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Gen Z Says is a bimonthly column chronicling the newest developments within the fashion-and-beauty area throughout the lens of Who What Wear’s personal Gen Z editors. Expect a obtain at the upcoming elegance of tastemakers, rising designers, and buying groceries and elegance alternatives directly from the era atmosphere the developments.
Sustainability in 2025? It’s difficult—particularly after we’re speaking about Gen Z. On one hand, the more youthful era will get it. Gen Z is extra aware than ever of the perils of overconsumption, local weather trade, and questionable manufacturing facility stipulations for garment employees. For the sub-27 cohort, being sustainable is not only about being eco-friendly—it is in regards to the belief of cool that comes together with it: thrifting journeys, antique fashion designer, and steel straws.
On the opposite hand, it feels hypocritical to tout sustainability as the number 1 factor on Gen Z’s thoughts. They are the most important customers of hyper-fast style, in step with The Fashion Law. When the craze cycle strikes at lightning velocity and we persuade ourselves that $12 going-out tops are totally commonplace, Gen Z, adore it or no longer, is chargeable for alarming charges of clothes waste. It’s a paradox that defines Gen Z’s dating with style—they wish to do higher however are running inside a device that makes it onerous.
Not all is misplaced, regardless that. According to ThredUp’s 2025 Resale Report, the worldwide secondhand marketplace is ready to achieve $367 billion through 2029, and just about 68% of patrons are between the ages of 18 and 44.
So we requested ourselves—and our readers: How do you in fact store sustainably in an international that feels designed to do the complete opposite?
Below, learn our complete 2025 secondhand buying groceries document at the heels of Earth Month.
Today’s fashion-and-retail business feels extra fragmented than ever. Independent manufacturers are shutting down, rents are hovering, and the price of items has skyrocketed. A document from The Wall Street Journal notes that many luxurious labels have priced themselves way past the succeed in of maximum customers. For the ones purchasing on-line, luxurious items noticed a 64% value build up between 2019 and 2024.
For Gen Z—lots of whom are simply getting into the body of workers in an volatile economic system—protecting elementary bills like groceries incessantly takes precedence over splurging on a fashion designer purse. In our contemporary survey, respondents ranked affordability as the second one maximum commonplace reason why for buying groceries secondhand, proper after the need to buy unique, pre-loved luxurious pieces. For more youthful customers fed up in antique Louis Vuitton, value is the highest motivator when turning to platforms like Depop, Poshmark, or eBay for modern style.
“Everything has gotten so expensive but the quality has gotten worse,” one Gen Z respondent shared. “Buying secondhand ensures me clothes that live longer for cheaper prices.” According to our survey, about 45% of Gen Z respondents stated they are prepared to spend between $50 and $200 extra on a secondhand piece than a retail one, with some seeing it as an funding.
The pressure between emerging prices of clothes and declining high quality (whether or not it’s inexpensive materials or deficient development) is one who Gen Z is an increasing number of acutely aware of. “Everything is made so quickly and poorly that the integrity of fabric choice, seam strength, garment pattern, and fit go out the window,” explains every other Gen Z respondent. “I look to consignment or thrift stores to find those diamond-in-the-rough, pre-loved pieces that (hopefully) have a reasonable price point and also have the quality that I’m looking for.” If they may be able to’t to find the ones diamond-in-the-rough items, Gen Z does flip towards the present retail marketplace to seek out closet fillers. Most significantly, the primary merchandise Gen Z buys new, irrespective of value, is footwear, adopted through undergarments and undies, in step with our survey.
Sustainability could also be taking part in a significant function: Nearly part of all survey respondents stated environmental issues affect their determination to buy secondhand. Many cited rising unease with overconsumption and the exploitation of garment employees through fast-fashion manufacturers. According to peer-to-peer resale market Depop, 75% of customers purchase secondhand to scale back on intake—whilst just about 65% are motivated through decrease prices.
As a Gen Z editor, I will be able to hopefully say our era has a deep-rooted obsession with all issues antique. While we’re undeniably a number of the largest customers of immediate style, our need to really feel distinctive, authentic, and sentimental performs an enormous function in how—and why—we store. With the consistent churn of TikTok developments, Y2K aesthetics, and never-ending “core” style permutations shaping our day by day alternatives, it’s no marvel that many respondents in our survey cited the need to seek out antique, pre-loved luxurious pieces as a number one reason why for buying groceries secondhand.
