“Do you think I should get this skirt?” Stella Brackenridge asks me, tugging at the waistline of a vintage Miu Miu slip in pale peach. Next to us, a tanned and extremely chic Italian woman is haggling over a pair of luxury-brand aviator sunglasses: “Would you do £120?” Like most of the items on sale at Second Life Markets, both pieces are one-off finds rarely glimpsed outside of chichi consignment shops.
In my opinion, Brackenridge should absolutely get the Miu Miu skirt. But right now the 28-year-old has bigger fish to fry – she’s in charge of today’s market and its 40 archival vintage dealers. She’ll spend most of her day running between the neatly arranged rows of stalls, making sure both sellers and customers are happy, and keeping tabs on the industrial fans that are holding the blistering summer heat at bay. Today, around 1000 people are expected to enter the doors of its canalside east London warehouse location.
Think of Second Life Markets as the most glam car boot in the country – except instead of cheap bric-a-brac and chipped enamelware, you’re more likely to see a Loewe shirt or Kenzo mules for under £200 (indeed, Vogue has called it “London’s coolest second-hand fashion market”). No wonder famous fans include “it” girls and models like Paloma Elsesser and Adwoa Aboah. “Last week we had Celeste [the singer] turn up, just selling stuff like everyone else,” Brackenridge says. But I’m not surprised fashion insiders and celebs are making a beeline for Second Life – the love of a bargain is universal. I’ve already spotted an Issey Miyake suit for under £500 and an entire rack of Jil Sander that I’m dying to sift through.
Raised in Perth, Australia, Brackenridge started Second Life Markets in 2019 with her best friend, Meg Charnaud, while she was studying business management and marketing at The University of Western Australia. “It was literally just 15 friends in a warehouse,” she recalls as we sit cross-legged in a quiet spot by the canal, away from the noise of the market. The pair were running events across Australia by the time Brackenridge moved to London in 2022. But bringing the business to one of the world’s fashion capitals was a no-brainer. “Clothes were also better made here back in the day,” Brackenridge says, tucking her Vivienne Westwood pirate boots underneath her. “Walk into any luxury store on Bond Street and you’re looking at a jumper for £2000. You could buy the same jumper made 20 years ago with better production and better materials.”
Brackenridge has had a decade-long love affair with preloved clothing, an obsession passed down to her from her mother, a tiling and granite importer who worked in Italy. “She was buying a lot of Moschino, Gianfranco Ferre and Valentino [there],” Brackenridge explains. “When I was 13, I’d wear a vintage Vivienne Westwood leotard with denim shorts – I thought it was the coolest thing ever.”
In London, Second Life Markets is a one-woman show, with Brackenridge handling “operations, marketing, accounts – everything”. She’s currently running up to 25 markets a year across the city – a mix of closet sales from stylists and other industry insiders, small curated vintage fairs and bigger second-hand events. The last market, which took place on the lawns of Hoxton’s Museum of the Home, attracted 130 sellers and more than 2000 people.
Brackenridge puts this popularity partly down to an increasing desire to shop small. “When you come to this event, you’re shopping from someone who probably does this as a hobby or has a very small business.” The community aspect plays a part too: rather than deal with a faceless Vinted or Depop seller, you get to connect with the people you’re actually buying from. “I truly believe that the calibre of clothing is probably the best curation in London,” she says. “We get a lot of crazy pieces – rare Chanel bags, Alexander McQueen suits, historic pieces from Prada autumn/winter 1999 … A lot of people charge ridiculous amounts for these. I think our sellers do a fantastic job of making it reasonable.” Her best find yet is a Junya Watanabe parachute dress for £400 – they retail online for up to £4000.
As we get up from our perch and head back into the noisy chaos, Brackenridge concludes: “A lot of people do want to be unique and stand out, but they don’t want to spend a squillion fucking dollars.” So how does she stop herself from spending at her own market? “I don’t. I’m the worst person with money ever. I need someone to lock my card away!”
The next Second Life Markets event is on Saturday, October 10 at Protein Studios in Shoreditch, EC2A 3EY.
secondlifemarkets.com
@secondlifemarkets_uk
This article originally appeared in the fifth issue of Broadsheet London's magazine.
