CYCLICAL FASHION OR CYCLICAL CONSUMPTION: THE PARADOX OF VINTAGE FASHION SALES
“Vintage” is the new trendy. Over the past two decades, vintage fashion has moved from basement thrift stores and dusty garage sales to the heart of global consumer culture. What explains the rise of this secondhand culture? The consumption of vintage fashion is rooted in nostalgia, concern about unethical manufacturing practices, and the curation of identity, all of which are amplified by the emergence of online platforms and social media. The popularization of vintage fashion brings into play a new kind of shopper: conscious, informed, keen on authenticity, but also at risk of participating in the same commodifying consumerism that drives mainstream retail.
“Vintage” is hardly a new phenomenon. For decades, thrift stores, flea markets, and collectors’ circuits have allowed vintage and second-hand clothing to circulate. But in recent years, the scale has exploded. The global secondhand apparel market is expected to reach $367 billion by 2029, growing 2.7 times faster than the overall global apparel market. (ThredUp, 2025)
It is impossible to discuss the rise of vintage without reference to fast fashion’s failures. The vintage clothing boom has gained momentum in part because consumers began rejecting the “disposable” mentality of fast fashion. Research into circular fashion practices reveals that second-hand clothing is increasingly seen as a viable alternative to traditional new-production fashion. Over the past decades, the fashion industry’s model of cheap, rapidly-produced clothing has been exposed for its environmental, social, and ethical costs: exploitative labor, massive textile waste, and very short usage lifetimes for garments. As awareness of these issues grew, so did consumer interest in alternatives. The second-hand and vintage market presents one such alternative. The idea is simple: instead of buying something new (and contributing to further production), buy something used (Klooster et al., 2024).
Yet the reality is more complex. A study of US consumers found that secondhand consumption is positively correlated with primary market consumption, rather than displacing it (Mizrachi & Sharon, 2025). This exemplifies the phenomenon of “rebound effect” or “moral licensing”: buying second-hand may give people a sense that they have done the right thing, thereby further licensing consumption (Mizrachi & Sharon, 2025). Thus, vintage fashion cannot be assumed to be inherently sustainable simply because it is second-hand.
Still, from a marketing and cultural viewpoint, the vintage/resale trend has been heavily tied to ethical branding: consumers now want to feel they are making better choices. Luxury vintage, therefore, offers indulgence in designer heritage while avoiding new-production guilt. For many brands and platforms, this narrative has become a key differentiator. What’s especially notable in the luxury sphere is how high-end vintage (archival designer pieces and iconic, limited-edition items) has become mainstream (Land, 2025). The resale market is redefining the accessibility, lifecycle, and value of designer goods.
Another strong motivator behind vintage fashion is nostalgia. People who are presented with vintage clothing manufactured during their lifetime have been shown to recall positive memories. Additionally, consumers are able to experience nostalgic feelings for vintage pieces produced in a period they have not experienced. Vintage is “especially appealing to people who have not themselves experienced the time they now consume through dress.” (Cervellon et al., 2012). As fashion production becomes more globalized and standardized, consumers increasingly feel that garments lack uniqueness and craftsmanship. In effect, vintage has become a space of recollection for seemingly simpler, better times. Furthermore, vintage becomes a statement: it signals that you care about more than the current fast fashion cycle; you value materials, heritage, and difference. Because vintage pieces are often one-of-a-kind, they offer a means of standing out. This individualised approach to identity fits neatly with the broader online culture of personal branding. Indeed, the digital era has magnified this effect: on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, the aesthetic of the past is reincarnated via styling videos and “vintage haul” culture, and celebrities are endlessly shown donning rare “archival” pieces. Many Gen Z shoppers are drawn to vintage primarily because it satisfies their desire for uniqueness.
