Dive Brief:
- Luxury resale retailer Fashionphile expanded its footprint with the opening of a 60,000-square-foot authentication center and showroom in the West Chelsea neighborhood of New York City last week, according to a company press release. As of press time, Fashionphile's website said the New York store was available by appointment only.
- In addition to housing corporate offices, the space will allow customers to shop the retailer's collection of high-end handbags and accessories while getting an inside look into how the authentication process works. The center will also hold procurement offices for customers to bring their items to sell.
- The space also contains a high-security and climate-controlled storage area called “The Cage,” which holds about 15,000 handbags and accessories, including the largest Hermès Birkin bag collection in the world, per the release.
Dive Insight:
With its latest announcement, Fashionphile seeks to bring the luxury resale buying and selling experience directly to New Yorkers. The retailer is also becoming more transparent by allowing customers to see the authentication process first-hand — a process that has resulted in lawsuits at resale company The RealReal.
Neiman Marcus acquired a minority stake in Fashionphile, known for its ultra-luxury offerings, in 2019. Following that, Fashionphile raised $38.5 million in Series B funding in 2020, intended to drive operational and geographical expansion.
Fashionphile also appeared on Neiman Marcus' gift list last year. For $345,000, shoppers could work with style advisers from Fashionphile and Neiman Marcus to choose which clothes they wanted to get rid of, and take a first-class flight to Fashionphile’s headquarters to buy vintage pieces.
The resale market is growing in popularity overall, with funding going toward re-commerce companies and retail giants entering the space. Over the past year, Target and Fabletics announced clothing resale programs with ThredUp. Urban Outfitters also stepped into the arena by introducing Nuuly Thrift in August. Additionally, high-end resale brand Rebag raised $33 million in December to support store growth.
The U.S. secondhand market is expected to more than double by 2026, reaching $82 billion, according to a ThredUp survey conducted with GlobalData. Re-commerce companies are also expected to comprise 18% of the entire clothing industry by 2031, per the survey. With inflation rising, the resale market looks more attractive than ever, with a quarter of consumers considering buying more secondhand apparel if prices continue to rise.
