The Best Flea Markets Around the Globe

Lynn Yaeger spends most of her weekends scouring the stalls of the Chelsea flea market. If you don?t find her there, then chances are she?s out of town, shopping for antique treasures some place else. Which is why, bright and early on a Sunday morning in Paris, the Vogue contributing editor gathered friends for breakfast at a cafe that?s stumbling distance from the Portes de Vanves flea market.

Lynn Yaeger spends most of her weekends scouring the stalls of the Chelsea flea market. If you don?t find her there, then chances are she?s out of town, shopping for antique treasures some place else. Which is why, bright and early on a Sunday morning in Paris, the Vogue contributing editor gathered friends for breakfast at a cafe that?s stumbling distance from the Portes de Vanves flea market.

 

Photographed by Elizabeth Lippman

 

The invitation read 8:30 a.m. sharp and most of the guests arrived by 8:45 a.m., including Marco Zanini from Rochas, jewelry designer Eddie Borgo, and Vogue editors Phyllis Posnick, Mark Holgate, and Hamish Bowles, who darted out the door before 9 a.m. to get a head start on the hunt. The excitement is high, but Carven?s Guillaume Henry might be the only person in the room who isn?t in a hurry. ?The first bag I designed for Carven was inspired by a piece I found at the flea,? he said. ?Since I live here, I?ll let the others go and fight over the best things first.? When Florence Welch arrives, there is barely enough time left to grab a cafe au lait and a freshly baked croissant. 

 

As it happens, the British songstress (a.k.a.  Florence and the Machine) is the first to sniff out a must-have French book that dates back to the 1920s with a red and gold motif that literally has her name all over it. ?The title means Florence and the Tuscan,? she says, running her finger along the spine. An old-fashioned romance perhaps? She buys the book and then, quite quickly, falls in love with a sparkly floral dress on the next stall over. It doesn?t take long for designer Erdem Moralioglu to find what he is looking for either: an out-of-print Picasso book he?s been trying to track down forever. 

 

Yaeger, on the other hand, rarely buys on impulse. When we find her, she is perusing a table of superior, turn of the century broken dolls. At 160 euros, however, she deems them a little overpriced. ?To get a good deal, you have to act like you?re not interested,? she advises. Taking a couple of steps towards a new vendor, she throws a last nonchalant look over her shoulder. ?Monsieur, let me take another turn around the market to think on it.? It?s best, as always, to learn from the experts.

 

This feature originally appeared on Vogue.com. Read it here >>