If you want to overhaul your wardrobe for the long run, mixing vintage with high-street clothing is the key to being trendy as well as sustainable. But vintage shopping isn’t easy, you can easily spend hours in a store and walk out with nothing – which is why online shopping is the answer (especially if you’re in a national lockdown).
So I’ve rounded up the best online vintage clothing stores for you, whether you’re after designer handbags to invest in, like a vintage Chanel 2.55 bag, or the perfect little black dress or retro t-shirt.
Sustainable vintage clothing
By its very nature, vintage clothing is sustainable, as you’re going against the throw-away side of fast fashion by practicing circularity and giving old clothes a new lease of life.
It also depends on which era the garment is from. Items from say the 50s or 60s wouldn’t have been as mass produced as items from the 90s or 00s, whilst non sustainable fabrics such as polyester and nylon became popular in mainstream fashion in the 50s and 20s respectively.
While those non-biodegradable fabrics can take decades if not centuries to fully break down, by rewearing them, you know you’re not sending them to landfill.
Best online vintage clothing stores
Depop
You’ve probably already bough or sold your items on depop, as it’s one of the biggest resale platforms on the market. I love it for tracking down those sell-out items you haven’t managed to get at Zara and H&M but it’s also great for designer finds too. The biggest, most popular categories on Depop are vintage, streetwear, one-of-a-kind and Y2K (late 1990s/early 2000s) fashion.
Y2K is one of the most prevailingly popular search terms on Depop. From April 2020 – July 2020, the amount searches for ‘Y2K’ and ‘Noughties’ increased by over +640%. Wedding guest dresses and preppy clothes also saw an increase this summer thanks to the end of lockdown and the Gossip Girl reboot respectively.
Hewi.
Hewi, which stands for hardly ever worn it, is a great little gem for finding pristine designer items. It stocks hundreds of designer labels, including Prada, Chanel, Loewe, The Row, Gucci and more. Think handbags, clothing and jewellery. You can also sell your own items on the platform.
Re:collection store
Introducing a new vintage store which curates pre-loved garments to celebrate where they’ve been. Expect a collection of handpicked vintage, retro, designer and high-street pieces for modern wardrobes, each of which tells someone’s story.
Founder Sarah says, “In the blur of maternity leave with my first, and the sudden lockdown of society as we knew it, I realized that the hole left was more than the thrill of physically finding each piece, it was hearing about the different lives behind them. Whether they were selling it with an elaborate story, or recalling a time from the past where it’d been worn, or just staring at me utterly confused by my interest in their lives, I felt like no one had ever asked. When the majority of my conversations have been with a toddler for what seems like a lifetime, I have hung onto their human stories. In a time that we don’t fully understand, their very real stories resonated with me more than they would ever know. Each collection is sold with a story; some elaborate tales of the past and others seemingly insignificant. Yet, all very human. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.”
Sellier Knightsbridge
The pre-loved mecca sources and sells rare luxury items from Dior, Hermes (it’s the n.1 re-seller for the house in the UK) and Chanel, as well as coveted cult brands such as Pangaia and Zimmerman. Sellier brings exclusive items that would otherwise be off-limits to a wider audience, making of-the-moment brands more accessible.
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