Are secondhand markets the best new way to shop for clothes?

Any guest walking into the Martine Rose fashion show this June would have been delighted to find a community centre covered in the frills usually reserved for wedding cakes – but also an unexpected opportunity to browse. Along with the fashion show taking place on the top floor of the Marylebone building, Rose had curated a surprise market. Stall owners included Roxy Lee, with a stall of her own trash-adjacent designs, chewing gum badges made by Ella Lynch, DJ and video artist Jeffrey Hinton selling calendars, Jawara Alleyne’s safety pinned creations and vinyl from Atlantis Records in Hackney. In short: it was the brightest and best of London creative talent under one roof. And the best bit? The market was open to the public for an entire weekend.

Markets have always been petri dishes for design in London – Leigh Bowery had a stall called Bargain at Kensington Market in the ​’80s. Speaking to THE FACE at her show, Rose paid tribute to the way market traders are an intrinsic part the city’s ecosystem” “[These vendors,] they just plow on. They do their thing. They work really hard and make do, you know what I mean?” she said. ​“It contributes enormously to this country, this city.”

Now, markets are back in a fresh guise – one that goes beyond the Richard Curtis twee of Portobello or the indie sleaze of Camden. There is Second Life, the mega-market that sells vintage designer items in Shoreditch; I Have Something Better in Clapton, which is increasingly on the radar of those in-the-know; and more arty events such as Trouble Maker in Deptford. Sample sales and car boot sales are now familiar plans in the weekend rotation – but they’re oversubscribed, picked over, and frankly, who wants to queue for hours to find three dresses on a rail? The next best way to avoid that are markets, which are shifting into the frame as the latest way to see, be seen and, of course, shop for curated items from trusted sellers.

Georgia Graham, who runs the Threads of Conversation substack, is a regular at I Have Something Better. For her, the IRL aspect of markets is a winner: ​“I love shopping secondhand via the apps, but nothing beats in-person events,” she says. ​“Every time [I go to the market] I meet interesting people, and I often run into old friends. It reminds me of why I love fashion – it’s not just about buying and wearing clothes, it’s about talking and connecting over a shared interest”.

Events like this are a great way to resist the atomised experience of online life. Nasir Mazhar was ahead of the curve, setting up Fantastic Toiles in 2019 – a pop-up that happens a few times a year, where emerging and established independent designers sell their work. While he describes it as a ​“weird nomadic fashion boutique”, its spirit is certainly couched in the kind of tangible community market shoppers are increasingly leaning towards.

“We’ve all got our own gangs and fans and worlds we live in,” Mazhar says. ​“When we all come together to put on a drop, it’s a collision [of all those things].” Tired of scrolling for new clothes through a screen? Of joining the back of the line at car boots? Here are three London markets to bookmark next time your wardrobe needs a re-up.

Next up: 30^th August, Protein Studios, Shoreditch

Stella Brackenridge and Meg Charnaud started what would later become Second Life as students at the University of Perth, because they had too many clothes. Starting a market seemed like a good way to get rid of them. After creating lots of buzz for it on Instagram, they decided to take in-person selling seriously, and the business moved from Sydney to the UK in 2022, with their first London market opening in June 2023.

Two years on, Second Life is now a firm fixture on London’s market roster. They sell everything from Moschino to Burberry and have been visited by the likes of Adwoa Aboah and Paloma Elsesser. There’s even an archive edition of the market, for the kind of crowd who knows their Margiela SS97 from their Raf Simons AW01.

Usually, 1500 to 2000 people attend Second Life. ​“The community aspect is something that draws a lot of people in,” Stella says. ​“Everyone comes and hangs out with their friends for hours. You can tell people are craving that.” Potential traders apply online to have a stall at Second Life, with around 90 making the cut – a mix of sellers with expert curations and people selling pre-loved items.

“I see a lot of Miss Sixty, a lot of Dolce & Gabbana and Tom Ford Gucci is the only thing people care about at the moment!” The ripple effect? A notably well-dressed crowd. ​“I’m constantly in awe of what people wear to these events,” Stella says. ​“It’s nice to have a place where you can come, meet likeminded people, and form good relationships based on their style.”

Next up: TBC, but on 31^st August, Emma will curate a market with HQI and the Television Centre in White City.

When Emma Sielaff was a kid growing up in Chicago, she dreaded her mum taking her to the thrift shop. ​“I just wanted to go to the big stores like Forever 21!” she says. Eventually, as a teen, she realised mums know best. ​“We have these giant size thrift stores, probably the size of a big Tesco here,” she says. ​“My friends and I would go and spend a whole day there, and you’d get a whole bag of clothes for $20. I think that’s what really started it.”

“It” being a love for rummaging. She combined this affinity for finding a bargain with her creative work as a student, when she curated market-like events for a zine she helped produce. Moving to the UK in 2021 to study printmaking, Emma did the same again. ​“I thought it’d be great to do a little artist market,” she says. ​“I just realised how many people I knew who wanted a calm space to sell their work.”

Eventually, these events evolved into Trouble Makers, a market the 27-year-old has run in Deptford, South London, since 2024. The first market featured El Bras (who make bikinis out of old cycling jerseys), vintage from Heavens Sake and queer brand Beaddiction. These days, working with an open call on Instagram, she often has around 150 – 200 applications for 30 – 40 spaces.

“London is a huge city for creators and a lot of people make things as side hobbies,” she says. Shoppers, meanwhile, are looking for something that helps them stand out from the NPC sameness of the high street: ​“It’s about the uniqueness of the item, which means you’re not going to find somebody else wearing the same thing as you.”

Next up: September 14^th, 71 Powerscroft Road, Clapton

Danielle Reuther moved to London from New York in 2021 and immediately noticed something missing. ​“In the States, there’s so much more infrastructure for being able to sell your old clothes… It’s such a big undercurrent of being young and creative in the city. I was astounded at how little of that there was here – to the point where I thought it was a funny Victorian law!”

Once she established that no ancient edicts were in the way, Danielle started I Have Something Better in November last year. A small operation based in Clapton, East London, the biggest event so far had 22 sellers. A big goal of hers is to keep it accessible. ​“Our sweet spot is [selling items for] under £150,” she says. ​“This isn’t the place to be selling your archive Chanel.”

Danielle believes that markets are becoming more popular partly because people love vintage, but also because they’re tired of being disappointed by online buys. ​“It’s a little bit easier to part with your money if you can try something on and you know that it fits; when you feel the fabric and it’s not secretly polyester,” she says. As more people have attended the markets, there have been some wholesome moments. ​“We had this couple come, and one of them said this was the first vintage item that their partner had ever bought,” she says. ​“They’ve come to every single one since then.”