One thing was quickly apparent at the Modern Artisan Marketplace in Lido Marina Village yesterday: This wasn’t your average, neighborhood crafts fair.
Modern Artisan Marketplace is an experiential confirmation there’s stylistic virtue to be found among the confluence of simple, modern clothes and folksy, handcrafted wear. The sartorial genre—bohemian hipster chic?—is the stuff of an Instagrammer‘s most well-liked dreams; succulent-lined window sills, white-walled coffee shops and make-your-own flower bouquets.
A pop-up experience founded in Los Angeles, Modern Artisan Marketplace is a SoCal-based movement to support small and local businesses. The event highlights a carefully curated selection of vendors with like-minded sensibilities about what it takes to create a successful brand.
Yesterday, the event took over the newly refurbished Lido Marina Village on Balboa Peninsula, Newport Beach; this morning it’s in DTLA. Brands showcased at Modern Artisan Marketpace aren’t draped across the hangers of large, retail chains or even splashed across Amazon Prime. They’re Etsy-ish in nature and warm in person, and walking from booth to booth imbues the Modern Artisan Marketplace participant with a sense there’s meaning behind every design. (You can view the complete list of brands included here.)
Yesterday afternoon’s iteration of Modern Artisan Marketplace was held in an elegant alley just off Via Lido, the main road running through Lido Marina Village. Strings of lights delicately hung between small buildings and below a cloudless, blue sky. Black-and-white-striped umbrellas punctuated the street, little cafes and shops thrummed with well-dressed patrons, and outside one hair salon, a spotted Great Dane, patches of fur dyed blue, stood with his owner, keenly watching the show. His outlandish presence seemed to signal an affair of a different kind was underway, one that was as much about the style of its attendees as it was focused on the artisanal goods being sold.
