Roll with it
- johannapoblete
- May 1, 2014
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 20, 2023
Peddle vintage finds inside a classic van
It was their Valentine’s gift to each other: A 1969 Volkswagen (VW) WestFalia that was originally meant to be a food truck—except they didn’t want something “messy,” so they set up a mobile vintage shop instead.
“We both fell in love with the van,” says owner GJ Ouano-Saguisag, who credits her husband Noy, a VW fanatic, with the aptly named Vintage Wagon. “We thought that it was a great idea to be the pioneer of mobile fashion trucks here in the Philippines.”
Busy with a newborn and a toddler, not to mention a full-time job at an ad agency for GJ and a vegetable business managed by Noy, it took the Saguisags two years to roll out the fashion truck.
The Vintage Wagon now sells pre-loved and brand-new clothing, costume jewelry, books, vinyl records, and trinkets at events. They’ve also started an annual bazaar in their own neighborhood on Bigasan St. in Makati City.
“We handpick from secondhand shops for the vintage items, and we have suppliers for the brand-new, vintage-inspired, and whimsical stuff,” explains Ouano-Saguisag, who discloses that the clothing comes from Adorno, a lifestyle shop she managed with her sister Lissa Sheker in 2003-2007, now revived. “Posters of rock ‘n’ roll icons and ‘magic mugs’ of The Beatles are exclusive items.”
Following their launch last December at the 28th Volkswagen Show, on the anniversary of John Lennon’s death, they were invited to The Attic Bazaar at the SMX Convention Center in February, and then a flea market at the Burgos Circle last March.
Says GJ, “Long term, we plan to visit more areas and make more people happy through a different experience: Vintage shopping inside a 45-year-old vintage wagon.”
Originally published in the May 2014 issue of Entrepreneur Philippines.
