FULL CIRCLE
Luxury resale platform Vestiaire Collective is leading the change towards a circular fashion economy. Co-founder Sophie Hersan explains how they got started and why everyone needs to get involved
t’s likely that Sophie Hersan never imagined herself working on an app or trying to disrupt an age- old industry when she decided to give up commerce for a career in fashion. The native of Champagne, France, was merely swept away by the beauty, freedom and creativity of Paris fashion in the 1990s. “I went to a fashion show and was totally blown away. I still remember that moment, saying, ‘I want to do that,’” recalls Hersan, who would go on to work as a model and studio manager for a number of prestigious designers in the French capital.
But after 15 years, Hersan felt something had changed. “There was more marketing, less creativity, more economic targets and less innovation. People wanted more and more and more, and we executed more and more and more. In 2008, fast fashion became so strong. I had lost a bit of my passion and said, ‘Okay, something doesn’t make sense.’ I knew I wanted to disrupt things.”
One year later, Hersan and her fellow co-founders launched Vestiaire Collective as arguably the first online resale platform to focus on designer fashion. “Back in 2009, there were only a few small independent stores and online platforms like eBay. There was no shop or website that was truly trusted or had the fashion curation my friends and I were looking for, in particular when it came to online shopping,” she says. “That’s why we started the business right in our co-founder Fanny Moizant’s apartment in Paris, with the first fashion pieces being sourced from our friends.”
It didn’t take long for the unique concept to catch hold among friends, the local fashion scene and, eventually, the world. The company grew out of Moizant’s apartment and into offices and warehouses in Paris, Berlin, New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Singapore and Seoul. Today millions of members use Vestiaire Collective to buy and sell pre-loved fashion in 80 countries with 25,000 items added each day. Spurred by its mission to drive collective change towards a circular fashion economy, the company is also the world’s first fashion resale platform to earn B Corp certification.
“It was an organic success, I would say. We are a unique business model in that we carry fashion, inspiration, trust, authentication, community and sustainability. There’s no other re- commerce platform today that has these pillars,” Hersan says. Vestiaire Collective’s authentication process is one pillar in which the company has invested a great deal of time, energy and money, with each item on the platform evaluated by its team of expert authenticators – each of whom go through more than 750 hours of initial and ongoing training through the Vestiaire Academy.
According to the company’s Trust Report, 60 physical and digital authenticators review 40,000 items every year for a total of 1.5 million items physically authenticated just since 2019. The fail-safe process has resulted in € 360 million worth of fashion, accessories and jewellery declined for listing in the past two years alone.
Already well equipped to combat fakes, Vestiaire Collective recently banned fast fashion brands from its platform. The strategic move was a bold statement against the overconsumption and overproduction of low-quality items, and one that Hersan hopes will enable second-hand fashion to eventually overtake fast fashion as more people join the mission.
“My commitment to transforming the fashion industry has been growing more and more over the years, especially when we witness how fast fashion is harming our industry, society and the environment,” she says. “Fourteen years ago, Vestiaire Collective was a mindset – a way to consume better and to offer an alternative to overconsumption. It was an option. Today it’s not optional; I would say it’s mandatory. That’s why our mission is to empower our community to drive the change. Because we can’t do it alone.”