VINTAGE FINDS: Confectionique

What’s the mission of your shop, which is located inside the Morey Middleton Airport? Confectionique is not only a place to buy handmade, vintage and authentic French goods, but it’s a wonderful place to gather goodies for your own creative projects and meet up with friends. We want each market to feel unique, add a little joie de vivre, and make everyone feel welcome to stay as long as their little heart desires.

What’s the Confectionique experience? Confectionique is my version of the French flea market and Paris boutique experience rolled into one. The concept that you, the customer, have traveled to a special place for a special event. This makes the airport such a perfect location. I enjoy developing and working with themed markets to help create a mood. Since we only open eight times a year, I want these openings to feel special and different each and every time, just like when you visit Porte du Vanves or the markets in Provence, you honestly never know what you will find—this is what I strive for at Confectionique.

Describe the range of items you carry. Confectionique specializes in authentic French vintage goods such as linens; enamelware; coffee grinders; French specialty items such as dried lavender and salts from Provence, soaps from Marseille and untold other goodies we find in our travels. We make our own handmade laundry soaps, lavender linen spray, bath salts and candles with French imported lavender.

We carry a fabulous array of vintage French buttons, French fabrics and other craft supplies. My husband, Adam, has quite a knack for finding unique French vintage lighters, wine openers, pocket knives, art and old ephemera. We are truly the only a place [in the area] to buy authentically sourced vintage French market finds.

Before traveling to France I request a “wish list” and Confectionique customers provide a delightful array of responses of what they would love for us to import and have available the next time we open our doors. I look for items that are affordable as I want to keep prices to a level where all who wish to buy something beautiful can.

How do you re-love items? Both Adam and I enjoy reimagining old objects into something new and useful again. We don’t purchase an item unless we know what we plan to do with it and as long as it fits our market theme. Some of our customer favorites are small painted tables, lamps made from interesting objects such as old sewing machines and tripods and old vintage planters made into pin cushions.

Why do customers love objects steeped in French history and experience? Vintage has a history—a story—and there is something rather charming about a good old story. History in France offers a story that is different and often much older than what we have in the U.S. It’s an extraordinary experience to explore the past in a land as rich in history as France and as culturally evolving as Paris. One of my dear French friends, and fellow curator, calls what we do “history savers.” I have always liked the sound of that.

Upcoming events:

Oct. 6-9, 2016 | Haunted Menagerie

A special Halloween-themed market: “Something wicked is arriving from France!”

Nov. 3-6 | Home for the Holidays

Celebrate the turn of the season with a market themed for holiday gathering and feasting.

Nov. 17-20 | The Giving

Confectionique’s final market of the year highlights the joys and wonders of holiday giving.

8300 Airport Road, Middleton | confectionique.com