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Joaquin Crosby-Lizarde and Josh Maizes, third-year students at Northeastern, aren’t shy about being “fashion forward.”
“I dress very differently all the time,” says Crosby-Lizarde. “Some days, I dress with a streetwear-kind-of vibe. Other days, I dress in post-punk attire. And then [even on] other days, I might look homeless to someone.”
Maizes concurs.
“I literally wear shirts that are riddled with holes that look like they were thrown out, and then a lot of it is definitely streetwear-influenced,” he says.
That may seem unorthodox to some, but for them fashion is about self-expression.
It’s equally about building community.
Crosby-Lizarde and Maizes are the minds behind Select Markets, a new Boston-based vintage clothing venture turbocharging the city’s fashion scene with out-of-the-box thrift shop pop-ups featuring Northeastern student vendors selling their secondhand finds.
Since starting the business last semester, the pair has hosted three thrift shop shindigs at venues throughout the area, each bigger and crazier than the last. In addition to having thrifted clothing for sale, the events also regularly feature DJs, local artwork, temporary tattoo stations, screen printing and more.
Their aim is to make thrifting into a cultural experience at the intersection of fashion, art and entertainment.
“Right now, it’s primarily focused on students selling their own personal secondhand clothing,” says Crosby-Lizarde. “But in the future, we really want it to be a marketplace that works with local artists, local clothing vendors and brands.”
Some 400 people showed up for Select’s first event at the Piano Craft Gallery in Boston in November.
And more than 1,300 people attended their biggest pop-up yet at the Foundry in Cambridge last month.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Select (@select.markets)
A post shared by Select (@select.markets)
Crosby-Lizarde and Maizes aren’t fashion majors themselves (Crosby-Lizarde is a marketing major and Maizes is an industrial engineering major), but they are involved in the fashion scene on campus.
Last year Crosby-Lizarde was a member of Northeastern’s Fashion Society. And this year, he’s a member of The Avenue, the university’s fashion and culture magazine.
While Maizes isn’t a part of any fashion clubs, he does hang out with the people in those clubs regularly, he says.
They were inspired to start Select after noticing a dearth of cool fashion events while living in Boston for the past first few years.
“I’m from New York and Josh is from Florida, and in both our areas where we grew up there were a lot more fashion-forward events going on. We felt like in Boston there just really wasn’t that same scene or there were those same number of activities going on,” says Crosby-Lizarde.
So they decided to start hosting those events themselves.
The majority of vendors selling at these pop-ups are Northeastern students or graduates.
Take Grace Herbst, who graduated from Northeastern in 2023, as an example. She is the founder of Upcycled by Grace, which designs and sells clothes using recycled fabrics.
These types of events can play a huge role in fostering community and elevating the work of local creatives, Crosby-Lizarde and Maizes say.
In developing Select Markets, Crosby-Lizarde and Maizes knew it was important to host the kind of events they would be excited to attend.
“When you go to a clothing store, it’s not like you’ll go up to your friends afterwards and say, ‘That was the coolest experience I’ve ever had.’ But if you go to a store that has a pop-up, for example, there’s drinks and there’s people hanging out,” says Maizes. “That’s what makes people come back.”
In addition to being fun, thrifting can be a cheaper and more sustainable alternative to shopping expensive retail stores, they note.
“Thrifting was the heart of this,” says Crosby-Lizarde. “We want to provide people with access to fashion, but it doesn’t have to be very expensive.
“You don’t have to go to Lululemon or Nike to get cool clothing,” he adds. “These are people who are going to the bins, maybe spending $5 dollars on five shirts and selling them for $5 bucks a piece.”
Interested in attending a pop up?
You won’t have to wait too long. Select Markets’ next event is March 31 at the Arts and Armory in Somerville from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Check out the group’s Instagram page to learn more.