Shunning awful luck, Hong Kong buys into ‘pre-loved’ fashion

Joleen Soo flicked thru racks at the release of Hong Kong’s first “pre-owned” fashion designer warehouse, preventing to have a look at Prada and Dries Van Noten clothes with tags showing up to 95 percent off their retail rate.
Soo, the founder of sustainable emblem consultancy Catalyst, is simply one of a developing flood of young Hong Kong citizens frequenting a stroll-in warehouse in the industrial Wong Chuk Hang location – and spurning the vintage Chinese superstition that 2d-hand clothes bring bad good fortune.
“I might buy these exquisite pieces and bring them home over the holidays, and my mum could be horrified,” remembered Soo, who determined vintage shops at the same time as studying in America.
In the United States, the resale clothing marketplace has grown 21 instances quicker than the retail marketplace over the last 3 years, according to facts analytics firm GlobalData.
The world’s largest online thrift save thredUP expected in March that the second-hand garb marketplace inside the United States could be larger than fast fashion through 2028.
Even consulting company McKinsey said in a report in November that it foresees “the stop of ownership” in fashion, as pre-owned, refurbished, condo and repair models evolve.
But in Hong Kong – a metropolis that flourishes on luxury and never being seen in an outfit two times – it’s taken time for clients to start flocking to resale web sites such as Recycle and Guiltless, non-profit pop-united states of America like Redress, and stores which include HULA and OnceStyle.
‘Many lives’
Sarah Fung, who installation the HULA warehouse store Soo visited, hopes to prolong the lifestyles of nicely-designed portions and decrease waste in an industry in which three-fifths of apparel finally ends up in incinerators or landfill within a yr of being made, in keeping with a 2016 McKinsey document.
“I commenced to experience a chunk ill from the quantity of garb that was continuously being produced,” said Fung, who formerly labored at luxury store Lane Crawford in Hong Kong.
Garments had a brief shelf-lifestyles, Fung said. Her process turned into to ensure people sold apparel at full fee, earlier than it turned into put on the sale floor “after which deemed garbage”.
Now the graduate of Central St. Martins artwork school in London is one in all a growing institution of fashion insiders in this bustling former British colony who’re urging Hong Kong citizens to reconsider how they purchase luxury-logo garments.