By: Zaib-Un-Nisa
Step into Lahore’s Landa Bazaar and the most striking change may not be in the clothes, but in who is shopping for them. Across Pakistan, “thrift” has become a fashionable name for what we used to call Landa Bazaar—second-hand clothes bought because they were affordable. But the language change reflects something bigger. For decades, Landa markets were a sanctuary for those who could not shop at regular retail stores. Today, though, the same markets attract people for very different reasons. Some come looking for familiar brands, others for clothes that feel unique, and many simply enjoy the excitement of finding something they would not come across in an ordinary store. Two things have helped drive this change: the rising cost of living and the portrayal of fashion on social media. According to Dawn, Pakistan imported a record 1.137 million tonnes of used clothing worth $511 million in FY2025. With this transition, we saw the emergence of a distinct type of shopper—one who sees second-hand clothing as something to hunt for, style, sell and even build a brand around.
The Landa Bazaar is still there. What has changed is the community around it.
Landa Bazaar’s origins, like much of Pakistan’s cultural fabric, are rooted in folklore. One popular story says the word comes from Linda, supposedly the wife of a British colonial officer who collected old clothes and handed them out to local people during the winter. It is an interesting story, but there is little evidence to show that it is actually true. What is clearer is how Landa fits into a much bigger business network. Imported second-hand clothes enter Pakistan through major trading centres, before being sorted, moved around and eventually sold in markets across the country.
The Landa Bazaar’s economic function, however, has never been static. During the decades following Partition, Landa Bazaars were predominantly owned by Pashtun traders and were concentrated around colonial-era railway hubs and northern transit routes, from Karachi to the frontier regions of Peshawar. Markets like the Coat Wali Gali in Narankari Bazaar, Rawalpindi, became the grounds for selling used imported garments.
The large-scale rejection of these bazars ran deep. Expenditure on such grounds was a declaration of one’s financial incapacity. A narrow gali was socially coded as a place for those who could not afford new clothes. For Muslims and Hindus, there was shame in wearing another’s garments. For them, these clothes carried remnants of the former owner’s polluted spirit. Finally, wearing western clothing was seen as a submission to imperialism. Already struggling to maintain their identities, Indians clung tightly to local attire. This was exacerbated due to Landa’s presumptuous ties to Linda. Due to the stigma, shopkeepers would be ashamed of their occupation, readily accepting low prices due to limited customers and often justifying their presence with a mere “I work here, simply to continue my family’s legacy.”
Today, the Landa Bazaar looks very different.
This historical stigma did not erode overnight; it was a result of economic pressures alongside global fashion culture that ultimately gave a new identity to second- hand clothing. Important progressions took place post-partition. The post-partition decades saw major transitions. In 2019, Dawn reported that rising prices and shrinking purchasing power were driving more customers toward Rawalpindi’s second-hand markets, a trend that had already been documented as early as 2002. But today’s growing interest in second-hand shopping is not driven by affordability alone. The Global South sought influence from a cultural shift brewing in the West. Growing concern over fast fashion and textile waste helped reposition second-hand clothing as a more sustainable alternative to buying new. In Pakistan, social media gave the old market a new storefront. Instagram let sellers move Landa Bazaar away from the piles of clothes and crowded stalls that people had long associated with it, and onto carefully photographed pages filled with “drops,” brand names and carefully put-together looks.
Landa Bazaar now uniquely catered to Pakistan’s internet native youth. When I spoke to young thrift shoppers, I kept hearing the same thing: they went to Landa Bazaar for the aesthetic. Goth, grunge and other internet-born styles can be hard to find in regular stores, but easy to stumble upon in a pile of second-hand clothes. It was no longer “dusty” or “worn out” but rather “rare” and “vintage”.
This, coupled with their incredibly low prices, fueled the trend. Finding a shirt worth Rs300 while other fashion giants charged upward of Rs3,000 became the only viable choice.
Today, teenagers are advancing from being passive consumers to active entrepreneurs. They use their special eye for curation to acquire the unparalleled finds. These shirts, originally bought for Rs250, are then exquisitely photographed and posted online to be sold for Rs2500. This stark markup is a textbook case of digital arbitrage: the same item is bought in one market and sold in another, where consumers are willing to pay more for the convenience, curation and presentation. This margin justifies the cost of digital intermediation and visits to overwhelmingly male-dominated spaces.
The changing demographics of the Landa Bazaar have significantly altered its power dynamics. Some longtime sellers now talk about the trade more openly, seeing it simply as a family business rather than something they need to keep quiet about. With a larger influx of customers, the shopkeepers have become more rigid with prices, no longer submitting to exploitative reductions. “We don’t negotiate the way we used to,” said Muhammad Ali, a second-hand clothing seller in Lahore’s Model Bazaar, Township. Having been part of Pakistan’s online thrift scene myself, I’ve also noticed another side of this shift: sometimes, it feels like sellers decide what to charge based on what they think a customer can afford.
Interestingly, this cultural shift carries a paradox: the agents responsible for the popularity of the Landa Bazaar have also greatly reduced its accessibility for those who need it. With higher demand from affluent consumers, prices rise with them, making it harder for people who have always relied on second-hand clothes because they simply could not afford new ones. Ultimately, this shifting demographic landscape proves that even poverty can be packaged into a luxury, if given the right name.
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Sources & Reporting
Khan, Aamir Shafaat. “Worn clothing imports rise as poverty surges to 45pc.” Dawn, 15 August 2025.
Yasin, Aamir. “Pre-partition landa bazaars in Rawalpindi a ‘blessing’ for inflation-hit citizens.” Dawn, 2 December 2019.
A.S.K. “Second hand garments import touches Rs2bn.” Dawn, 21 July 2002.
Omer, Shahab. “Online Landa — the Instagram ‘thrift store’ arbitrage racket.” Profit by Pakistan Today, 10 October 2021.
Primary reporting by the author: Conversations with young thrift shoppers and sellers in Lahore, 2026.
