Meet Emily Andrade of West-End Market

Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Andrade.

Emily, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
After high school, I immediately got into marketing. I was working with different fashion and lifestyle brands such as WhoWhatWear, The Little Market and Obsessee to name a few.

Some of these entailed doing social media for them and eventually creating original content for Obsessee, such as DIYs and recipes. In between that time, I started my styling career driving into the city to meet stylists at commercial shoots. For more than five years, I was a stylist assistant and perfected my own aesthetic and sense of curation.

Styling soon led to other ventures such as selling vintage wholesale to local shops in the Silverlake area — an effort that turned into co-founding a vintage pop-up called Boa & Silk. Boa & Silk brought me to wonderful vintage and craft markets across SoCal, and I fell in love with the sense of community — something that I found lacking in my hometown and its surroundings in The San Fernando Valley.

In my search for like-minded kin in the SFV, I discovered Toolbox LA, a creative innovation hub and co-working space that hosts workshops, panels, and exhibits. We soon after partnered up and together aspire to make West-End Market a seasonal event chockfull of handmade goods, workshops and entertainment.

Now, West-End Market is finally here creating a community in the SFV, while also providing a space to shop for accessible and locally made goods, inspire someone’s next big idea and help bring awareness to the valley while valuing curation, craftsmanship, and creativity.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?

*Laughs* Not at all! I can’t tell you how many times I have wanted to cry, but crying is healthy! Right? But in all seriousness, it hasn’t been a smooth road. Building this market from the ground up has literally been the toughest and most rewarding thing I have ever done. I’ve done the curation, marketing, and outreach for this market on my own and it’s taught me so much.

I was able to get Health-Ade Kombucha to sponsor, which is a pretty big deal! No one ever tells you how to start a business, especially when you’re running this as a one-woman show. You kind of just play it as best you can and cross your fingers that you’re doing it right. However, I do want to give a special shout out to my best-friends and loved ones for supporting me the whole way through!

We’d love to hear more about your business.
West-End Market is a seasonal event with a strong ethos behind community, curation, and craftsmanship. This is one of the first curated markets in the San Fernando Valley, bringing in the best artisans from the SFV and neighboring cities.

We’re known for bringing in the curation of small businesses specializing in ceramics, apothecary, jewelry and more. The whole idea behind the market was to support brands/shops that you normally wouldn’t have access to and help them reach a new audience here in the valley. I just feel like there are so many markets happening in Los Angeles, people seem to forget about us. We love artisanal items just as much, but we normally have to drive out of the valley just to shop!

As a company, I am so proud of the community that West-End was able to create.  I honestly felt that support and love from each and every vendor that participated and we created an environment that the valley was lacking. I can’t wait to have new and returning vendors join us for our next one. West-End just has so much potential to be something bigger, and I am so excited to watch it unfold!

Make sure to stick around for our next event coming up in July!

What were you like growing up?
I would like to think I was cool growing up *laughs* but honestly, who is cool while going through weird teenage years?! Growing up I was always on the craftier side. I never was into academics, I focused more on the creative side of things. I’d like to think of myself as a woman of all trades!

Currently, I am a really big fan of cooking, I have this series on Instagram Stories called “Cooking with Emily” and it’s a non-serious cooking show where 80% of my recipes are fails, but you live and learn! Honestly, I have so many interests it’s kind of insane. I’m also working on launching my apothecary line soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

Thanks for coming to my TedTalk! *laughs*

Contact Info:

• Website: thewestendmarket.com
• Email: hellowestendmarket@gmail.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/westend.market
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/thewestendmarket/

Image Credit:
Rodney Campos

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.