Roving reporter here, just back from Dalston. A yard sale in Dalston held by my fashionable trend-forecasting friend and her fashion-industry-working flatmate. There are details in the last sentence that led to my conviction that yard sales are Where It’s At. Along with the web search I did two minutes ago, which revealed that Paris cool shop Colette co-hosted one in a hotel a few years ago. Here’s a sneaky peek at the set up in Dalston moments before people started to arrive. Note the home-made gold lame bunting and blankets laid out for others to arrive with booty to sell (optional). There were also home-baked cakes to get people in a happy shopping mood.

Left: setting up. Right: A record player, a suitcase full of fabrics and the rest of the gold lame for sale

I’ve seen the suburban version of this – kids selling their old books and toys on the pavement in front of their houses – and remember many a car boot sale from my childhood. The hipster yard sale is something in between. Something that – and I don’t want to promote against chazza shop-donating here – is perfect if you have good quality stuff that you can’t quite bring yourself to chuck in a polly bag and send off to Oxfam. It’s the sociable alternative to ebay. Fancy trying it? Get yourself onto a social networking site and start inviting all your friends over to your back garden for an afternoon. And pray it doesn’t rain.