Second-hand

How got the upper hand

halls of Selfridges, the seemingly impenetrable world of designer fashion is close enough to touch. Rows of Balenciaga bags sit next to Gucci’s vibrant new collection; clothes with five-figure price tags adorn myriad rails. Yet, this September, the space so synonymous with luxury is set to look a little different. For there, nestled among the world’s most expensive brands, will be an Oxfam shop.

Of course, this is no ordinary Oxfam shop. Not with Bay Garnett at the helm. A former Vogue editor, Bay has built a career around her love of second-hand clothing – a passion she’s had since her formative years. It’s only now, in 2020, that it seems the rest of the world is catching up.

According to a report published by Us-based resale site Thredup, the secondhand market is expected to grow fivefold over the next five years – with a projected value of $64bn by 2024 – while traditional retail is projected to shrink. This has been amplified by the pandemic – Oxfam itself has seen huge growth in its online shop. When it launched its annual summer sale this year in the midst of Covid-19, the charity said it had its best sales day ever. Now, as Oxfam prepares for its second annual Second Hand September – the initiative to encourage people to pledge to buy only second-hand clothes for a month – Bay’s pop-up shop is poised to capitalise on the growing appetite for a more sustainable approach to shopping.

‘I’ve always had a dream in a way,’ she says. ‘About 20 years ago, I worked on this magazine, Cheap Date, where I produced

IN THE GILDED

fake campaigns to highlight thrift store clothes [versus designer]. So, Yves Saint Laurent became Salvation Army, Calvin Klein became Cancer Caring and Burberry became Borrowed. I wanted to put secondhand clothes in a glossy environment, so in a way this shop feels like coming full circle.’

These campaigns caught the attention of Vogueõs then editor-in-chief, Alexandra Shulman, who asked Bay to join the team as a contributing editor. ‘I’d never even done a proper fashion shoot before,’ she laughs. ‘I ended up working with my old friend Anita Pallenberg and we used thrift store clothes on Kate Moss. I put her in this banana-print top I bought for about five or ten dollars and when Phoebe Philo [then creative director of Chloé] saw the shoot, she rang and asked to borrow the top.’

Considering Phoebe’s reputation as an influential tastemaker, this was high praise. Now, Bay has harnessed her superpower – her brilliant eye for discovering great second-hand pieces – and brought it to her pop-up shop, open all month. It’s essentially a normal Oxfam shop, only it’s sandwiched between Balenciaga and Gucci – and doesn’t look out of place.

‘I didn’t want it to look like a run-down thrift shop. There’s velvet, I’ve got gold studs and marble shelves… the bells and whistles of traditional luxury are there but prices will not be hyped up – everything will cost exactly what it would in any Oxfam shop. I’ve picked 1,000 items from Oxfam’s stock and Selfridges has just been amazingly supportive. They’ve paid for everything but every single penny that anyone spends in the shop will go straight to Oxfam. These clothes could be in any Oxfam shop around the country for the same price. The ideology remains the same, I’m just playing with the surface of things.’

Bay chose the stock – including gems such as a Jean Paul Gaultier suit from the ’90s, Ossie Clark dresses and shirts from Ashish – from Oxfam’s stores, its