PARIS — After 15 years as a stylish brand, luxury resale pioneer Vestiaire Collective is celebrating its anniversary with 250 carefully selected items priced under $15.
With Fendi Baguette Bags, Dior Saddle Belt Pouches, Louis Vuitton Neverfull Totes and Bottega Veneta bags, as well as items from brands such as Gucci, Chloe and Burberry, it’s a treasure hunt for buyers.
The move comes as the company continues to expand its efforts to grow the resale and circular fashion space. The latter three brands are long-standing partners of Vestiaire Collective. As one of the pioneers in the online resale market, Vestiaire Collective has helped build the resale game over its decade and a half of business.
“We’ve made circular fashion a big thing, and that’s something I’m very proud of,” co-founder and president Fanny Mozant asserted. “We have seen an interest and desire for people to consume differently.”
The growth of Vestiere Collective, founded in 2009, is proof of that. Revenues in 2023 increased by 25% to €157 million, with gross merchandise value of €824 million. Mozant argued that increasing the number of new members was more important than increasing basket value.
The United States is currently the French company’s largest market, accounting for more than 20% of its activities, and sales in the country have increased by 57% year-on-year since 2019. The company’s CEO, Maximilian Bittner, has been based in the US since September last year and is focused on continued growth in the region.
Netflix’s recent “Emily in Paris” storyline involving Vestierre is poised to further boost business. This episode increased searches by 30%. As a result, the number of new registrations and listings “significantly surged”, increasing by 30% in Europe and 42% in the United States.
“We are very hopeful that perhaps the most difficult task has been completed and we are on the path to conquering that market and becoming even more successful in the future,” Mozant said.
According to a recent study by the platform ThredUp, the global used clothing market will reach $43 billion in 2023 from $23 billion in 2018, growing about seven times faster than the retail industry as a whole. As consumers become more resale-aware and resale-tolerant, Vestiere aims to continue to shift the sustainability conversation around fashion.
“For the first 10 years, we focused on growing the business and at one point focused on cleaning the house,” Mozant said. The company achieved milestones, including achieving B Corp status and partnering with the nonprofit organization The Or Foundation. Now, Vestiaire’s bold mission is to change the industry itself.
Moizant and co-founder Sophie Hersan started by listing just 3,000 items, mostly sourced from friends and family. To date, the company has sold more than 12 million items. Much of the sales are handbags, with Vestiere tallying more than 2.6 million handbags sold over the years.
According to the company’s research, 80% of second-hand purchases on Vestiaire are not direct purchases, which means approximately 10 million new items are not purchased. Their data shows that the model saved more than 300,000 tons of carbon emissions and diverted more than 4,800 tons of raw materials and 2.9 billion gallons of water from use.
Mozant said Kering’s investment in the company in 2021 was a “significant, large-scale step” towards industry acceptance and represented a new way of thinking about the fashion system. The reasoning goes that if luxury conglomerates can recognize the value in second-hand goods, then brands and buyers can as well.
Famous companies such as Gucci, Burberry, Chloé, and Courrèges participated as partners. Vestiaire has also attracted high-profile, self-proclaimed fans, with Jessica Chastain, Jessica Alba, and Kim Kardashian touting their use of the site.
Mozzant said last year’s AI-generated advertising campaign, which featured large piles of clothing in front of global landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and Times Square, was one of the company’s biggest successes in getting its message across. It is said that
“This campaign was basically a real-life approach to overconsumption and the waste it creates,” she says. This was a turning point for the company, and it was more effective than showing the mountains of waste in the dumps of the Global South. Messages about sustainability walk a fine line between promoting a business without greenwashing and educating without advising, she said.
“It was a new step to touch them personally, almost physically, and imagine what would happen if that waste was on my doorstep. That campaign was completely derailed in a good way. I lost it,” she said of its viral spread.
In its next iteration, the company will continue to foray into policymaking, pushing for a reduction in value-added tax on fees that raise prices for buyers of second-hand fashion at French and European Commission levels. This is an increasingly important theme for Vestiere, as affordability is a top priority for consumers.
“We’ve also incorporated lobbying into our thinking to bring us closer to our mission. Over the past five years, we’ve scaled up without forgetting who we are. We dug deeper into our mission and vision,” Mozant said.
The company is currently planning additional programs with The Or Foundation, which is working to transform the current fashion business model and focuses on clothing waste. Mr Mosanto said his next projects include bringing “another industry” to Ghana. Ghana imports around 15 million used clothes every week, which has an extreme impact on the environment.
The company’s third phase of its “fast fashion ban” included Asos, Boohoo, Shein and Topshop in the first phase in 2022, and was extended last year to H&M, Gap, Mango, Uniqlo and Zara. It is expected to be revealed at an early stage. November.
The company signed a petition by American Circular Textiles Group addressing resale tax earlier this summer and is working to publish an open letter on fast fashion by the end of the year.
“We’re trying to move the needle to make a big impact,” Mozant said of the company’s move toward more political action.
The new drop aims to maintain Vestière’s unique balance. “We have it firmly in our DNA to be activists, but we’re also very playful and very appealing in the way we run our business,” she said. “Vestiaire is very playful as a platform, and this campaign meets both of these values.”
This drop includes exclusive items for the Asian, European, and US markets. This selection can be purchased for less than $15 (pounds, euros depending on region) and will be released worldwide at noon CET on Tuesday.
