guys who you look at and think ‘you’ve got to be famous’ - and being in LA, a fair chance they are.

Luxury reseller stalls.
I didn’t notice this last time but there were at least a dozen stalls selling only pre-loved luxury goods. All things from bags to jewellery as well. Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Channel and Gucci were the main features but there was a bit of everything. I didn’t ask for any prices but given the fact people were selling Turkish rugs for $3500, I wouldn’t expect to be finding any real discounts here. The biggest problem at this flea is most of the sellers know what’s what and the value of their goods. I did see an all-over print vintage Gucci flight bag that caught my eye. I couldn’t bring myself to find out the price.

Baggy pants and adidas Sambas.
No surprises there that these were absolutely everywhere. Word did spread last week that ASAP Rocky and Rhianna are officially on the Samba train, so you can imagine how much this was the shoe of choice for the flea. With a $100 price tag, I love when these vintage core products come back in trend. It really disrupts the 24/7 collab cycle we are currently living in.

And of course the ultimate fashion accessory,

The handbag dog.
I saw atleast 10 dogs being carried around like a vintage Hermes from both Men and Women. Some dogs, simply couldn’t handle the heat and wanted to be carried and some simply didn’t have an option, it completed the fit.

Low-rise jeans, shark clips, and Y2K-inspired outfits were all in style on the women's side. This makes sense given the market's focus on late 90s and early 00s apparel for sale at the flea.

Unfortunately, I only have these awful photos on my phone from Sunday, so here you go.