“We want to give shoppers a first-hand experience of second-hand shopping,” says Mridula Pai, who is organising Bangalore Closet Cleanse, a thrift market that will be held at Lahe Lahe in Indiranagar on June 4. Pai, the founder of the Kolkata-based Love Me Twice and Mono, talks about the format of the event. “It is for independent sellers who have recently cleaned up their closet,” she says, adding that people will bring their own personal pieces to sell at the thrift market. While she conducted an event in a similar format in Kolkata earlier this year, this is the first time she is conducting a closet cleanse in Bengaluru. “I want to build this (thrift) community in the city,” she says.
Pai talks about the genesis of her own thrifting journey, which goes all the way back to 2019 when she co-founded Mono Calcutta with writer and model Karuna Ezara Parikh. In the boutique, which was dedicated to sustainable labels from across India, they also introduced a rack of thrift. “We were a boutique for sustainable labels, and there is nothing more sustainable than shopping second-hand,” she says. The rack became a huge success, with different people coming to shop off it. “This rack of thrift was just selling out,” she recalls. “We felt we were kind of breaking some barriers.”
