Two weekends ago was the third Saturday of the month, so it was Harajuku Day!
Venue
As usual, the event was held in the Little Tokyo Galleria, a three story indoor mall in Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo. The mall has a Mitsuwa and a Daiso, as well as variety of small boutiques and restaurants. I always stop by Play Kpop Café for boba too! The mall is airconditioned, which is welcome during the summer. While the mall generously allows HDLA to use on of their unoccupied shops, that area does not have AC. Thankfully, the organizers realized that it wouldn’t be pleasant for sellers to be inside this space for this event and everyone remained in the main atrium on the second floor.
Selling
This time, instead of just attending, I purchased a swap meet spot. The spot is $10 and allows the seller to have a 3 x 3 space to sell secondhand j-fashion items. Sellers are also allowed to have a clothing rack to display their items. This purchase also comes with free parking to the attached parking garage.
This was my first time selling in person, and I think I went a little overboard with prep. In addition to my normal cleaning before selling, I also printed out price tags and branding for my rack so people would find and remember me. I’m not sure whether/if this helped with sales, but it made me feel better to do it.
My items included Japanese brand lolita fashion items, mostly classic lolita. I priced things to sell, usually around the price I paid or a little under. Ultimately, I ended up selling more than half of the items I brought for sale, so I would definitely consider selling at the swap meet again!
Fashion
This month’s theme is “decora”, the colorful street fashion that is known for it’s over the top accessories. Decora isn’t a fashion that I wear, but it was amazing to see how everyone dressed up for the theme!
Since decora isn’t a fashion I’m familiar with, I’ll admit that I mostly associate it with looks similar to those from cybr,girl, featuring hyper saturated rainbows and over the top accessories. I was amazed to see looks that incorporated black and white, unusual motifs and themes (like bugs!), and people who incorporated decora elements into other styles like cult party kei and lolita.
Vendors
Since I was selling my clothes, I didn’t spend much time shopping. Toward the end of the event I did a quick lap around and spotted Lea Liu (leatanuko.wardrobes on IG) selling adorable prints, stickers, and more. Their lolita fashion “paper doll” style stickers were incredible and I went home with two of them. I also fell in love with their amazing dog print. I LOVE kawaii dogs, but they don’t get nearly as much love as cats or bunnies. More dog prints please!