From hand to hand: How resale saves the world from overproduction of things
Text: Alyona Belaya
In conflicting times, we live. On the one hand, over the past couple of years it has become completely clear that consumer patterns of people have changed dramatically: uncontrolled shopaholism and ostentatious luxury have become a mauveton, impersonal normcore - a new philosophy of life, and the concept of “better but better” is the motto of many modern people.
New sheepskin coat Acne Studios costs about $ 2,800. Almost half the price you can buy at Vestiaire {Collective}
Only here, on the other side of the barricades, the same mass market is standing, which shoots new collections every two weeks, and luxury brands, sure - their customer does not want to wait half a year to buy the thing they like, so all seasonal new items should go to the store straight from podium. It is clear that the modern world in general and the retail world in particular are about the diversity of choices. If you want - confess the ideology of slow life and reduce the number of things necessary for life to a minimum; want to - rush headlong into consumerist joys. And everything would go on as usual, if a third perspective balancing somewhere between these two extremes loomed on the horizon.
In 2009, Sebastien Fabre, the head of one of the Microsoft departments, decided to create a website for his wife where she could sell her many branded bags. The situation is standard: I bought it for the future, and as a result, a good half lies idle. Over time, other equally crazy shopaholics joined Madame Fabre, and the Vestiaire {Collective} website turned into one of the most large-scale sales sites for used (or not) things. Today the project is estimated at 77 million euros, and last year the publishing giant Condé Nast decided to invest an additional $ 20 million in it. This step says a lot: if such sites as Vogue, Glamor, GQ and other Kondenastovskie online horns plan to carry the idea of “secondary shopping” to the masses, it means that the idea is really promising.
The “hand to hand” sector today is about like a vintage about five years ago. Yes, the very thought of things that someone had already worn for you, some cause a feeling of disgust, but the whole story has found a rather large circle of connoisseurs - the users of Vestiaire {Collective} alone are already over 4 million. Even in Russia, where the vintage culture has penetrated for a long time and in some places painfully, there is a good perspective from the retail sites.
Among the current 20-30-year-olds who grew up on mothers and grandmothers' stories about relationships with clothes in Soviet times, when everything was re-darned several times, was reworked in a fashionable fashion and worn out by older relatives, the stereotype “new - good, old - badly". But as time went on, the economic situation changed, and the former skepticism towards second-hand things gradually faded away. Today, we no longer neglect the rare garage sales and swap parties, we gladly not only sell, but also buy online (here someone likes Avito people's resale site, but someone is closer to the "group of anonymous shopaholics" in social networks. Designer clothes , shoes and accessories have been successfully selling and buying for years at the online shop of the Second Friend Store, while offline shopping lovers are storming the main Moscow second-hand Megastil in search of things unique in their charming ugliness. hundred ko need much fun.
Project The RealReal helps things to gain a new life. For example, this jacket Barbara Bui. A jacket from the new collection of the same brand costs twice as much
But professional resale sites have obvious advantages. First, to choose something worthwhile from a hundred things, you will not have to spend a couple of hours indoors, smelling of mothballs and forever gone young. And secondly, the interface of such online stores does not give them the place of the former fashion glory: it is usually made in the best traditions of retailers like Net-A-Porter or Matchesfashion with nice looking clips, colorful banners and eye-catching street-style pictures ( not for practical use, but for beauty. The main thing, of course, is not much beating on the wallet prices, especially in comparison with the originally indicated on the tags. It is clear that in modern realities Prada blouse even for $ 90 is a significant waste, but with this hundred bucks you get: a) quality; and b) the thing that does not have to be sent to the scrap at the end of the season (for comparison, a lightweight jacket made of polyester in Zara now costs about the same).
Such an approach to shopping fits perfectly into the concept of “buy less, choose carefully”, which we have already written about, and the pleasure of non-impulsive shopping stirs the quite democratic price range. And another thing: the numerous bags, dresses and shoes, which you remember from your own Instagram-tape or trend-reports from fashionable weeks, just a couple of seasons later look hopelessly empty and outdated. Retail is an excellent prevention against bouts of shopaholism: you will think how many endless shoes it has and must haves (including in the interpretation of the mass market) eventually turn out to be sold for resale, and any desire to spend money on them.
But the main argument in favor of resale sites is different. Every year in the world 80 billion units of clothing are sold, of which only 10% are destined to be donated to charity. Over 13 million tons of textiles are sent to scrap, only 15% of which is recycled and has a second life. Here and there we hear about the initiatives of industry players to make a contribution to the support of ecology: they will decide to change old things into new ones, then pay Bangladeshi "petites mains" two dollars per hour instead of one and a half.
But let's be frank: when a brand that produces 600 million items of clothing a year shows similar attacks on humanity, it looks no more significant than a drop in the sea (well, and a little more hypocrisy). And in the end, it still provokes buying even more cheap things, even if they managed to go through a certain karmic circle.
The Russian Second Friend Store is a local pioneer in the field of resale. By the way, the new Lanvin leather bag will cost no less than 60,000 rubles.
Perhaps it would be more expedient not to rely on global corporations (which in the end are always aimed at increasing their own profits), but to make their own, albeit small, contribution. For example, pay attention to resale sites like the same Vestiaire {Collective} or the American The RealReal and accumulate the idea of "the circulation of things in nature." Seriously, when you wade through dozens of pages with an assortment of all kinds, you understand how much really cool, high-quality, and often completely new clothes turned out to be useless. And that, perhaps, in your wardrobe at least one such thing will take root much better than a couple of next synthetic blouses from the mass market.
There is one more thing - emotional. We often say here that in an era of crisis (not only financial, by the way), people want to invest not just in depersonalized things, experience and experiences are much more important to them. So, such resources (as well as some global online outlet like Yoox) are an example of shopping coupled with an emotional context, and this is one of the reasons for their popularity. It's one thing to come to the store for a dream dress, and it is quite another to find it as a result of a long or not so much hunt, along the way giving it your own story. There is some kind of excitement in this, which, however, does not allow you to lose control - after all, the story here is not from the series “all at 99 cents.” As Carla Gallardo, co-founder of the Cuyana brand, said: “Fewer, better things”: “When you think of quality, not quantity, you pay much more attention to the selection process.” And honestly, nothing helps to get rid of the habit of littering the wardrobe with unnecessary things, like such a strict selection, - I checked.
Photo: Opening Ceremony