Shopping Buenos Aires

This week I’m ‘manning’ the blog as Miss Martha enjoys her annual early summer pilgrimage to the East Coast. I recently came back from a week-long excursion to my hometown of Buenos Aires. There I had the chance to see with a refreshed perspective what the markets have to offer when it comes to decor, South of the border (way way South).

The district of Palermo is a favorite of both locals and visitors. It’s home to a number of charming boutique hotels and the ever-popular Flea Market. For now I’ll focus on the Flea Market but don’t fret, I’ll be back next week with more scoop on other must sees and dos.

It’s worth scouring to find the treasures but you may have to dig. I strongly recommend focusing on smaller items that are easy to bring back home with you. There is a great selection of retro-pop and Mid-century furniture. Porteños (how Buenos Aires natives are called) always pride themselves in having the most European of Latin American capitals. Having said this I wouldn’t encourage you to be tempted by old-worldy chairs or commodes. These are generally 20th century reproductions but the guys at customs will take for granted they belonged to a turn of the century estancia or petit hotel and tax you accordingly.

There are great treasures to be found, including exquisite designs by Jean Michel Frank (who lived in Buenos Aires briefly and had an intense social life with elites porteñas). These great treasures can be found at great cost and a local expert should be guiding you and above all helping you connect with local dealers, like other places in the world a foreign accent can mean sudden spikes in ‘market price’.

Chin chin,