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Thesis on Fashion Resale
Notions of sentimentality or symbolism in possessions, not to mention clothes, have steadily been brushed aside in the wake of modernity’s celebration of continuous newness and self-reinvention. Our dismissal of things and ideas that once rooted us to the past or our immediate surroundings is perhaps best seen in fashion, never failing in provoking individual reinvention, triggering a seasonal discharge of still-intact garments onto our landfills. Resale promises a solution. Resale extends the life-time of the garment by paving an alternative route away from the hungry towers of smoke impairing earth’s capability to breath, instead leading to new beholders hopefully capable to grant it the use that it deserves.
Resale platforms have been trending for the past one or two years. Its presence on media including BoF and numerous trend reports testifies to its market-shifting potential. Several high profile brands across the price-spectrum have recently begun to flirt with the idea recognizing the amount of income that can be generated from new types of consumers, with the prime example being Gucci’s recent collaboration with TheRealReal.
From the individual’s perspective, the ability to access a global catalogue of clothes while simultaneously effortlessly being able to dispose of excess, alleviates certain significant previous barriers; garments in the wardrobe can now be liquidated and used for others ones at level of convenience previously impossible.
Environmental hopes given to these platforms start to fade with the knowledge that its users aren’t necessarily more environmentally conscious and tend to shop more overall than non-users. Moreover, resale platforms provide a vastness of choice for a penny on the dollar with a level of convenience that match the most renowned retailers. Lastly, every transaction requires packing and shipping, contributing to material waste and CO2 emissions.
This thesis intends to explore whether resale platforms influence the relationship we have with our clothing and if this has any implications for its status as a potential mitigator of fashion’s environmental waste. Theoretically, the thesis roots itself in the idea of Liquid Consumption, which is based on Bauman’s Liquid Modernity, coupled with concepts from Fashion Theory having to do with the wardrobe in particular.
This study undertakes a qualitative research strategy with an abductive approach. The primary data consists of semi-structured interviews conducted with consumers of the younger generation who are frequent users of online resale platforms and holds a noticeable interest in fashion. The interview data was analyzed thematically in a structure of first order and second order concepts.
Our findings indicate a further disintegration of a long-term relationship with garments among active users of resale platforms. The garments’ monetary value on the marketplace, in most cases, outweighed its personal symbolic or sentimental value. As a consequence, the time of ownership appears to have narrowed among the users. They appear to endure an abnormally high inflow and outflow of garments enabled by the convenience of these websites providing a vastness of clothes and the ability to quickly find buyers. The high rate at which users sift through clothes and the realization that resale is on a trajectory to become increasingly popular, suggests a dark side of circularity able to cause more harm than good to the environment. We argue that resale platforms are a manifestation of society’s steady progression towards liquidity and liquid forms of consumption and ownership valuing access, convenience, and transience.