OPINION | used clothing vs. new clothes: the new fashion obsession

Editor's note: Mari Rodríguez Ichaso has been a contributor to Vanidades magazine for several decades. She is a specialist in fashion, travel, gastronomy, art, architecture and entertainment, a film producer and a style columnist for CNN en Español. The opinions expressed in this column are solely his own. Read more opinion pieces at cnne.com/opinion.

(CNN Spanish) -- I begin my comment with an anecdote:

My mother dressed like a queen. Tall, slim, with a great style of her own and innate good taste, during the many years that she lived in New York, all of her clothes were from thrift shops or second hand stores!

As we were exiles from Cuba, with very few (very few) means when we arrived in the city –and mom had a used objects store around the corner– that was her salvation to dress well and she loved visiting her every day! returned home with true wonders!

And so – for just a few dollars – she bought a divine vintage bag, she discovered a blue crystal brooch by Kenneth Lane, which was a beauty. A 1950s hat from Lily Dache. A black Dior dress that was a jewel. She also bought clothes for my brother and me.

And she once bought a dozen Ferragamo shoes – that looked 100% new – that she paid $1 a pair for, and they lasted the rest of her life! "I couldn't believe they were my size and I bought them all," she said. "They were donated by a lady who lives on Fifth Avenue and she can't wear heels anymore."

And so, she told us about her adventures in her very personal world of fashion in what we called “the store of the old”. A fun daily experience!

Now turning the clock forward a few years, I announce that, in 2021, the super trend of the moment is to buy used clothes and accessories – although this time not “vintage”, but modern, super luxury and famous brands!–. But pieces so lightly used and so well cared for, they look like new out of the box!

And what started as a trend, little by little, during the pandemic lockdown – and the rise of online shopping – has become an entire industry, where companies like The RealReal, Vestiaire Collective, Poshmark, Rebag and many others , are the new passion of the “fashionistas”. And the big fashion houses are already partnering with these resale companies. As is the case with Gucci, which has made a contract with The RealReal to sell certain merchandise through them.

I don't want to celebrate that "retro" is the latest fashion. Do not! Nor that right now we should run to a used clothing store to buy pieces that look frankly very used. The phenomenon is that these online stores are already very powerful companies (The RealReal is already on the stock market) and they sell – at a fraction of their original price – modern, up-to-the-minute things, from Hermes bags to Gucci clothing, jewelry from Tiffany, dresses from Valentino, Dior or Chanel, scarves and sunglasses from Carolina Herrera or Prada, etc., etc. Real wonders that we probably wouldn't have bought at regular price because they were too expensive! And according to one of the biggest players in second-hand luxury, Vestiaire Collective, the value of the sector will exceed $70 billion by 2025.

A new way of being consumers and with an iPhone or tablet in hand, it becomes easier for us to freely click and buy things we love! Another great advantage of this resale or resale trend? That in those places we can also sell our fashion pieces! That Vuitton bag that is like new and already boring us. That Cartier bracelet that can bring us good money. That Gucci dress that we never wore for the first time because we never liked it very much, etc., etc. And –of course– I am already a client of some of them, to buy and sell very much in the style of a 2021 consumer.