The USC Fashion Industry Association hosted yet another fashion fair at McCarthy Quad today, platforming local and student vendors to sell affordable secondhand clothes, jewelry and apparel.
USC FIA began hosting their fashion fairs in the fall semester of 2022. Originally, the organization invited five to six vendors to the USC Village via the organization’s outreach team found at local flea markets in the area. Since then, the fair has risen in popularity largely due to the friendships amongst the vendors, according to FIA Co-President Simone Brown, a senior majoring in communications.
“They’re all a very tight knit group,” said Brown. “They’re friends with each other. So when they started coming here and having a good experience here, they started telling their friends to apply and now we get up to about 80 applications every time.”
Brown explained that choosing vendors for the FIA fashion fairs is a mix between returning vendors and new vendors. Typically, if the association receives great feedback on style or prices about specific vendors, they invite them back to return.
One of the vendors, run by Garbiela Arias and her mother, started their business 20 years ago and sells Latin inspired and vintage pieces dating back to the 1960s.
“Vintage right now is such a thing,” Arias said. “A lot of students have appreciated what we have.”
The FIA also invites new vendors to the fairs to provide a more diverse selection of styles and products. The qualifications for every vendor is based on affordability, accessibility and diversity in their clothing.
“We want to make sure that when [students are] shopping here, they have accessibility to clothes they actually can purchase, but we also want to make sure that there’s diversity of choices,” Brown said. “In the past, we’ve had people selling jewelry, rings, waist beads, other things that they hand make hand sewn purses and bags and hats. So there’s a wide variety as well of firsthand creations and secondhand shopping.”
Kaitlyn Hajj, a sophomore at USC, explained why she enjoys the fashion fair.
“I just love the style of the vintage clothes here,” she said. “I shop mainly secondhand — it’s all of my wardrobe basically, like 90% is thrifted or from like a flea. So I just love the styles here.”
The impact of thrifting on the environment is also a driving factor of her shopping habits.
“I think that fast fashion puts workers under terrible conditions. It’s awful. Like, because of the manufacturer’s carbon emissions,” said Hajj. “On top of that, I just feel like the quality of clothes and the style, but like, isn’t even that good.”
However, USC FIA has not been able to receive a specific recurring date that they are able to host their fashion fairs. It is a struggle in communicating with students who ask when the next fair will be, as well as scheduling vendors to arrive on campus at a certain time..
Usually vendors camp out at a spot while waiting for the event to start at flea markets such as the Rose Bowl Flea Market and the Los Feliz Flea Market. At USC, they’re required to wait till 10:45 a.m. before they can head to a spot and quickly set up for 11 a.m.
Students or vendors interested in selling at their next fashion fair can sign up through the link in the group’s Instagram account.
