Resellers are dialing up their presence at fashion week.
After holding intimate swap events for the past two years, ThredUp is assembling a “Thrifting Suite” and swap event on the eve of New York Fashion Week to “inspire more editors and influencers to wear thrift to NYFW,” according to the company. The invite-only thrifting suite in TriBeCa will be decked out with the reseller’s hand-curated items for fashion week.
Meanwhile, Poshmark is also coaxing influential fashionistas into its ranks. The reseller will return to its peer-to-peer activations with a live selling suite at The Hotel Chelsea for a one-on-one consultation and guided resale experience in late August ahead of NYFW. The Posh team is offering up the service to media and special guests to offload the selling responsibility. Sellers bring in five to 10 items and meet with a closet consultant. From there, all sellers have to do is tune in to a live show, set the price of their goods and watch as viewers bid on their items.
The social aspect is a reigning differentiator at Poshmark. “As social media increasingly accelerates microtrends, consumers are purchasing, wearing and discarding their clothes more than ever,” said Chloe Baffert, head of merchandising and curation at Poshmark. “Shopping secondhand is an easy and sustainable way for consumers to keep up. From the cultural phenomenon of Barbie and highly sought after merch from Beyoncé and Taylor Swift’s summer tours, to Bella Hadid’s soccer-inspired blokette aesthetic dominating the athleisure category, social media trends quickly populate on Poshmark.”
Given National Thrift Shop Day on Aug. 17, promotions ran all month across ThredUp and all week at GoodwillFinds (the e-commerce store for Goodwill), with special promotions and parties popping up from independent sellers on Poshmark.
Though GoodwillFinds has no planned presence at fashion week, Matthew Kaness, chief executive officer of GoodwillFinds, said the company is still riding the thrifting high. “The key to fashion in any era is responding to consumer trends and cultural moments — and given the heightened interest in the circular economy, thrifting is an undeniable component in fashion’s future.”
According to insights from First Research, the used merchandise industry in the U.S. encompasses more than 20,000 stores with combined annual revenue of roughly $15 billion. Publicly listed resale companies are catching their strides as they chase profitability. Reseller ThredUp posed a strong second quarter lifted by new company initiatives while The RealReal further fine-tuned its new strategy under CEO John Koryl.
