There are a huge number of Bolivian immigrants in Argentina. Yesterday my host mom, Mia, and I drove about 20 minutes away to a feria in a primarily Bolivian community. A feria is an outdoor market. It seemed to stretch on forever. You could buy anything. This included a haircut. I was most excited that there were used clothes. Good Will is right up there peanut butter on my list of things I miss. Basically, this community receives huge donations of clothes both from US organizations and Argentine organizations. They then sell the clothes to make money. It was SO great.
Thrifting doesn't exist here. In general, people are slightly skirmish about wearing old clothes. I could not be more opposite. When my host mom was telling her cousins about all the stuff we found, she mentioned that she wouldn't have discovered most of her finds had she not seen me digging through the piles. Prior to this observation, she had just been glancing at the stuff on top. My favorite find was a floral dress. I'm on the fence about if it is vintage or not. It's tag appears vintage, however it was made by an Argentine company (so I'm not sure about the history). Casting further doubt, some of the stitching appears to be very new. I'll do some research about it.
I did not take any photos, because it would have felt wrong. This was so far from a tourist attraction. Pulling out a camera would have removed me from the situation.
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