Silverlake Market

Location: Los Angeles, CA
Overview:
A vintage clothing shop based in Downtown Los Angeles and Old Torrance, run by Luis Osuna. The store has a strong following among Japanese buyers and regularly sets up at events like the Rose Bowl Flea Market and Inspiration LA.

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One of the great things about showing at Inspiration LA is the chance to connect with other exhibitors. Over time, you start seeing the same faces, and friendships naturally form—Luis is one of those friends. This time, his booth happened to be set up right behind ours.

As we were getting ready in the morning, he peeked over the divider and greeted us with a casual, “Hey, how’s it going? I’ll come check out your booth later.” A small exchange like that is how the day begins—just a friendly hello through the curtain.

But the day quickly became a blur. Between the steady stream of visitors and the intensity of being in an English-speaking environment all day, we never quite found the time to properly visit each other’s booths. Before we knew it, the event was winding down and it was time to pack up. We were exhausted but fulfilled, quietly focused on breaking everything down.

That’s when Luis peeked through the divider again—this time holding something in his hand. It was a special edition T-shirt his shop had made for the opening event of Nepenthes LA.

“Wow, that’s really cool,” we said. “Actually, we’ve been looking for unique shirts like this. During our time in the States, we’ve been trying to source items that you can only get here—things with a real local story to share back home. Do you think we could offer this one at our shop in Japan?”

Luis smiled and said simply, “Of course.” Then he slipped in a couple of postcards as a bonus, saying, “Throw these in too.”

If our booths hadn’t been back-to-back, we might never have seen that T-shirt. Realizing that made us feel just a bit recharged—and with that little lift in energy, we finished the load-out in good spirits.

By the way, Luis is originally from Phoenix, Arizona, and his burger recommendation?
Blake’s LOTABURGER®.
...Sadly, we didn’t get a chance to try it this time.