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.