Weekend Watch: Hands On Manila’s Vintage Bazaar

Volunteerism goes vintage this Saturday, with a bazaar hosted by Hands On Manila featuring a lavish selection of vintage designer clothes, bags, jewellery and furniture. Guests will have the opportunity to purchase new to gently used designer items at fiercely reasonable prices. Designer enthusiasts can rejoice, and remorseful spenders can assuage their guilt, because proceeds of the sales will go on to benefit the organizations’ main programs: education, the environment, children and the elderly.

Aureo Alonzo terno

Rajo Laurel gown

Those with an eye for formalwear may also be interested in the bazaar’s sale and showcase of gowns donated by society’s power set; gowns designed by the likes of Inno Sotto, Rajo Laurel, Pitoy Moreno and the late Aureo Alonzo are all available.

Rattan chairs by E. Murio

If you’re more interested in acquiring some designer furniture, the bazaar has some choice vintage pieces, including but not limited to designs by Budji Layug and Jo Liza.

And if the myriad of brand and designer names isn’t enough to tempt you, then the numbers from the bazaar’s catalogue might: sofas, armchairs, dining chairs and coffee tables are going to go for prices as low as Php3,000.  Other bargains will also be available for designer wear, with clothing for as low as Php2,000, gowns for as low as Php1,500, designer bags for as low as Php3,000.

“The bazaar is the latest of our many initiatives to raise the profile of volunteering and service throughout the country,” says Camille Samson, Hands On Manila board member and Vintage Bazaar Chair. “For this event we were fortunate enough to have generous friends and relatives who donated their brand new and gently used items, including treasures from their homes.”

This first-ever Vintage Bazaar by Hands On Manila is characteristic of their making-use-of-what-we-have style, and their longstanding determination to constantly rework what it means to volunteer. Brought to the Philippines back in 2001, the organization started with a dedicated group of about 15 members. Today, their “anyone can be of service” ethos has about 14,000 registered volunteers to show for it.

Most noteworthy about their work is the range and scope of their projects, making them both accessible and flexible to any Filipino ready to give back to their community in some way, whether by a weekly school mentoring “Galing Mo Kid” program or their annual service event “Servathon,” to name a few of the regular projects.

“The Vintage Bazaar is just the latest of our many initiatives to raise the profile of volunteering and service throughout the country,” explains the bazaar’s program materials. Anyone can be of service. Whether it’s time, talent, or resources, it’s only a question of what you are willing to put in. And it’s not every day you can say you got a pair of Manolo Blahniks for a good cause.

The Vintage Bazaar runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, September 6, 2014 at Rockwell Tent, Makati.

For more information: email info@handsonmanila.org or check out www.handsonmanila.org.