An assorted mass clothed in baggy jeans and long jorts lined a sidewalk in Charlestown early Saturday afternoon despite the beating sun overhead. The denim-clad queue stretched down and around the block, chatter rising from the crowd as they approached the open-air venue that hosted their evening plans.
As the fashion-savvy patrons neared the main entrance of The Yard, the thumping electronic music became clearer. Past the entrance lay rows of tented stalls, filled with racks of shirts, pants, jackets, and dresses, ranging from rugged to sleek, lacking any clear cohesion besides the need to be worn again.
The sequestered festival resembled a Western bazaar of leather and cotton, nestled between the truck lots and the Hood Milk smoke stack. The shadow of nearby Route 93 stretched closer as the afternoon progressed.
The festival pathways soon grew crowded as those who sought out hand-picked resale items flooded The Yard, eager to see what they could discover. In the middle of the fashion seekers and pulsing house music was Joaquin Crosby-Lizarde and Josh Maizes, the founders of this whole operation: Select Markets, their vintage clothing venture that, since 2023, has spurred several events across greater Boston.
On Oct. 4 and 5, The Yard in Charlestown hosted Select Markets’ “Halloween Thrift Festival”—their second event at the venue. With over 70 vendors in attendance, Crosby-Lizarde and Maizes had come prepared.
Between their time spent recording man-on-the-street interviews for social media and checking up on entrance staff, the two recent Northeastern grads caught up with The Beacon about Select Markets and being back at The Yard.
“We love outdoor events. We’re definitely going to be doing them a little bit more. In the past, we had done indoor events during the summer and spring months, and I think now we’re definitely leaning towards all outdoors,” said Maizes.
Each tented station—most of them manned by local brands—incorporated unique aspects in their vending, special touches ranging from prices written on Pokémon cards to spin-the-wheel type games.
Under a particular tent was Alex Patterson, who sat between stuffed clothes racks, dodging the heat in a newsboy cap. A blanket stitched with the phrase “Ride On”—the name of her vintage shop—hung over her.
“I come out to these markets. I bring my hand-curated vintage—the clothing that I sell. I do markets about every weekend,” said Patterson.
Patterson’s station was ripe with rugged flair, filled with her curated “rock and roll lifestyle apparel”—tough-looking jackets and scruffy workman’s pants.
Nathan Domingo of Minted Supply was hanging out a couple of tents over, musing to customers about adhering to the Virgil Abloh school of thought: wear whatever you want. This mantra inspired the direction behind his brand:
“I [sell] your standard street wear fare, like hand-printed tees, but it’s all with a little bit of a twist—everything questions elements of capitalism and what people value, ultimately in an effort to push people to figure out what’s valuable to them more than anything else.”
The other notable part of Domingo’s brand includes using upcycled materials to create “one-of-one pieces.”
“It’s like the really high quality second-hand stuff your grandparents wear, and I turn it into, like, sick Y2K stuff,” he said.
Domingo went on to offer props to Crosby-Lizarde and Maizes for their work.
“What they do for the local fashion economy is amazing…they’re really breathing new life into the whole fashion space in Boston,” Domingo said, describing how Crosby-Lizarde and Maizes have organized a burgeoning fashion movement “in a city that is largely known to not care about fashion.”
Elaborating on that last point, Domingo explained how in the past, despite at one point acting as the “hotbed of the Ivy fashion world,” Boston has suffered from a severe fashion market drought.
“For the longest time, Boston was a blue-collar city, and with a blue-collar city, there’s a lot of freedom of expression,” said Domingo.
However, in his mind, that all changed in the early 1960s when the state began prioritizing urban reform, around the time they “started outlawing tattoos” (a 1962 law).
But Crosby-Lizarde and Maizes have faced that challenge head-on, heading a market series that prioritizes “three pillars of sustainability, accessibility and affordability,” as Crosby-Lizarde described.
Echoing Domingo, Maizes hopes that Select Markets can help satisfy Boston’s need for an accessible fashion scene.
“The city doesn’t have a lot of events and especially doesn’t have a lot of events that are cost efficient,” he said.
Hailing from Hudson Valley, New York, Maizes recalls experiences in New York City’s thriving independent fashion culture. Deducing that Boston’s scene was unreasonably meager in comparison, Maizes and Crosby-Lizarde sought to rejuvenate the local market.
After a few smaller-scale events at the Piano Craft Gallery on Tremont Street in late 2023 earned them some viral videos, Select Markets has become a recent institution in the Boston second-hand space. Their most recent events have consistently boasted over 70 vendors, all meticulously selected by Crosby-Lizarde and Maizes. In fact, the relationship between the Select Market guys and their vendors exhibits a kind of sincere professionalism.
“We’ve hung out with the vendors outside of the events,” said Maizes. “If we reached out to them five days before an event, they’d still jump up and do it.”
This earnestness comes from a love for stylistic expression, and it has paid off in the partnerships Select Markets has acquired. They have cultivated a community of local vendors and artists that consistently return to showcase what they have to offer.
“We’ve had vendors that have been with us for every single event since the first event we’ve ever had,” said Maizes.
The Select Markets founders aim to sculpt an environment that is open to everyone, from prioritizing venues easily accessible by public transportation (The Yard sits between the Community College and Sullivan Square stations on the Orange Line) to offering a wide range of sizes, styles, and especially prices.
“If you have vendors selling vintage for $50 plus, like a lot of markets have done, you only reach that certain niche. We want diversity in age and background and interest,” said Crosby-Lizarde.
The consistently free entry of their events is also a crucial aspect: “Obviously people are spending money here, but being able to go to something for free that’s of a larger scale is really important,” said Maizes.
The result is a vivid range of eclectic style searchers milling around one another, exchanging compliments as they walk by. Praise like “I like your look” can be heard in passing, along with friendly consultation among shoppers.
“It’s more ‘going to work’ than ‘going out,’” is said by one young woman to another, in reference to a flowery blouse.
Of course, a place like this is tailored to the sensibilities of Emerson students.
Tai Finestone is a freshman at Emerson on the men’s tennis team, found sifting through racks of clothing near the entrance with his roommate.
“I’m from Los Angeles, so I go to a lot of flea markets. I’m very big into fashion and style and clothes and stuff like that, so I haven’t been to one in a while,” said Finestone.
Describing the scene at The Yard as the vibe he’d been looking for since leaving LA, Finestone said he couldn’t just come alone.
“I heard everyone was going. I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll bring my roommate.’”
Select Markets will be putting on a two-year anniversary event at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center on Nov. 9.
