Vanessa Masliah from Vestiaire Collective on sustainability in fashion

Vestiaire Collective has appointed Vanessa Masliah as vice president of marketing and branding; its role is to focus on, among other things, the goals of the second-hand platform in terms of fashion, sustainability and technology.

Nearly three months into her new position, Masliah told us more about her vision, as well as the levers that need to be activated to help make the fashion industry more sustainable.

Can you tell us about your new role at the Vestiaire Collective?

My goal is to define Vestiaire Collective’s global branding and marketing vision to engage fashion activists, using innovative marketing channels and strategies to convey its mission of changing the fashion industry for a more sustainable future. It’s a very exciting challenge to try to bring together the best of both worlds and transform the e-commerce platform while highlighting its fashion, sustainable and technological DNA.

This new challenge is a continuation and a turning point in my career. A continuation because for nearly 20 years, I have had the privilege of building or relaunching inspiring luxury brands. And is this also a real turning point because working for an innovative pure digital player, a very agile unicorn, is very different from the big companies I know.

How did ‘fashion activists’ become such an important target demographic?

Fashion Activists are our employees, our growing community of buyers and sellers, our current and future brand partners, NGOs and everyone else involved with us on our journey, united in a collective for the change we create. They are very important for educating each of us. It starts with simple actions that are accessible to everyone: prefer second-hand goods whenever possible, order items from local sources, don’t throw away items you no longer use but [rather] resell or donate it. And everyone can be an “activist” in their own way, most importantly [thing] is to start contributing to your scale.

What levers do you plan to use to win them over?

To help [promote] this good practice we have launched the Fashion Activist badge on the platform. We created the Fashion Activist badge to encourage our user community to enter a new paradigm of circular consumption by becoming both sellers and buyers. We’ve integrated tags to indicate user territories, and the next step is to better explain the positive impact of buying and selling used goods along the customer journey, to inspire and encourage our users.

While second-hand goods are generally considered a responsible alternative, some voices are starting to talk about new ways of overconsuming, or even other types of fast fads. What do you think about that?

This is clearly the wrong debate; the fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries, and even if our business model is not free from impact, it is definitely part of the solution, through products or services that conserve, preserve or restore the environment or resources. We are battling overconsumption and untapped potential.

Our study with the Boston Consulting Group sheds light on the positive impact of a used business model. [One aspect is] “Upscale Effect” [with] 85% of used shoppers participate in reducing overconsumption by trading fast fashion for less and better quality goods. [There is also] “Enhanced Durability” with 70% of fashion consumers being encouraged to pay more attention to their goods thanks to the existence of a fluid second-hand market.

At Vestiaire Collective, we promote extending the life of clothing; we’re building a radical new way to create value in the fashion industry, passing things around and producing nothing. We address two major problems of overproduction and underutilization of the fashion industry. We also advise our community to buy less, buy better, wear more and sell more.

In the long term, should thrift platforms also have to commit to only sustainable fashion (or ban unsustainable products)?

The debate is not only on sustainable brands as currently defined (for example, focusing on increasing production) but more on durability. We need to define, at the industry level, what goods are physically and emotionally built to last, and then focus on selling these quality goods that are worth producing and circulating in order to have a long time span and few potential users. [in order] to move further, as brands and consumers, away from single-use fashion.

What can be done to ensure that more responsible second-hand goods start to come to the fore today?

Again, we know our model is not free from impact, and we are taking a closer look …how we can reduce our transportation, packaging and digital footprint, for example by simplifying the architecture of applications and the web. It’s also about influencing consumer behavior … to avoid the effects of overconsumption, for example pushing the idea of ​​“one in, one out” and keeping clothes out, conveying our message to “buy less, buy better” out there and buy locally . Then, by offering a new business model for luxury homes, as collaborating with pre-owned markets can derive a number of benefits including the ability to connect with their customers through innovative strategies.

The online sphere is also a major part of the future of fashion. How can we ensure that e-commerce consumers benefit from all the services offered in the store?

Personalization is one of our goals: discoverability and discoverability is playing an increasingly large role. When you’re shopping for used clothes, it’s all about individual pieces, so we just want to show you items that are relevant to you. We think there is a tremendous opportunity to connect the right buyer with the right product at the right time in the product life cycle. It’s also about creating new features to enhance the search process and offer users an experience that combines luxury and sustainability.

Find out more about Vestiaire Collective here

This article was published via AFP Relaxnews

Featured heroes and images: Courtesy Pierre Mouton