The Future of Vintage is Noughty
I was first introduced to Noughties Market CLT in February for their Valentine's edition. The hot pink flyer pasted around the city was texted in group chats and DM'd by friends, building hype for a girly vintage event we wouldn't have to travel hours in the car for. When the Saturday of the market came, Heist Brewery was transformed into a Y2K dream. Rows of tightly packed vendors lined the inside of the brewery and music reverberated around the walls. The crowd certainly understood the assignment — whether it was dramatic stilettos or baggy layers, everyone seemed to treat the market like a personal fashion show. I ran into classmates, friends, and creatives I follow; never had I witnessed a crowd quite like it in my four years living in Charlotte. While I was busy foraging clothing racks, the three founders, Ella, Bella, and Mariela, floated around the long room, checking in on vendors, interviewing customers for TikTok, selling their own clothes, and bringing a sense of ease to an event that was anything but easy to plan.
Noughties, named in reference to the oughts - the early 2000s and y2k aesthetic that has reemerged in popularity, isn't a store or a weekly popup. Instead, it's part market and part social hub, only occurring every other month due to the degree of planning and marketing behind each uniquely themed market. The events are public but have an air of exclusivity — you don't want to miss one because the next is sure to be different. The founders told me over coffee in early March about the inspiration for the February event, saying, "for our customer base, we knew we needed to have a Valentine's Day market… the lingerie, love, the girliness."
That customer base is a big reason why Noughties Market came to be in the first place. Before this, there was a significant gap in the current vintage scene around Charlotte. Most existing markets and newer stores popping up have been male-focused, and while shopping second-hand has always been more gender fluid and androgynous than shopping retail, those typically femme clothing pieces like dresses and skirts are hard to find thrifting. This is where Noughties Market finds its niche: "We just wanted the market to be a place where you can express yourself," Bella told me, "A place where you could get a whole outfit: accessories, top, bottom, shoes, bag. And we also wanted to just make it separate and more creative than other markets. We have activities, like the friendship bracelet stand, and we're gonna do a bunny hunt for this (April) one. Just making it a more fun and enjoyable time for people."
The three founders know the gender gap in the local vintage scene better than anyone — it's how they met and, in many ways, served as the catalyst of their friendship. In the pre-Noughties era, it was just Bella popping up with her small business, Eternal Bella, on the streets of NoDa for the weekend market. She was the only girl out there until Mariela (or "little miss mary," as Bella recalls with a grin) approached her about popping up for her business, Será Antigua.
"I told her, you need to come out here with me and hang out. And then the next week, she was out there, popping up her clothing." Bella recounts.
They worked side by side on their businesses for a few months before a new girl came to the block — Ella of Pixie City Thrift, who had just relocated back home after living in Hawaii. The three business owners instantly gravitated towards each other, bonding over their shared experiences and supporting the others' stores. They even started traveling together as they followed the market circuit across the state. "Meeting on the side of the street just kind of did it for us. We've been best friends ever since," Bella says.
While they've only been in each other's lives for a year, their friendship was the first thing I noticed when we sat down to interview. Each one couldn't help but gush over the others, sharing an infectious happiness over finding one another that reminded me of how my friends and I support each other. Great female friendship feels like a whole universe aligning to make one special connection possible: a source of strength, inspiration, and hope that pervades into every accessorial aspect of life. For the Noughties trifecta, they insist something cosmic brought them together, with their rhyming names just the start of the synchronicities.
As business owners, they relate through their marketing savvy, aesthetic choices, and natural division of tasks. But second to none is their shared passion for sustainability, which they practice by giving clothes another life to avoid contributing to the fashion industry's massive waste problem. "We want to take old clothes, give them a new home, and just keep reusing them in different ways," says Bella. "It's 2023, shit is going down, and it's only getting worse. We want to do our part."
"The origin was to promote sustainability in fashion, always," says Mariela.
People would often ask her where she buys her clothes, disbelieving when her response was always: Goodwill. "I feel like there's a whole community that doesn't take the time to look in these places, and that's where we come in. We're personal shoppers in a way; we find clothing that is going to be taken to rot and burn and we buy it to give it life through someone else." Anyone who's shopped at thrift stores around Charlotte knows there is never a shortage of clothes, with most stores having racks overflowing with discarded and donated items. Through their businesses, the three girls are on a perpetual treasure hunt to find items left behind to be resold and recirculated around town.
The girls are all business when they tell me about producing the market. Ella edits the reels, Bella designs the flyers, Mariela writes the captions and sends emails. They describe their processes with a succinctness and aptitude that makes it hard to believe their biggest struggle initially was finding a location that believed in them. It took five months to secure a venue — "We had lots of meetings with places that didn't take us seriously because we were young and because we've never done this before," Mariela tells me. Now that they've found their current home at Heist Brewing, they use their position to help those new to the game.
Over 40 vendors applied to sell at their coming April market, with many applicants being new businesses. "We really want to give them that push and exposure so that they can really succeed. The beginning of your business is the most important and we want to support that." says Ella. Bella adds, explaining that many people may feel intimidated to vend initially. "A lot of people get scared if they don't have much on their Instagram or not a lot of followers yet. But that doesn't matter! We want to support you, we want to promote you, we want you to do good."
The Spring edition of Noughties Market CLT will be held Saturday, April 1, 12-6 pm at Heist Brewery and Barrel Arts. A photo booth, tarot readings, tooth gems, and an egg hunt are just some of the interactive activities the trifecta has brewing. There is no other event in Charlotte quite like this one, so plan your fit, bring your friends, and spend the day picking out your new closet.
"The market is my life, and I love it. I knew I never wanted a desk job or a typical 9-5, and college just wasn't for me. And that's totally okay! I found something that I actually love and that is the best thing you can do for yourself." - Ella Vernile.