This past Saturday, a Mother’s Day Flea Market pop-up event was held for over a hundred attendees to buy last-minute gifts from 30 sustainable vendors.
It took place at Casa Florida, a vintage hotel and bar in Downtown Miami that is an ode to Miami’s culture and history. The bar offered a selection of brunch items and bottomless mimosas for guests to purchase during the celebration.
The hotel collaborated with Little River Flea, a pop-up market that prides itself on representing hundreds of environmentally conscious and sustainable vendors. Most of the businesses make their products by hand or recycle clothes and materials, and the majority are women-owned. The event provided these businesses with a platform to cater not only to a broader audience but to come together to help celebrate Mother’s Day.
Next to the restaurant, the vendors offered products like jewelry, clothing, skincare, candles, flower bouquets, and much more.
One of the vendors, Nicolle Nyariri, is a skincare and wellness advocate who owns Shade County, a store that focuses on encouraging self-care with a special focus on women of color. Nyariri makes hand-crafted soaps, body washes, lotions, and more.
About the importance of the event, Nyariri says, “Social media’s great, but for a skincare business, people are able to come to touch my products, feel them, smell them, that goes way further than just some random marketing campaign that I can do.”
Another vendor, Isabella Aguirre, owner of Isabella’s Candles, sells vegan handmade candles. She started to sell her products in 2020, when she was 17. Her personally designed candles promote kindness and beauty. She enjoys making candles in the shapes of different women’s bodies and skin tones to encourage inclusivity.
“I feel like small businesses deserve a lot of love because, you don’t know how many people are really sitting down with that business and, and putting in the work to make everything by hand,” Aguirre tells us about the importance of small businesses having a bigger platform.
She expresses that markets allow her to meet new people and support her, as well as other businesses.
The market’s only florist, Claudia Cruz, sells unique bouquets. Her business initiative, Las Pibas Flowers, prides itself on being woman-owned as a single mom.
“You know, you can get your mom a vintage. X, Y, Z but flowers are very special for a lot of people. They signify life and growth,” says Cruz.
When asked about the significance of Mother’s Day she replied, “The most important person in the world to me is my mom. She’s an immigrant from Argentina. Now as a single mother myself, I will claw through anything for my son…a mother never gets a day off and that’s okay.”
Little River Flea’s next event will be collaborating with Selina Gold Dust for a pool party and their last outdoor market of the season on Saturday, May 27, from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.
