Nearly every fashion editor I know has a story (or several) on unearthing a vintage gem. Mine is sourcing a classic Burberry trench coat for just over £100, a jacket I’m convinced managed to land me my job at Who What Wear. One colleague managed to snap up a gorgeous Valentino blouse for £30, and another found a checked Aquascutum jacket that fitted perfectly for a mere 15 quid. I’ve spent many years trawling vintage fashion shops, and it never fails to give me joy. Even now, when shops remain shut, I enjoy looking through online sites to find hidden secondhand pieces.
But vintage shopping is no longer the pastime for those of us who have the patience to go through hundreds of pre-loved garments. Resale fashion is having a resurgence, and 2020 has been unlike any year we’ve seen before. According to the Business of Fashion, "Before the pandemic hit, the resale market was on track to double from $24 billion in 2019 to $51 billion by 2024… This growth may very well accelerate."
What this tangibly means is that we're all shopping secondhand more than ever. I spoke to a host of resale, luxury vintage, and secondhand sites that have all experienced growth over the last 12 months, especially so since March. Depop CEO Maria Raga said that the business has doubled its turnover since lockdown began and that there are over 25 million users on the platform, spanning 147 countries. It’s a similar story over on Vestiaire Collective. Sophie Hersan, the brand's fashion director and co-founder, told me that by June the luxury resale site saw a 144% YoY growth in sales. And Katie McNaughton at Open for Vintage revealed it’s been the site’s biggest year to date. This isn’t just an accident, so what’s driving such big popularity in resale fashion? Why now?
The biggest and most obvious driver is, of course, COVID-19. It has, perhaps unsurprisingly, transformed the way we shop. While the pandemic negatively hit high-street and luxury retailers selling new clothing, resale went the opposite way. Thanks to budgets being stretched, vintage and pre-loved sites saw, and continue to see, incredible growth. Those of us in fashion aren't particularly surprised by this trend, as the resale market already looked set to boom—just last year Burberry teamed up with RealReal to tap into the secondhand area.
And it's easy to see why resale fashion is getting bigger. It is a great leveller, available to everyone and at every budget. It essentially democratises the industry, allowing everyone access to brands and trends that might have seemed too expensive before. Unlike fast fashion, however, it doesn't cause as much damage to the environment and on the whole is considered to be a great sustainable fashion option.
When I spoke to Kate Peters, global managing director of Beyond Retro, she said the reason people love it is that "vintage offers a chance to find unique, on-trend pieces without the negative impact on the environment or bank balance."
Similarly at Depop, Raga says that its users, whose average age is under 26 "are extremely conscious of reducing their impact on the planet and have a passion and innate desire for change, transparency, and challenging the status quo."
When you combine the pandemic and its effects with a shift in consumer behaviour towards more sustainable options in a way that affords you the chance to show your creativity, you have yourself the perfect fashion storm. But I wanted to know more than the above. Now that I knew why and how, I wanted to know what everyone is buying. Pulling together all the information I gathered from Beyond Retro, Depop, Vestiaire Collective, and Open for Vintage, as well as global fashion search platform Lyst, I found out just what everyone is shopping for right now—from the brands customers want to the products and the eras we can't seem to stop shopping.
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