London's Link and Lace

Resale has gone from charity-shop secret to fashion week fixture, and the numbers explain why brands have stopped sneering

Pre-Loved Fashion at London Fashion Week: Resale Takes the Runway

I own a coat that belonged to a woman called Margaret. I know this because her name is sewn into the lining. I bought it for forty pounds in a shop off Brick Lane eleven years ago, and it has outlasted every coat I have bought new. I think of Margaret often and warmly.

I mention her because second-hand clothing has become one of the most important stories in the fashion business, and this season it was on the official fashion week schedule. The trade press, reporting the programme in July, noted that eBay returns with Endless Runway, London Fashion Week’s pre-loved runway show, shoppable via eBay Live. Returns. This is not a novelty. It is a fixture.

What the Show Is

The concept is simple and rather clever. Models walk in second-hand pieces. The audience, in the room and online, can buy what they see through a live shopping stream. Each item is a one-off. If someone else gets the jacket, it is gone.

That last point is the genius of it. Fashion has always sold scarcity. Resale has the real thing. There is exactly one of Margaret’s coat.

Why the Industry Changed Its Mind

Ten years ago, luxury brands regarded resale as a threat or an embarrassment. A second-hand bag was a sale they did not make. That view has collapsed, for three reasons I find persuasive.

First, money. Younger customers buy and sell clothes as a matter of course. They check the resale value before they purchase. A brand whose pieces hold their price is a brand worth buying new. Resale has become a measure of desirability.

Second, the cost of living. Wardrobes are being built on apps. People who cannot afford a new designer piece can afford one that has been worn twice.

Third, regulation and reputation. Fashion’s environmental record is poor and everyone knows it. The same previews that listed the shows noted that sustainability requirements introduced earlier this year remain firmly in place for the week. Keeping garments in use for longer is the least contestable green claim a clothing company can make.

The Honest Bit

I want to be careful here, because resale is sometimes sold as absolution. It is not. If you buy a second-hand dress and also buy the six new ones you would have bought anyway, you have not helped the planet. You have acquired seven dresses. Resale reduces harm only when it replaces new purchases.

There is also the question of who profits. A platform that takes a commission on every sale has an interest in volume, which is not quite the same as an interest in restraint. And the working conditions of the people who made the garment in the first place are not improved by its second sale.

None of that makes pre-loved a bad thing. It makes it a good thing that should not be oversold.

London Has Always Done This

What amuses me is the idea that any of this is new. London has been a second-hand city for centuries. Petticoat Lane was selling used clothing when the Stuarts were on the throne. Portobello, Camden, Brick Lane: generations of Londoners assembled a look from other people’s cast-offs because they had taste and no money.

The art school student in a 1970s suit jacket and her grandmother’s brooch is the capital’s signature. What has changed is the infrastructure. What used to require a Saturday and sharp elbows now requires a phone.

The Shops

I worry a little for the physical ones. Charity shops and vintage dealers are competing with apps that list millions of items. The good news is that they offer what an app cannot: touch, fit, the thrill of a rail. The best London vintage shops are curated by people with an eye, and that is worth paying for. If you have a favourite, use it.

How to Buy Well

Since this is meant to be a useful column, some advice from a woman who has made every mistake.

Check fabric before label. A good wool from an unknown maker beats a tired polyester from a famous one.

Look at seams, linings and buttonholes. Quality shows on the inside.

Know your measurements, not your size. Sizing has drifted over the decades. A vintage twelve is not a modern twelve.

Budget for alterations. A tailor can make a bargain fit like bespoke.

Smell it. I am serious.

What It Says About Fashion Week

A pre-loved show on the schedule tells you the trade has accepted that clothes have a life after the first sale and that there is money in it. I find that cheering. It is the one corner of the week where nothing new had to be manufactured for the occasion.

Margaret, wherever she is, would approve. She clearly looked after her things.

And Something Lighter

The British love of a bargain is well documented. The London Prat documents it further in its British satirical news on second-hand clothes and London satirical news about charity shops. You will find more from my fashion desk on the same site. Bohiney Magazine covers thrift in America.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/