California Apparel News

Recently, San Francisco–headquartered luxury resellerThe RealReal encouraged fashion enthusiasts to look back on secondhand trends from the last 10 years. Compiled from sales data and client-survey responses sourced since the company’s founding in 2011, the “2010s Retrospective” report provides insight regarding the power of resale on trends.

According to the report, the top-10 brands and their most popular pieces that generated the highest resale value were Supreme, the Box Logo hoodie; Goyard, the St. Louis tote; Van Cleef & Arpels, the Alhambra bracelet; Hermès, the Birkin bag; Louis Vuitton, the Neverfull bag; Rolex, the GMT-Master; Tiffany & Co., the Bone cuff; Patek Phillippe, the Aquanaut Travel Time; Cartier, the Juste un Clou bracelet; and Moncler, the Moka puffer coat. While these brands performed well over the last decade,Gucci, Fendi and Dior secured the top positions as those that experienced the fastest increase in their resale values.

The RealReal’s chief operations officer, Rati Levesque, noticed an important generational shift that took place within the decade. “Millennials came into their spending power and leveraged it to support a more sustainable future for fashion, becoming the top demographic buying resale,” she said.

Rising by 184 percent, secondhand luxury jewelry saw the highest spending increase, while watches were close behind, climbing by 146 percent. Luxury resale among The RealReal shoppers saw a 66 percent increase in sneaker spending. In the bag category, spending on men’s pieces climbed by 64 percent, with women’s goods rising by 47 percent.

Another area that saw great gains during the decade was the sustainable category within fashion resale. With consumer awareness growing, along with a strong demand for vintage—The RealReal reported an 830 percent increase in searches for vintage over the last two years—the report sees a continuing trend toward increased spending in resale. Stella McCartney reigned as the decade’s bestseller in the sustainable category.

“In the 2010s, there was a mass increase in awareness of the climate-change crisis and the dark side of fashion’s footprint,” Allison Somer, director of strategic initiatives for The RealReal, said in the report. “As we look to the decade ahead, buyers tell us they will make major changes to shop more sustainably than ever before.”

Forty-six percent of The RealReal shoppers surveyed reported that they will increasingly shop sustainable brands and retailers throughout the new decade. The report revealed that 60 percent of shoppers intend to invest in more resale during the 2020s, and 55 percent projected that they will purchase fewer fast-fashion pieces.