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Brothers (in the literal sense) Lionel and Constant sell at the Flea as Nenenn155. They have a really cool take on vintage shoes, clothes and jewelry, as well as paintings, that they've honed to a sharp edge for the Flea crowd. Most of their stuff comes from their native Haiti.

The friendly upbeat bros are also accomplished painters and musicians, and recently released a funky tribal jazz album as Vodu155. In the '80s they made the scene as a sort of hip-hop/freestyle crew called Unity 2. (You must check out their hilarious music video for "Shirlee" (she's my little girlie!), directed by a young Matt Dillon and starring a young, hot Veronica Webb.) Lionel and Constant see their Flea booth is a sort of extension of their art, merging Haitian and American culture, but Fleain' wasn't always the plan.

When their mother passed away in Haiti, they returned to where they were born to find that she left the care of six orphans to her two sons. As you can imagine, it changed everything. In order to take care of their newly found responsibility, they launched Nenenn155 and have been importing Haitian goods to NY to sell at the Flea ever since. Their business has slowly grown since (cute blog/website now up), which has in turn created jobs for the family back in Haiti. (They go home every 3 or 4 months to check in too.)

Every vendor's got a story, and this is just the tip of Lionel and Constant's iceberg. Next time you Flea, chat 'em up--and any other vendor who seems interesting. That's what it's all about.

Posted by JessicaBK at 8:38 AM | Comments (0)

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