“Vintage Y2K continues to be a top trend within our community, but more recently we are seeing the resurgence of the 2010 era—leaning into indie sleaze, statement accessories, and structured blazers,” showed Steve Dool, emblem advertising and marketing and communications senior director at Depop. The primary searched merchandise at the platform amongst Gen Z is “Vintage T-Shirt” (larger through just about 89% within the closing six months on my own). If that is not a affirmation that Gen Z is in search of cosmetic within the outdated, I have no idea what’s.
When requested what they fight to seek out new, dozens pointed to the irreplaceability of antique items, highlighting one more reason secondhand style continues to thrive. “Rare vintage finds [are so enticing],” wrote one responder. “Just purchased a Gucci Jackie bag by Tom Ford secondhand and couldn’t be more excited. Anything from the 90s/early 2000s is to die for.”
This generational love affair with antique is also pushed through a lot of issues: nostalgia for a pre–social media international, an appreciation for craftsmanship that’s incessantly lacking in as of late’s mass manufacturing, and the need to face out in an algorithm-fed style cycle that turns out to copy quicker than ever. Gen Z customers are curating their identities extra visually than any era prior to, and the individuality of a antique fashion designer piece provides a type of sartorial time pill that’s just about unattainable to duplicate.
According to Noelle Sciacca, the affiliate director of style and strategic partnerships at The RealReal, Gucci ranks as probably the most bought luxurious emblem amongst Gen Z customers on The RealReal. “The iconic Italian label accounts for 5% of total Gen Z sales on the platform versus 4% of purchases made by millennials and Gen X,” Sciacca famous. “In contrast, Gen Z consumers show less interest in Hermès, with the brand comprising just 4% of their purchases, compared to 6% among millennials and Gen X.”
Our survey additionally printed that Miu Miu is the number 1 emblem to shop for secondhand for Gen Z customers, with Chanel coming in shut 2d. When requested about saving for aspirational secondhand purchases, just about two-thirds of respondents discussed luxurious heritage purses—reminiscent of a antique Chanel Classic Flap bag with actual gold {hardware}, a ’90s-style Fendi Zucca Baguette, or an authentic Chloé Paddington bag.
In a panorama the place developments evolve all of a sudden and self-expression is the whole thing, antique luxurious provides Gen Z one thing that immediate style cannot: authenticity, individuality, and an instantaneous line to the legacy of favor icons who got here prior to them.
While the vast majority of Gen Z stores in-person at antique, consignment, or thrift shops, virtual marketplaces and apps are nonetheless just about part of the sub-27 crowd’s go-to for secondhand buying groceries, in step with our survey. Depop is the most-used app amongst respondents, adopted through eBay and The RealReal.
When purchasing is not on your price range, Gen Zers (and, sure, even some millennials) are main the price in a brand new more or less sustainable intake: clothing-rental apps. In 2024, Forbes reported that clothing-rental apps just like the Urban Outfitters–owned corporate Nuuly and Rent the Runway noticed surges in reputation.
For the ones yearning a extra non-public connection very similar to different peer-to-peer market platforms, clothing-rental platform Pickle seems like a breath of clean air in rethinking sustainability. Similar to Airbnb, Pickle customers be able to hire out non-public pieces (in Pickle’s case, clothes pieces and purses) to customers to borrow for particular occasions like birthdays, weddings, and bachelorettes. The software, which is to be had international however has massive hubs in New York and Los Angeles, options over 200,000 pieces to be had to hire spanning over 2000 manufacturers, in step with co-founder Julia O’Mara.
“The rental aspect [of Pickle] allows you to be able to wear some of these really high-quality items that are retailing for about $400 or $500 [without] having to justify that purchase. You’re able to borrow that piece for about 10% to 20% of the retail value, and it’s much more accessible,” O’Mara defined to Who What Wear, nodding to value being a significant factor influencing Gen Z’s choices to make use of the app. “If people understand that [Pickle] is something where you now have access to all these items that are in your community, you don’t need to go and overconsume or buy fast fashion.”
Beyond affordability, what resonates maximum with Gen Z is the sensation of collective possession and shared revel in. Renting from any person on your town—incessantly any person who stocks your genre or style—feels extra unique than purchasing a industrially produced outfit from a world store. It transforms style from a solitary task into one thing social, sustainable, and community-driven.
