Vint-Age: Generation Z rediscovers the pleasure of the antique

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One look at Google Trends and you're done: in recent years, search volumes for the keyword "vintage" have grown relentlessly worldwide.

And looking around, we can't help but see how the passion for used clothing and vintage fashion is depopulating among young and old, VIPs and ordinary people.

Corners dedicated to luxury vintage are opening more and more frequently even inside prestigious malls and department stores, registering record numbers and proving that retail, especially niche retail, is not dead.

Platforms such as Depop.com, Thrifted.com, Therealreal.com, Poshmark.com or Vestiarecollective.com, just to name a few, are helping to create and support demand, collecting items from all over the world and fostering an ongoing product trade.

And thanks to the growth of the digital sales channel, it is estimated that by 2023 the global vintage market is expected to reach a value close to $48 billion: double what it was in 2018 (Source: Threadup).

But what are the reasons behind this boom, and what implications has it for Fashion houses?

Let's briefly analyze the main target audience, namely young people.

On the one hand, Millennials and Generation Z seem to be experiencing a real nostalgic passion towards the clothing of their grandparents and parents, probably stimulated by the Brands themselves that relentlessly draw on the Archives for new collections.

On the other hand, the growing awareness of the impact that fashion, especially fast-fashion, has on the environment and the exploitation of resources and cheap labor, plays an important role in pushing these consumers to prefer used or vintage clothes, especially if they are from well-known Brands. The same trend is also observed in other sectors, such as home furnishings.

And so the great Luxury Brands find themselves competing with a multitude of new vendors: from "pickers," the discoverers, who relentlessly resell the treasures so painstakingly "uncovered" by their own regular customers, who want to make room in their closets by getting rid of items that are little used, but of great interest to enthusiasts. The sale is perfected in a virtual Agora where the exchange of often rare and elsewhere unobtainable pieces takes place at ever-increasing prices.

But what consequences does this new consumer habit have for Brands?

The role that vintage plays in keeping interest in iconic Brands such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermes, Fendi or Gucci high represents an important growth factor for international luxury players: their products become assets, which are given a value, not a price, that remains high over time. Sotheby's and Christie's devote specific auctions to clothing and accessories, going so far as to define an investment in a new Hermes bag as sometimes more profitable than one in works of art or antiques.

In order not to lose access to this interesting target audience consisting of the young and very young and to keep the level of Brand Protection high, many big names in international fashion have begun to offer vintage items on their portals. Think of Ralph Lauren, Gucci, with "Gucci Vault." Or of Valentino buying back vintage pieces in its own boutiques.

Gucci Vaults stands out: true to its great vocation as a fashion innovator in recent years, the portal created by Gucci is dedicated not only to vintage, but also to welcoming real experimentation and contamination between Brands.

We wonder whether Fashion Companies will be able to benefit significantly from these trends also at the level of cash flows, but of one thing we are certain: digital marketers must be able to intercept and understand the new habits related to the "consumption" of Luxury goods when developing effective positioning strategies and when defining organic traffic flows to Fashion Brands' e-commerce sites and platforms.