Cover your eardrums and race for the nearest cool kid, because Dose Market is back and blowing up. The latest iteration of everyone's favorite indie market, “Dose Bomb,” will explode on September 21 from 10-5 p.m. at the refurbished Morgan Manufacturing event space (401 N. Morgan). Founder April Francis has had an eye on the light-drenched location since February 2013. “There are skylights everywhere,” she says. “It's huge—this will be the biggest Dose we've ever done. The building is an entire city block, a defunct factory.” With 88 vendors hawking their wares at this latest and greatest Dose, you can expect plenty of food, drink, interactive art, and music—but if you're looking for Fall 2014 trends, shop elsewhere.
“I think trends are, in general, sort of a sad thing. We don't promote people who are just pushing trends,” says Francis. Instead of New York Fashion Week runoff, you'll find exquisite pieces of designer vintage at Saffron Vintage, a gorgeously crafted all-black line at The Order, and high-end basics—for dogs, too!—from the brand new West Loop boutique Another 20. As a rule, Francis says, “Dose Market promotes people who have their own vision and are creating beautiful, beautiful products.”
Dose would never forget about the guys when it comes to trendy non-trends, either. “We're really excited for men,” says Francis. As part of the line-up, she's got Artfully Disheveled, a “very smart” line of menswear who will be making their first Dose appearance. Francis will also introduce the Dose world to PRSVR, a husband-wife duo from Pilsen who “just blew up in the hip-hop sector” with their luxury leather goods, seen on everyone from Nicki Minaj to LaLa Anthony.
Beauty aficionados should stop by DIRT to try out their crunchy, all-in-one moisturizing scrub, and give a warm welcome to the brand-new Cocovit, who will be officially launching at Dose Bomb. They're selling coconut oil, which everyone's heard of before, but this isn't your average grocery store cooking product. “It's the purest, most potent coconut oil you can get,” says Francis, before listing off about twenty uses for the magic stuff, from hair masks to wrinkle treatments to stretch mark prevention.
You can find out more about each vendor on Dose's new interactive map, which lists vendors by name, points out their location in the massive new space, and links to more information about each one.
And yes, you should probably dress up to attend Dose Bomb, just a little bit. “Every person that comes to the door is style-minded,” Francis muses. “They want to be there because they want to support people who are doing good things.” Moral: just say no to trends, but yes to deliberate purchasing. “Attendees are people who care about what they bring into their homes,” says Francis. “You could say they're into designing their lives.”