RESALE IS THE NEW RETAIL
2018 has seen some new trends hitting high street. Customization and monogramming is in, Margiela hoof shoes are in Topshop, but the trend that has really taken off is the second-hand market.
Earlier this year thredUP released a report citing that the resale market is growing and is projected to outpace the fast fashion market by 2027. Already the margin between the resale market and fast fashion is closing, in 2017 the resale market had a 6% share of the market and fast fashion had only 9%.
Secondhand and vintage have lost their negative stigma and jumped from hippies’ closets into millennials wardrobes. This trend has grown as maybe one of a kind pieces appeal in a world oversaturated by Instagram, or are shoppers finally able to find designer goods for a cheaper price online. Another angle is that buying secondhand is an affordable option to be sustainable. If sustainability is a by product of second hand shopping I am okay with that!
Only about an average of 1% of clothing is recycled, which is staggering considering the US alone throws out 26 billion pounds of clothing and textiles a year, 95 percent of that can be recycled and reused. If everyone in the US shopped resale for a year, it would save 13 trillion gallons of water, enough to cover California’s water needs for 14 years.
To put it in another context how much the resale market is growing, in 2016 the value of secondhand trade was between $1.5 and $3.4 billion and projected to grow to $41 billion dollars by 2022. The growing resale marketing includes different areas of the sharing or circular economy, like renting or swapping clothes. Including subscription services like Rent the Runway and Stitch Fix, that have seen exponential growth in the past few years and continue to thrive in this market.
This acceptance of fashion resale and second-hand market is the beginning of a large ‘circular’ economy and supply chain. An economy that promotes and encourages recycling and reusing materials and goods to limit output and waste. This is where clothes swapping and thrifting are different ways to explore more options to reuse and recycle your clothes! Hopefully raising that statistic to over half of your closet is recycled, reused and swapped!
