Markets have existed since 6,000 BC. Back in those days, people would exchange food for weapons. Tea for spices. Salt, silk, perfumes, animal skin, crafts, wheat, and many more items were traded for anything you could possibly imagine. Even when money was invented, bartering was still used in cash economies, and was an important tool for countries and individuals during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
For Lookeast’s first in-house fashion production, we thought we would merge city looks with a popular market, where farmers and fishermen send their fresh produce daily, and salesmen offer everything from knives to noodle soup, from meat to sunglasses, with prices starting at THB 15.
One morning in Bangkok’s Khlong Toei market, where trading starts at 6 a.m.— early morning being the best time to go, due to the heat closer to noon—the vendors and our model exchanged fruit for smiles, and stories for laughter.
Wear heels to visit this, one of Bangkok’s largest wet markets, at your own risk of needing a foot massage afterwards!
