me and stefania, a couple of weeks ago at the 50c stall
My most favourite ever market stall in Telese Terme – one of the few fabulous, full and varied markets left in the area where we used to live – has stopped. E basta. What an IMMENSE disappointment, but this does affirm my obsessive purchasing each week of at least one (sometimes two) great sacks of clothing from it! And building up this great collection of old garments to use as my palette for making magical new things.
I have taken practically no photos of the stall, ever: too busy trawling the piles for treasures!
I’ve been shopping there, at least once a month, for many years – probably around a decade, and have taken myriad guests and friends there for a happy rummage. It’s the closest thing to a jumble sale that we have in Italy, which was my absolute heaven as a child, all things for 1p 2p 5p...
my McMA collection - all made in recent years from items bought for 50c
It might seem excessive, to have a bunch of any kind of clothing available, for such a low coinage in return, but the stall as good as sold out every time: it began with a high mountain, several tables long, and ended as a scattering of a few truly-useless garments. It had gotten more and more ‘hipster’ over the years too; more young folks turning up, when it used to just be me and the old birds elbow-to-elbow.
The guys who ran the stall, seemed to become more cantankerous the more popular it became! I couldn’t comprehend that at first, but over time I thought about how we were swarmed like ants over the 50c stall, and other more expensive stalls (€2, €4 and above) were sparsely attended. Still, it seemed rather perverse to be selling anything and not be glad or grateful about it. 🤔
For the past year or so, they opened this particular stall a bit later than the rest of their tables, and they made everyone wait around with their hands at their sides, effectively, before the whole parcel was unwrapped; large sheets bulging like Babbo Natale's sacks with the goodies for us, but tied until 8am, when they patronised us to open them. Recently they started opening these giant parcels even later – weaning us off it, I suppose. And eventually we were left champing at the bit until almost the end of the mercato at 10.30 and 11, these final weeks! There were some grumpy rummagers, for sure!
It was a kind of religious outing for me though, every time, and I was super-grateful, especially having lost any kind of proper income during lockdown, to be able to indulge in my passion this way. I adore being immersed in fabrics, and especially in being able to afford to buy all that I see and want! Tuning into the beautiful range of funky weirdness, great bargains of old wools (cashmere, angora!) and really fine fabrics (silks and leathers!) - the long hour or two that I spent sifting through them all, slowly working my way around the island of clothing, was always deeply calming and fulfilling for me.
It was a kind of a social scene too – I’d occasionally bump into folks from Guardia that I know, and we’d chat about the news, weather, what we were finding on the stall, but there were also some friends that I made over the years, just through that particular bancharella di Augustino. We chatted elbow-to-elbow about the treasures we were pulling out, their merits and downfalls. Tips and ideas, life philosophy and lovely camaraderie, which extended to folks visiting my pop-up events over the years too, when I showed the finished clothing.
The stall has been iconic in my building this substantial store of old garments of all kinds, so that my atelier can match my imagination: colours, textures, threads, eccentricities, details; every kind – though mostly natural fabrics – of style and shape and energy, in boxes and crates, on hangers and draped over chairs and tables. And which all came from Augustino's. I always came to the "casa* (payment till) with joy in my heart, and thanking them profusely! Even if most did not see much value in the discarded seconds being sold 'for peanuts', I knew everything to be an enormous boon with huge potential....
thinking about drawings to describe the way my alterations are done...
I now have a broad wealth of the raw materials, as it were, and we just have to create a space to house them in! Or to adapt the current diposito that we own, which is not behaving itself in wet weather…! We’re a bit in-between moving as much as we can to our new land, but storing it once it gets here; our miniature rental home is really not a place for excess, and the diposito is already stuffed with a pile of stuff, under plastic to hopefully not get it wet. This is a source of minor stress for me, but I’m adapting. Our primary need is for autonomy and self-sufficiency, and so that takes presidence; there will be space for a proper sewing atelier, once we’re much more organised…
Talking of which, it’s back to gathering kindling and sawing logs, for me and 
Looking forward to sharing more – I’ll be in touch with new projects very soon, as there is a lot happening here behind the scenes, and though we’re descending into winter, it really is a very productive creative period in our new lives!
