You might be surprised to learn that there's an online clothing resale marketplace based in Duluth, Minnesota that competes with sites like eBay and Poshmark. It’s called Noihsaf Bazaar, which is “fashion” spelled backward, and it fits the brand’s ethos.
Noihsaf Bazaar began as an Instagram account in 2013 when Kate Lindello (‘05) sought ways to sell her gently used clothing. Her followers were so interested in what she was posting that they began asking her to post items on their behalf, so she began curating submissions and taking a small fee on sales.
At the time, Lindello worked as a freelance photo stylist and cared for her young daughter. Her resale business began to take off.
“It got to the point where it was taking up all of my time, and I had to pick if I was going to pursue my styling career or if I was actually going to try to build out a platform,” Lindello said.
Faced with the decision, Lindello turned to UMD’s Center for Economic Development, where she learned how to make a business plan and a pitch deck. The process took a while, but in 2019, she hired a developer, and in 2022, she officially launched the Noihsaf Bazaar platform. Now, she has two employees and works out of an office on London Road overlooking Lake Superior. That view serves as a grounding presence, “a reminder of what is important and what I value.”
Lindello earned degrees in environmental and political science at UMD. It was in Professor Emeritus Mike Mageau’s ecological economics class that she was inspired to think more deeply about the environmental impact of consumerism. She learned, for instance, that a five-dollar shirt really isn’t five dollars; there are hidden labor and natural resource costs involved, too. Those early lessons strengthened her interest in sustainable fashion and ultimately laid the foundation for her business.
“My education has helped shape what Noihsaf has become,” Lindello said. “We believe in sustainable fashion, but I also want to grow in a sustainable way as a business.”
Initially, she wrestled with the notion that fashion is vain, but when she learned that she could hold compassion for both the environment and her love of fashion simultaneously, she felt fulfilled in the work. Lindello is careful not to “greenwash” or misrepresent the sustainable efforts of her business when communicating with her audience. For example, she’s not going to talk about how many trees she’s saved by selling secondhand clothing. Instead, the sustainability mission of her brand shows up in other ways, like how all listings are deleted after 60 days to reduce digital clutter, or the platform’s blog that educates her community on how to maintain the clothing they already own instead of buying new.
“We're considered slow fashion,” she said. “We're trying to do things mindfully and slowly.” - Kate Lindello ('05)
Still, Noihsaf Bazaar has grown quickly. A large part of its success comes from Lindello's eye for design, her careful curation, and the community she has fostered—a community that loves fashion but is also concerned about the environmental impacts of the fashion industry. For Lindello, her success is a testament to staying true to her values. “You can have both,” she said.
Most of the Noihsaf Bazaar community live in more fashion-forward cities like New York and L.A., and when Lindello takes business calls with people on the coasts, most are surprised to learn she lives in Duluth. But looking out her office window at the expanse of Lake Superior, her own inland coast, she said she takes pride in building her business here.
“Duluth is exactly where I need to be,” she said.