If there’s one thing 5C students love, it’s spending a Saturday afternoon strolling around Walker Beach with their friends, browsing through piles of vintage clothing, handmade jewelry and irresistible baked goods. On Saturday, Sept. 20, this year’s first flea market offered 5C students a welcome study break during the onset of midterm season.
Speakers played upbeat music as hundreds of students wandered around over 60 vendors’ tables set up across the grass, stopping to browse when something particular caught their eye. Vendors, both students and local business owners, sold everything from thrifted bags and vintage clothes to organic juice and henna tattoos.
While a flea market is held every month at Walker Beach with solely student vendors, this event stood out in size and scope due to its collaboration with the organisation Mom Said Have Fun (MSHF). MSHF is a creative business that helps build community through promoting vintage resale. They organize flea markets, estate sales and pop-ups that encourage creativity in communities and colleges nationwide. Most recently they hosted events at Cornell University and the University of Southern California.
Roughly two years ago, organizers Sebastian Alvarez, Gary Phan, Danny Lokko and Danh Tran started Mom Said Have Fun while at college together. The founders envisioned their business as a way of building something lasting. They began with pop-ups at Cornell, where Alvarez, Phan, and Lokko attended, and kept going from there.
“The name [Mom Said Have Fun] is a playful reminder that life is short, and even when you are building something serious, you should never forget to enjoy yourself. Our moms are amazing role models; they teach us to work hard, be kind, and have fun along the way,” Alvarez said. “Our mission is to create spaces where people can feel good, connect with friends and celebrate creativity.”
Attendee Dylan Zulueta PO ’27 raised the idea that flea markets could offer students a new perspective on consumerism. She appreciated some of the stalls’ efforts to donate funds to community organizations and those in need, such as the mutual aid matcha stand. Zulueta also noted that supporting your friends’ small businesses feels like a more rewarding form of shopping.
“I think it’s a really fun way to do consumerism in a more personal way. You get to shop [for] clothes and jewelry, but it’s even more fun than normal because you could be supporting your classmates or friends,” Zulueta said.
Student and local vendors showcased creativity and skill in a variety of handmade crafts at their stalls. For example, Mayerly Gomez, a Spanish Language Resident at Claremont McKenna College, and Yeylin Mendoza Esquivel PO ’27 sold colorful crocheted animals, including bees, cats and octopi.
Other stalls showcased vendors’ culinary talents. Stephanie Li PZ ’28 combined her passion of baking with her love of Matcha at her stall “Macarons and Matcha.” Li described how she was inspired to sell macarons by a bakery in her hometown. In designing her stall, she added pink and white accents as an homage to the aesthetics of her hometown bakery.
“Ever since I was a kid, I loved looking at the beautiful displays [of macarons] in this [bakery],” Li said. “One thing I didn’t like about [the macarons] was that they were too small, too sweet and too hard. When I finally learned to bake, I decided to make macarons that were bigger and less sweet.”
For student artists and entrepreneurs, Walker Beach flea markets offer students a valuable opportunity to showcase their small businesses. Noa Baghdassarian PZ ’28 was one of dozens of jewelry sellers at the market. She shared that these events help her expand the small business she started last December, Jewels by Aurevine.
Baghdassarian’s display table drew crowds of enthusiastic customers, eager to browse through her intricate, colorful necklaces, adjustable flower rings and beaded bracelets. While she originally began making jewelry at the age of 10, Baghdassarian recently rediscovered the hobby after getting a jewelry-making kit for her 19th birthday.
“I try to make something for everyone. Personally, I like gold jewelry, and I’m kind of a dainty feminine jewelry kind of girl, [especially] flowers,” Baghdassarian said.
While flea markets at the 5Cs do not typically feature local vendors, part of what makes MSHF so special is that it brought in small businesses from the Claremont community. One of these local vendors, Kamal Virdi, has been doing mobile brows and lashes for several years, and recently expanded to henna tattoos.
“I feel like stencils offer a different variety,” Virdi said. “You can get something fun and have it be gone in a week and you don’t have to commit to it.”
From Baghdassarian’s jewelry to Virdi’s fresh take on stenciled henna tattoos, many students were refreshingly surprised by the range of vendors. Attendee Leo Yu CM ’26 was excited to find a variety of things that caught his eye.
”It’s really impressive. There are a lot of resellers and merchants from the community that are really nice quality.” Yu said.
Of all the 60-something vendors laid out across the lawn, Mulan Pan PO ’27’s pet paintings stood out for their unique artistic style. Pan began painting pets over the summer and decided to continue with her new hobby. She shared that the flea market was a chance for her to engage with the larger artistic scene at the 5Cs.
”Over the summer, I was doing a lot of pet drawings for friends, of my own cat and dog, and there was a local farmer’s market. I realized that I really liked being able to draw people’s pets, get tons of cute animal photos, and capture a bit of their life,” Pan said.
Amidst digging through piles of clothing, perusing hand-printed posters and receiving a tarot card reading, students took part in a larger effort to build community amongst 5C students. The flea market highlights the amalgamation of passions and skills present in the Claremont community, where students can unwind, foster friendships and embrace the local art scene.
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