When Cody arrived to pick us up, it had already started spitting. This was the one day we were going to be outside for any length of time, and wouldn’t you know it, it was the only day it was going to rain. 

Never mind, it wasn’t that heavy and right now we were absorbed in hellos, hugs, and comments about Cody’s car. Cody Wellema, long-time friend, hatmaker and now vintage buyer, was driving us to Rose Bowl, and we were all piling into his old Honda CR-V. 

Cody is one of those friendly, open people you immediately feel you know well. But it does add a level of intimacy when you travel in someone’s car – sort of a halfway point towards visiting their house. Cody’s was dotted with wrappers and various other pieces of kid-related paraphernalia, while the boot had threads, strips of plastic and other tell-tale signs of the amount of clothing he has to ship around.  

In fact, one of the endearing aspects of Cody’s set-up for the day was that as he walked around the flea market, in his pitch-perfect western hat and rare vintage jacket, he also pushed a large plastic shopping caddy, because it was the only way to carry all the stuff.

Rose Bowl opens at 5am, and the real seekers turn up that early, often with head torches to help them see in the dark. We weren’t that keen, but our original plan had been to turn up at 7am at least, to experience a bit of the treasure-seeking vibe. 

The rain made that pointless. There would be fewer sellers, so fewer buyers, and the atmosphere just wouldn’t be the same. We set our arrival time for 9am. 

The rain did come throughout the morning, but it was splatters and showers, and it turned out everyone we wanted to see was there anyway. It helped that the rarer, more higher-end vintage fair Inspiration had been on the previous two days, so a lot of the top-end international buyers were in town anyway. 

And apparently the opposite weather is much worse: on a scorching hot day the sun boils off the tarmac, and the place feels like a torture oven. 

Rose Bowl flea market is held in the parking lot of Rose Bowl stadium, a century-old arena that looks very much of its era, all concrete and columns. But is significant historically and culturally: it hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984, has seen five Super Bowls, and was the venue for the 1994 World Cup final (that’s football/soccer; Brazil beat Italy on penalties).

Rose Bowl is a flea market and it feels like it. Despite the reputation among vintage fans – it must be the most famous such market in the world – it has a very local, fun atmosphere. A chatty man with a massive white beard stamped our tickets with a chuckle, and everyone seemed to be calling out to each other as they strolled in.

Once inside, there were hundreds of potential stalls to visit (even on a grey day). Luckily, Cody is an old hand and guided us from one of his favourites to another, either side of a little bridge over a canal. 

The standard of the clothes is high – pretty much every stall had something of interest – but Cody wanted us to meet some sellers in particular. One was Bob Melet, one of the men behind RRL alongside Doug Bihlmaier. Bob sells lots of things, but particularly specialises in shop fittings. 

Manish chatted to Bob (above) while the rest of us rooted through the merchandise. Lucas was particularly pleased to find an old flannel shirt in his size; being a 54 chest, it’s often slim pickings for him when it comes to vintage. 

An old flannel like that, by the way, is great because of the quality (old, less industrially farmed cotton) and the sheer number of times it has been worn and washed (creating particular softness, and a patina of tiny frays or nicks) relative to the price. Lucas’s was $60.

Next up was Woody and Barry, who ran the stall next door. Talking to Barry we learned he lives in Bishop, up in the eastern Sierra mountains, and specialises in outdoor clothing like thermals, fleeces and down jackets. There’s a lot of them in second-hand shops up there, but not much makes it to the city. 

This was echoed at a few other stalls around Rose Bowl – although most are generalists, there were enough that specialised in military surplus, or old sports wear, to add real depth to the offering.

Interestingly, at the farther end was a group of guys selling more recent vintage – mostly nineties and noughties, some eighties. This younger group has apparently grown out of the popularity of second-hand clothing, and then the search for rarities within that. It tends to specialise in denim, band tees, and made-in-the-US products from the likes of Ralph Lauren. 

We kept running into people we knew. That might not seem surprising, but we honestly didn’t expect it given the day and location. 

Jojo from Rag Parade in Sheffield was there, as was Atsushi Matsushima from Clutch magazine. We ran into Ethan Wong, Brandon Mahler (ex-Aime Leon Dore, now Buck Mason) and Marco Tamponi from Sebago/Woolrich, who we had hosted a dinner with just the previous month. 

But what did I buy, I hear you cry? Well, two things. One a pair of US-made Ralph Lauren chinos with a really lovely fade, which turned out to be too low in the rise when I tried them on for longer back in the hotel. It’s hard to spend too much time taking your trousers on and off in a street market. 

But also, more successfully, a beautiful Lee Storm Rider jacket – blanket-lined, so soft, and in need of a few repairs but nothing major. Lucky I have a guy for that. 

And it was $90. Great value for what it was, and illustrative of the fact that I had swum further upstream than normal – I was buying from the flea markets that the buyers go to, rather than the buyers’ physical shop in a convenient location, where all the searching would have been done for me, and probably the repairs too. As Erik wrote recently, it’s all about paying for time. 

Rose Bowl takes place once a month – the second Sunday – and if I was going to come to LA again I’d definitely time my visit for it. 

Then again, I’m not so much of a vintage head, or the offering isn’t so unusual, that I would travel specifically to come. So perhaps it ranks at the level of a very good, destination menswear shop. Given the lack of such shops generally in LA, that is still significant.

Thank you to Cody, Kentaro and everyone else who showed us such a lovely time that rainy Sunday in Pasadena. Hopefully see you all soon.