4 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD SHOP CONSIGNMENT
Posted onConsignment benefits
Keeping up with the latest trends and shopping for designer fashion can be expensive. But it doesn’t have to be. Consignment retailers, like *cough* us of course, allows you to invest in high quality wardrobe staples without having to break the bank.
Better prices, less discarded pieces
Encouraging consignment among avid shoppers means better prices, less discarded pieces in landfills, and less demand for manufacturers to over stock their shelves. In a world that can’t afford more of fast fashion’s temporary textiles, secondhand shopping provides a glimpse of how reuse culture can positively benefit not only the planet in which we live in, but our individual spending and consumption habits as well.
Whether you’re looking to shop designer pieces for less, be more sustainable, or hunt for vintage limited edition items that are no longer made the way they used to be made, there’s a perk for everyone in shopping secondhand. Read on for four reasons why you should shop secondhand.
1. It’s good for the environment
In recent years, the fashion industry has earned itself a reputation of being almost excessively unsustainable with practices that include overproducing large volumes of clothing for profit and the heavy usage of water for apparel production. The fast fashion industry, especially, can be attributed to the millions of tons of clothing discarded in the landfills annually.
By limiting our new purchases and opting for shopping secondhand instead, we’ll be helping the environment a whole lot: conserving natural resources, and reducing harmful by-products of the apparel industry's production processes such as water pollution and consumption, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Secondhand designer bags also serve as better investments than cheaply produced bags that have a shorter lifespan due to their high quality. When maintained well, vintage designer bags that are over 30 years old can still be fit for use and sold in the consignment market. Instead of buying an item that you’ll quickly grow tired of after a couple of wears, secondhand designer handbags are made to be re-worn, re-sold, or passed down through generations.
2. It saves you money
Luxury handbags are made with care and built to last a lifetime. When you shop with Bag Religion, you can rest easy knowing you are purchasing the real deal at a lower-than-retail price.
After all, who wouldn’t like to score a beautiful designer bag at a discount? You can often secondhand designer bags that are up to 70% cheaper than retail price – and trust, these savings add up in the long run.
Of course, depending on the style, exclusivity and series of the designer bag in question, prices may sometimes hold true to their retail values (or even increase with time!). This is true for some rare collector's bags, as well as long-standing classics, like the Hermes Birkin or Chanel Classic Flap, in basic colours. These bags have great sustainability; their timelessness and popularity allows them to hold their value and remain desirable in the market. If you change your mind about them over time? You can consign them and earn a significant portion of your money back. No harm, no foul.
3. It helps you find rare and unique items
If finding a hidden gem gives you a rush, welcome to the club! It is hard to beat the feeling of landing a good consignment buy. Shopping secondhand allows you to find items that are completely unique. It can be difficult to find certain styles of vintage designer pieces; chances are, they’re probably no longer being made. Such is the appeal of purchasing secondhand: you'll find rare gems that suit your individual style and speak to you on a personal level. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
At Bag Religion, we curate an extensive collection of designer bags both vintage and new. Our goal is to help our #BagReligionConverts build a sustainable and meaningful collection of designer bags they'd love for years to come.
Instead of stocking your shelves with fleeting trends and fast fashion, wouldn't a #Shelfie with rare designer bags – each reflecting your distinctive personality – be way better? We sure do think so.
4. It’s more sustainable in the long run
When you make purchasing decisions with your own judgment instead of following seasonal trends, these trends stop mattering as much as your own opinions do – and establishing your own sustainable sense of style goes a long way towards a more mindful, slower consumption of fashion.
The more you shop secondhand, the more you realize how much of fashion repeats itself over time; trends go “out of style” in the next season, and what was once considered tacky may fall into favour with the fashion crowd again. Your own fully-formed tastes, on the other hand? That’ll last forever.
For us, one of the biggest takeaways from the recent pandemic is the realization that the world really only needs a portion of what it’s producing. The never-ending pursuit of all things new and shiny can no longer be our norm. On a personal and larger level, we’d like to champion having more mindfulness and appreciation for the items we’re keeping in our closets – may they continue to, in the words of Marie Kondo, *spark joy* and keep us feeling our best! And if they no longer do that, may we garner up the strength to bid them farewell and consign them so that someone else can love them the way we once did.
