Why second-hand needs to be slow fashion too
Interesting article from @Forbes from September 2019 ?With The Secondhand Designer Market Booming, Consumers Should Be Wary Of Fakes ?. The article tries to explain what aspects determine inauthentic items, however, it doesn’t explain that most online re-sell sites post un-authenticated items for sale (or their clients do) and only authenticate AFTER the sale. Indeed, that some of the sites listed HAVE sold counterfeit (as was exposed in November 2019, after the Forbes article was written), because they do not always have the expertise to analyse the item or the volume of items.
Why? Because their systems allow for stolen/counterfeit goods because of the huge size of their stock and they do not know the provenance of all items. Speed, volume and profit is what causes the compromise on providing only authentic items.
Slow and steady wins the race
In contrast, our business, DOWNTOWN UPTOWN Genève, is a smaller boutique run by professionals from the luxury fashion industry and with a background in ethical fashion, human-security and counter-trafficking.
We deliberately limit our stock size, which allows us to vet every consignor, know the provenance of our items and we do not re-sell second-hand second-hand. Each piece is inspected twice BEFORE it is put on sale and rejected if they are any doubts. Provenance is essential for authentication, as is time taken to carefully vet each article and spend time with the consignor to know where their pieces are from. Only already #authenticated items are put on sale.
We are an example of the new economy that is circular & one that needs to move SLOWER to ensure value before profit, authentic supply before demand and to make people reflect before buying! Indeed, after 6 years of operation, and with NO investment (unlike all the large online resell sites that have received millions ), our growth is small, but spectacular and we achieved our best quarter ever in Q4 2019 ;)
That is what real sustainable business & ethical fashion is about. See more here: https://www.downtownuptowngeneve.com/about/
#circulareconomy #valuebeforeprofit #sustainablebusiness #ethicalfashion #slowbusiness #slowfashion #secondhand #consignment
Photo model Izabel Switon-Kulinska, photo 1 by MrsUptown & photo 2 by Amata Art Design.