In the midst of New York Fashion Week, Boston had its own sprawling fashion event — though the invite list wasn’t limited to models and millionaires. In the late-summer heat, on the outskirts of the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Roxbury, a seemingly never-ending line wrapped around surrounding buildings. Passersby could find attendees dressed to the nines, putting on their best outfits to stand in the heat for hours on end, awaiting an oasis of clothes.
Select Markets and Thrift2Death hosted their inaugural MASSive Thrift Market Sept. 14. The event drew a large crowd of hip and trendy thrifters. It ran from 1 to 6 p.m. with free general admission and $14 tickets for early entry at noon and a free tote bag. The market had food trucks, temporary tattoos, tooth gems, free drinks, live DJs and over 80 vendors with a combination of vintage and Y2K clothes.
One shopper, Samuel Mollineaux, a second-year computer science and media arts combined major at Northeastern, said he found out about the market because he was approached with a flier at Northeastern’s Fall Fest. He and his friends waited an hour and 15 minutes to get into the thrift market, but said the wait – and the prices — were to be expected of such an event.
“It is a vintage market, so you can expect to see some higher prices — that’s natural,” Mollineaux said. “Honestly, this one isn’t as bad as some others I’ve been to and there was no entrance fee, unless you wanted to pay to come early, which looking back, would have been worth it. If I had known the entire city of Boston was gonna be here today, then I would’ve paid.”
The wide range of clothing prices appealed to many, with some stalls having $5 to $10 piles and bins while others had racks of jackets and sweaters exceeding $100.
Romy Li, a vendor selling vintage denim, Victoria’s Secret and Y2K-themed clothing said she found out about the event from her sister, who saw a post on Thrift2Death’s Instagram page.
“[I] thought it was really a seamless process. The coordinators of the event really helped if we needed help to move tables or racks,” Li said. “It was slow in the beginning during the early bird session, but it’s really been ramping up.”
Another vendor, Hannah Gazdus, was selling various stickers and artwork at a table alongside Maya Mau, who sold her handmade jewelry. Both are part of a craft community at MIT, they said.
“We do little craft fairs on campus, but Maya shouted out to everyone and so we all joined together to come and set up, cheer each other on,” Gazdus said. “It’s really lovely.”
While most vendors were selling piles and racks of clothes, Gazdus’ table of artwork was a bit different from others. This widened the range of trinkets and treasures attendees could find while searching amongst the different tables.
“I think it’s definitely a slightly different audience [from craft fairs] since most people are here for clothes,” Gazdus said. “I thought it was very easy and the staff are always coming around asking if we need any help.”
Select Markets co-founders, Joshua Maizes and Joaquin Crosby-Lizarde, are both fourth-year Northeastern students who had met during their first year of college.
Maizes shared that the duo’s inspiration for Select Markets came from a combination of a weak event scene in Boston and a love for fashion. One year later, their business is thriving.
“It definitely was above expectation,” Maizes said, referring to the Sept. 14 thrift market. “The space is huge. I think the highest capacity we had at the event was like 1,200 people at once and the line was still around 700 people outside, so it was really insane. I think we had about 5,000 attendees throughout the whole event. It was really surreal.”
At the start of their journey last fall, Maizes and Crosby-Lizarde typically reached out to businesses with proposals. Now that they have begun to gain more traction and demand has increased, they have an application for interested sellers to fill out in their Instagram bio. They try to pick local businesses and student vendors while ensuring to have a variety of options for attendees.
“We are very selective, no pun intended, in terms of selecting vendors,” Maizes said. “We go through every single vendor who has applied, which I think now is near 1,000, and we sort them by what niche they fit, what audience they hit, if their clothes are more masculine, more feminine, whatever it ends up being.”
Select Markets hosts events like the MASSive Thrift Market year round, creating a community around a love for sustainable shopping. Their popularity is evident with almost 20,000 followers on Instagram, all of which were gained in about a year. As Select Markets continue to grow, Maizes and Crosby-Lizarde hope their events can continue to grow with them, accommodating more and more people.
As Mollineaux reflected on his time shopping at the market, he said, “It was a little hectic, but I’d do it again.”
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