Here we reach a paradox: as vintage becomes mainstream, some of its subversive potential is lost. What began as an alternative to consumption and mass production can itself become another avenue for commodification. The rise in popularity of vintage and thrift has produced several unintended consequences: rising prices, reduced accessibility for lower-income consumers, and gentrification of thrift and second-hand markets. One article describes “thrift store gentrification” as the transformation of second-hand shopping into a trend purchased by wealthier clients, pushing out the very communities thrift stores were originally meant to serve (Cills, 2024). In the digital resale space, the term “reseller drill” or “thrift-grift” circulates: organized buying of large volumes of discounted garments for resale at big mark-ups on Depop, Poshmark, or eBay. Especially on the app Depop, the market has been overtaken by a logic of profit rather than sustainable consumption, with younger users turning thrift shopping into micro-entrepreneurship and driving up prices for everyone (Phillai, 2025). The result? Vintage and second-hand items, once available for a few dollars in local charity shops, now sell for hundreds of dollars online. In this way, vintage fashion starts to look more like mainstream luxury: exclusive, expensive, all while being marketed as “ethical”.
This dynamic also has implications for class and racial inequality. The neighborhood thrift store turned curated boutique often arises in gentrifying districts; the new demographic of consumers (typically younger, wealthier, and whiter) can alter the neighborhood’s retail ecology. A research paper on urban vintage stores and gentrification finds that the influx of stylish thrift boutiques correlates with demographic shifts in major cities like Los Angeles and Dallas (Nittle, 2018). In short, vintage fashion may begin as a moral or aesthetic alternative, but it ends, for many, as a curated commodity in a consumerist circuit.
The story of vintage fashion is one of contradiction. The movement from subculture to mainstream has revealed both the power and the pitfalls of vintage. It gives hope: that clothing need not always be new, cheap, or disposable. It offers promise: that identity can be carved out of history and style. But it also demands reflection: when alternatives become trends, when second-hand becomes luxury, when ethical consumption becomes status signaling, we must ask: who is left out? Who still depends on thrift for affordability? And how do we preserve the radical potential of reuse without making it another adornment of privilege? If these questions are to matter, vintage must remain more than a trend.
References
Cervellon, Marie-Cécile, and Lindsey Carey. “Something Old, Something Used: Determinants of Women’s Purchase of Vintage Fashion vs Second-Hand Fashion.” International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management 40, no. 12 (2012): 956–974. https://doi.org/10.1108/09590551211274946.
Cills, Hazel. “The Complicated Reality of Thrift Store ‘Gentrification.’” Jezebel, April 30, 2021. https://www.jezebel.com/the-complicated-reality-of-thrift-store-gentrification-1846113458.
Klooster, Astrid, et al. “Do We Save the Environment by Buying Second-Hand Clothes? The Environmental Impacts of Second-Hand Textile Fashion and the Influence of Consumer Choices.” Journal of Circular Economy 2, no. 3 (March 14, 2024). https://doi.org/10.55845/ZZUG7076.
Land, Gabriella. “High-End Hand-Me-Downs? How Resale Is Reshaping Luxury Markets.” Michigan Journal of Economics, April 3, 2025. https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mje/2025/04/03/high-end-hand-me-downs-how-resale-is-reshaping-luxury-markets/.
Mizrachi, Meital Peleg, and Ori Sharon. “Secondhand Fashion Consumers Exhibit Fast Fashion Behaviors despite Sustainability Narratives.” Scientific Reports 15, no. 1 (October 7, 2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-19089-1.
Nittle, Nadra. “Are Vintage Stores a Sign of Gentrification?” Racked, March 12, 2018. https://www.racked.com/2018/3/12/17097138/gentrification-vintage-clothing-stores-neighborhood.
Pillai, Annika. “Depop Made Sustainable Shopping Consumerist: The Resale App Reveals the Tensions between Trends and Conscious Consumption.” The Tufts Daily, September 18, 2025. https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2025/09/depop-made-sustainable-shopping-consumerist.
thredUP. 2025 Resale Report. 2025. https://cf-assets-tup.thredup.com/resale_report/2025/ThredUp_Resale_Report_2025.pdf.