Pre-Loved Fashion: Is it Taking Off?

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Pre-Loved Fashion Is it Taking Off?
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As a part of growing up, many of us have the
experience of inheriting or taking over the
clothes of our siblings or sometimes even our
parents or other close family members or friends.
There must be so many reasons for invading the
closet of a close family member or friend.
Sometimes we just loved the fitting. Sometimes it
is the quality. Sometimes it turned out to look
good on us. Sometimes it might also have been a
necessity. Sometimes there are emotional strings
attached. It is all hunky-dory as long as closet
invasions are within family or very close
friends. Things can get a little wishy-washy when
it comes to owning a dress or a pair of shoes
that belong to a stranger. It might not sound
comforting to many people until the sides flipped
and they become that stranger. Suddenly, the
game is even-handed as most people frequently
experience the need to get rid of their excess or
unwanted clothes or footwear or any other fashion
merchandise. In addition to charity, they could
also sell some of their relatively expensive
clothes or footwear. On the buyers side, they
are able to leap forward in adopting fashion
trends at a fraction of market prices provided
the quality or condition of the products meet the
expectations of buyers. Some of the reasons for
adopting pre-loved clothes like sustainability
and minimalism are assuming far greater
importance than any idea of reluctance to don
pre-loved fashion. Commercialisation also plays
its fair share in creating a greater societal
acceptance level for pre-owned or pre-loved
fashion. Today, there are a plethora of accounts
on social media platforms that offer pre-loved
fashion merchandise.
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What is Pre-Loved Fashion? Pre-loved fashion is
a type of fashion styling in which people use
clothes, footwear, or any other fashion wear
previously owned by someone else. When we say
pre-loved clothes or fashion or used luxury
clothing or pre-owned designer clothes, it
includes products that are in good quality and
condition for their expected use. It can also
include unique and vintage products (say a
particular design of a jeans or shoe brand that
it no longer manufactures). Some categories do
not fit into the brackets of pre-loved but
still count because of the value to the next
buyer. Something bought recently (say the
original buyer did not like it and there is no
time left for return exchange so they offered it
for sale via their social media channels) also
comes under pre-loved fashion. Pre-loved also
includes gifts that the receiver did not like or
did not want to keep. Practically speaking,
pre-loved fashion is fashion merchandise changing
hands while still in the quality and condition
for its intended use. It is not necessary that
just because a piece of cloth or pair of shoes is
pre-loved or pre-owned will be available at a
throwaway price. The pricing also depends on how
a seller values something. In many ways selling
pre-owned items is like a mini business. You
should know the real worth of what you are
offering and who realises that worth along with
the timing of your offering. For example, there
may be fewer buyers of your extra winter clothes
in the season of spring or summer. Prevailing
local social norms and expectations also affect
the demand for and pricing of pre-loved clothes,
used luxury clothing, pre-owned designer clothes,
and other such fashion merchandise.
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Push for Sustainability The growth of pre-loved
fashion is fuelled by several factors and most of
them are personal in nature. These include
de-cluttering of wardrobes, adoption of
minimalism, jumping to fashion trends
economically, etc. There is also a growing
segment of customers who indulge in the buying
and selling of pre-loved fashion to promote
sustainability and address environmental concerns
often attached to the fashion industry. Buying
pre-loved fashion, used luxury clothing, and
pre-owned designer clothes reduces the demand for
clothes and other fashion merchandise
contributing to a reduction in excessive
consumerism. In the face of reduced market
demand, manufacturers also tend to reduce their
production levels in proportionate levels. This,
in the bigger picture, has the potential to bring
down the carbon footprint of factories,
warehouses, offices, and logistics. Such changes
might be minimal in the current context but if
practised at mass levels across the world, the
impact would be quite visible. This will
also create a business case for fashion
brands, designers, and manufacturers to focus
more on sustainable fashion and making fashion
sustainable. A stark reminder of conscious
consumerism was the pandemic of 2020 that made us
appreciate the basic requirements of life and our
obese economies went crumbling at that. It is not
that new clothes or shoes are not required but it
is worth considering if our needs and desires
could be also met with pre-owned merchandise.
Besides, pre-loved fashion is also a facet of
sustainable fashion.
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Impact of Demographics Pre-loved fashion is most
popular among GenZ and late Millennials. People
from younger age groups tend to remain a little
untethered by traditional norms of fashion. This
not only applies to their sense of fashion but
also to how they buy fashion. Online shopping
serves as a suitable example here. Young shoppers
show less reluctance in buying clothes and
footwear from online channels while people in
upper age groups tend to show concerns of
validation with online shopping. Pre-loved
fashion is another such adventurous front for
young shoppers. In this digital age, GenZ and
Millennials collectively represent a more updated
generation in terms of trends and developments in
a wide range of fields. Developments in any field
anywhere in the world no longer remain hidden
from people. Pre-loved fashion has been in
existence in the digital world for quite some
time now and more and more people are becoming
aware of it. Since younger people are more prone
to be denizens, they are more exposed to the
trends and developments in the world of
fashion. For the past couple of decades,
environmental science has been a subject in
school syllabuses. This has helped instil the
attitude of concern for the planet and
environment in children from an early age. Today,
these people represent the lions share of the
working class who are buyers and customers. This
combined with the constant proliferation of
information via online platforms helps keep
people on their toes on environmental issues.
Because of their growing share in demographic
compositions, what they do carries a larger
impact.
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Growing Availability of Online Platforms The
availability of the platforms is an essential
ingredient in the creation and growth of trading
and commerce. Fundamentally speaking, there has
to be a marketplace where buyers and sellers can
meet and transact. So, even if there is a
potential market for pre-loved fashion, buyers
and sellers would still need a marketplace or a
platform via which they can carry out the process
of buying and selling pre-loved clothes online. 
Today, there are a large number of online
platforms available for pre-loved fashion
merchandise. This not just includes brands and
businesses but also many social media influencers
and celebrities. There is a different kind of
appeal and attraction in this novel way of buying
fashion merchandise. It is capable of leaving
behind surface-level hesitations of buying
pre-owned merchandise. Since a large number of
smartphone users today are comfortable using
social media and shopping online, the presence of
brands and businesses dealing in pre-loved
fashion merchandise with the right eCommerce
capabilities paves a familiar way of shopping
either via social posts or online storefronts.
This way, all the necessary ingredients required
to foster the growth of pre-loved fashion
assimilate in one place. About YRC We are a
retail and eCommerce consulting brand with 10
years of experience in providing customised
business startup and management solutions. With a
scaling global footprint, YRC has served more
than 500 clients in 25 verticals. In fashion
business consulting, YRC offers planning and
implementation services and solutions for
business setup and growth and expansion
missions. To know more about our fashion and
apparel business consulting services or to speak
to one of our expert fashion retail business
consultants, please drop us a note and we will
shortly reach out to you.