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Introduction
Fashion commentators around the world remarked upon the vintage dress worn by England's Princess Beatrice at her wedding ceremony, loaned by her grandmother, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (Ledbetter, 2020). The UK-based fashion ecommerce platform Lyst reported that in the 48 h following Princess Beatrice's ceremony, online searches for “vintage wedding dress” increased by nearly 300 per cent (Farra, 2020). This notable example of the rise of both consumer and commentator interest in pre-owned fashion across multiple markets during the pandemic may indicate some significant medium-term business trends across the sector.
Pre-owned apparel and accessories may be categorized as follows (Gordon and Hill, 2015):
Recycled (or second-hand or used): an existing garment which is re-distributed to new owners, either to family members or through resale.
Vintage: an existing/recycled garment with a designer label, or a style that fits within a contemporary fashion trend.
Upcycled: a new garment created using fabric, etc., from existing garments.
By its nature, pre-owned fashion may offer retailers and consumers a more “sustainable” alternative to the fast-fashion industry, whose manufacturing processes are often high in water usage, chemical pollutants and carbon emissions McFall-Johnson, M. (2020). Recycled or natural fabrics may reduce carbon emissions but may still use significant amounts of water and dye, while requiring significant time to decompose (Ro, 2020). With these factors in mind – and partly in response to the significant decline in new apparel sales due to 2020 restrictions – several designers and brands highlighted upcycled materials and/or vintage apparel in their 2021 collections – for example the “Levi's SecondHand” pre-owned denim apparel initiative (Farra, 2020). These developments have contributed to a number of experiments in pre-owned monetization: for example, the UK-based Shwap app aims to facilitate the authenticity of pre-owned items for resale by consumers (Webb, 2021a).
The growth in pre-owned fashion is not confined to consumers in the northern hemisphere. While many older consumers in China may have negative perceptions of pre-owned fashion, a 2020 joint report by China's University of International Business and Economics and pre-owned luxury goods platform Isheyipai indicated that 52 per cent of pre-owned luxury consumers in China are under 30 years old (Nanlin et al., 2020).
China's neighbour Vietnam presents a compelling site of exploration...