How to make the smartest fashion investment and make money from your wardrobe

LR: Marni’s patterned dress, 283; Tory Burch lace dress, 115; Emilio Pucci wool dress, 228 all available at almost never used.com

What’s interesting, says Wolter-Ferguson, is to see how attitudes toward fashion that have previously existed have changed since we founded Hewi. At the time Wolger-Ferguson was living in Monaco, not as a 0.1 percent member, he quickly points out, but because his mother found work as an interior designer there. Rich women are used to reselling their clothes, but they haven’t come up with the idea of ​​buying used clothes to wear themselves. Now some of them do. Vintage has become very fashionable, especially if it is a rare auction item. It also helps offset some of the guilt over buying so many women who actually shop because they still like to wear something they’ve never seen before to a big event.

Pre-owned is Hewi’s preferred term. Pre-loved implies something has been worn to death. And vintage shows the old, says Reavley. Neither is completely accurate because while it’s possible to find items at Hewi that date back to the 1960s, at least 30 percent of the 30,000 or so items there, as the name suggests, have never been worn and still have tags. We have sellers who buy the same item in three sizes as the weight fluctuates, but they only wear one. Others ordered online, decided they didn’t like it but missed the return window.

This is not an exclusive place to buy big names at high ticket prices. Mid-market aficionados like Self-Portrait, Ganni, and Rixo have always succeeded. Selected pieces in mint condition Hewis’ quality control team is so finicky that a label like Whistles can sell you in a flash, especially if it’s from a limited edition. Good designer-high street collaborations, such as the Erdems 2017 collection for H&M or Jil Sanders for Uniqlo are also picked up. It’s hard to find a coach who does as well as Pangaia. Millennials and Gen Z aspire to labels like ours, says Reavlely. But their attachment to ownership is different. They are happy to have something for six months and sell it. In this case, it is better to buy used goods because the initial decline in value has been taken into account. Hewi is part of a resale site jigsaw that includes Rebelle, The Real Real, and Vestiaire Collective. Personally I like Hewi because many of their products – which are channeled through the VIP service – are photographed on models rather than just displayed as flat-lays, so you can better understand what they look like.