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Mary Randolph Carter – author, photographer, collector, former Creative Director of Ralph Lauren and self-titled 'junker' – shares her favorite flea markets in the US, from a legendary weekend pop-up on the East Coast and an iconic flea on the West Coast, to a vintage-hunter’s dream in a country field. She also shares the ‘Golden Rules’ of vintage hunting once shared with her by a notable dealer. Read on for more, and head to the Cabana Substack for Mary's full guide.
BY MARY RANDOLPH CARTER | CABANA TRAVEL | 30 JANUARY 2025
“Let me state from the beginning that I love junk. I love the hunt for junk. I love those heart-stopping moments when you see something before you on a cluttered table at a flea market or a yard sale and before you can even ask, “how much?” you’re clutching it because you have to have it… I think my real passion for collecting began after college when I moved to New York City and began furnishing my first apartment.
It was a cozy studio on the top floor of a five-storey walk-up (meaning, no elevator) in one of Manhattan’s less venerable row houses on the Upper East Side. And though I had carried with me a few special totems from my family’s home in Virginia—a blue-weathered rocking chair, a patchwork quilt, a peeling portrait of a heroic St Bernard (a reminder of our family pet left behind), and a few vintage volumes from my childhood library (Treasure Island, The Secret Garden, The Girl of the Limberlost, and copies of Nancy Drew mysteries, my favorite girlhood sleuth) —I desperately needed more.
As luck would have it, it wasn’t long before I discovered the 26th Street Flea Market, a pop-up paradise of antiques, vintage finds and the abandoned goods of others set up helter skelter on hundreds of fold-up tables in a parking lot (vacant on the weekends) on Sixth Avenue between 26th and 27th streets. Every Saturday, and sometimes Sunday, I took the Fifth Avenue bus downtown and spent hours on the hunt for those one-of-a-kind finds to help me create my own personal environment.
It was during those early forays that I began to learn some important lessons on how to prep for my junking excursions, like, what to wear? Consider comfortable shoes, layers of clothing, a sensible hat, a pair of gardening gloves for digging into dusty piles, and my secret weapon—a multi-pocketed fisherman’s vest I dubbed the Junker’s Vest to house all the essential tools I might need on the day of the hunt.
To continue reading Mary Randolph Carter's Guide to America's Best Flea Markets, please join our community over on the Cabana Substack.
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