“We are your leading online retailer of vintage clothing, your local thrift store, your go-to for standout retro and vintage clothing.” This seems like a very bold statement, but Thrifted is staying true to its words and has sales to prove it.
In a year where many retailers were in a struggle for survival following the coronavirus pandemic, Thrifted hit the one-million-pound turnover mark, establishing itself as a force to be reckoned with.
Launched in February 2018, Thrifted is focused on selling only the best in 70s, 80s, and 90s brands and styles and has sold over 100,000 items so far—from sport brands such as Adidas, Nike, and Champion to high-end designer vintage from brands like Versace, Moschino, and Fendi.
Circular fashion. Not fast fashion.
Thrifted is standing against fast fashion and is an advocate of circular fashion, in which materials and products and materials are kept in use for as long as possible through different ways such as recycling and reusing, eliminating waste and pollution and regenerating the environment in a “circular model”.
A 2020 report initiated by Circular Fashion Summit by lablaco in partnership with Vogue Business, PwC, Anthesis, Startupbootcamp, and other leading organizations, predicted that digitized circular fashion could be a $5 trillion market.
The market value, according to Vogue Business, is made up of the existing $3 trillion global fashion industry, including the $40 billion eco-fiber market, $16 billion 3D-printing market, and $6 billion virtual fitting room market, as well as the secondhand sector, including resale and clothing alterations.
Image source: Thrifted
More conscious consumers
Thrifted has been a hit with the student and twenty-something crowd and is well-positioned to expand its share of the market as the fashion industry is facing heavy pressure to reduce carbon waste and emissions, especially from a new generation of consumers who are making more environmentally friendly, sustainable, and ethical purchases.
“We believe that there is change coming in the fashion industry, that consumers are more concerned with where their clothes come from and the true cost of wearing something once,” says the team behind the online retailer of vintage men’s and women’s fashion.
More wardrobes will play host to pre-loved clothes if more conscious consumers are developed through raising awareness, they say, adding that education can help reduce the stigma attached to secondhand clothes.
Stigma is not the only common concern about thrift shopping that Thrifted is seeking to address. Some people assume thrift shopping is not hygienic or that the items will be old and worn out.
However, Thrifted has made it clear that they do not sell any damaged or non-authentic items, and says every piece is washed or dry cleaned and then pressed and hung in their stock room. They quality check each and every item at several stages before it is listed on the website.
Another widespread concern about thrift shopping is that the clothes might be out of style or outdated or it is hard to find good clothes or styles.
Image source: Thrifted
Thrifted sources its clothing from suppliers located all around the world, including the UK, the United States, Germany, France, and Asia, allowing it to offer a wide array of timeless clothing for festivals and everyday wear “at the best possible prices”.
Expanding product range
Jonny Kemp, the founder and managing director of Thrifted, said earlier this year that 2020 brought an abrupt rethink of how they work, which gave rise to new ways of doing things that have benefited them massively.
“It also has shifted our focus to a solely online driven business, rather than the previous mixed strategy combining retail space and e-commerce. With a warehouse move on the short term list of things to do, we are making the moves to increase our product range and continue to win new customers.”
Thrifted is confident that it is “leading the way in bringing sustainable fashion at scale to the most style-focused demographic” and offers every vintage clothing fan the chance to grab some high-quality clothing with its worldwide shipping services.
Disclaimer: This article mentions a client of an Espacio portfolio company.
