Just past the Mayo Hospital is Landa bazaar. Or more precisely a Landa bazaar, as there is another further east running between Lahore Railway Station and the Delhi Gate of the old town. Both specialise in second hand clothes, much of it imported, and stacked high on barrows and folding tables.
M___ and A_____ and I went on Friday after the Juma prayers. The weather is turning cold now and warm clothes – sweaters, scarves and jackets – were the order of the day.
They were there in abundance. There is no system to any of the stalls but the shopkeepers know exactly which three foot stack of sweaters might be your size, if not your colour. Some of it is appalling – clothes donated to charity shops in the UK and Scotland that did not sell and were shipped here in container loads. Hand knits from the Shetland Islands seemed the worst, bold geometries in lurid purples and greens set against pale mustard yellow.
There were also treasures. The scarf stall. Fancy brands, lost in railway stations or theatres, or abandoned at dry cleaners, claim tags still attached. A_____ and I bought Burberry for some small fraction of the original price.
On earlier visits I had found men's shirts, handmade in London. Some never worn, button holes crisp and still stiff with starch.
But mostly it was sweaters, and M___ and A______ would pull items from piles, hold them up against themselves [there are no change rooms] and ruthlessly bargain to reduce the already low prices. The shopkeepers are of course all male, even in the stalls selling lingerie. It was quite sport to watch them cave.
