The rise of the second-hand fashion boutique

Once upon a time, there were vintage shops. Whether big or small, they were typically filled with clothes arranged haphazardly, inevitably chaotic, and dense with that characteristic mix of dust, closed spaces, and humidity that made them unappealing to more snobbish shoppers. If you were lucky, though, among the endless succession of racks and piles of sweaters, you might stumble upon a designer dress at a ridiculously low price – but it was a rare occurrence. Fast forward to today. While vintage shops still exist and are thriving, the exponential growth of the fashion resale market has brought forth a new kind of customer: one who seeks specific brands or styles, is willing to pay high prices, is active on various digital secondhand platforms, and therefore has ample choices and market awareness. This customer is also quite demanding and dislikes rummaging through piles of smelly, anonymous rags to find a single piece. This is how a new type of store emerged: the secondhand fashion boutique. Visitors to these boutiques know they’ll find only luxury brands or at least well-recognized ones, displayed on racks that may be full but are neatly arranged. Most importantly, they can touch and feel everything in person, without having to rely solely on online photos. In Milan, this type of store has a long history, with names like Madame Pauline, Cavalli e Nastri, and the more pop Bivio. Similarly, in the United States, secondhand fashion shops like Crossroads Trading and Buffalo Exchange are thriving, as explained by BoF, successfully competing with omnipresent e-commerce platforms.

Crossroads Trading, which has been in operation for over three decades with 39 stores across the United States, employs a hybrid formula, offering both designer and regular vintage items. However, its purchasing policy focuses only on items appealing to today’s customers. A unique feature: this chain is active on social media but does not have e-commerce and has deliberately decided to remain offline. This is intriguing because many luxury outlet stores and Italian resale shops have adopted e-commerce, which often serves as a weak extension of what is available in the physical store, which remains the centerpiece of the shopping experience. According to BoF, the National Association of Resale Professionals in the US reported a 7% growth in the number of resale and consignment stores in the last two years, indicating increasing interest in this market. Even online resale giants like The RealReal have recognized the potential of physical stores. Rati Levesque, the platform’s president and CEO, stated that opening new stores is a strategic priority to attract more customers and sellers. In short, while the primary advantage of secondhand fashion is obviously affordable prices, the next step for the business could be moving off smartphones and back to the streets. This shift would add the benefits of immediacy in purchasing, the ability to try on clothes, discover new items, and, of course, make shopping a social activity once again.

Another aspect concerns the possible “specialization” of these shops. In the fashion world, stores like AMORE Tokyo and What Goes Around Comes Around, located in Japan and New York respectively, are renowned for specializing in secondhand Louis Vuitton and Hermès bags. The Archivist Store in Paris and Herr Judit in Stockholm, on the other hand, offer normcore gems from the ’90s and early 2000s with a touch of gorpcore. Rosier 41 in Antwerp focuses on local and emerging designers, while OTOO in London offers haute couture—but only by private appointment. Of course, less exclusive specializations also exist: think of stores like Napoleone Vintage in Milan and the Wasteland chain in Los Angeles, a go-to for jeans; Moon Indigo in Amsterdam, which deals exclusively in American garments, and so on. Their growing popularity and gradual evolution into shopping destinations for those “in the know” suggest that the secondhand fashion movement—fueled in part by the massive surplus of clothing created by primary market brands—is poised to move out of the digital realm and into physical retail spaces. These spaces are increasingly divided between mega-fashion boutiques and mega-fast-fashion stores. With high-profile clients like Kim Kardashian and Ariana Grande (or at least their stylists) already frequenting “elevated vintage” shops, it’s likely that growing numbers of young people will start exploring this market in ever-increasing numbers.