If vintage fashion conjures visions of tea dresses and sweat stains, it is time to update your thinking. London fashion week kicked off in the capital on Thursday with clothes that might have been secondhand but felt very much of 2024.
In an event space underneath a railway arch in Shoreditch, eBay, in partnership with the British Fashion Council (BFC), sent clothes by leading British designers from different decades down the catwalk, in a nod to it being London fashion week’s 40th anniversary.
As trains rumbled overhead, designer finds, such as a punky deconstructed kilt from buzzy London-based brand Chopova Lowena, and items from other exciting current designers such as Martine Rose, Grace Wales Bonner and Simone Rocha, melded seamlessly with archival fashion, such as an Alexander McQueen trouser suit from 2003, and pieces from the high street.
Called the Endless Runway, the event had been curated by eBay’s preloved style director, Amy Bannerman, and was hosted by model and presenter Leomie Anderson. “This is the first time an on-schedule London fashion week show has been exclusively preloved clothes, so it is a monumental moment for circular fashion,” Bannerman told the Guardian before the event. And shoppers were able to buy the items immediately via the eBay app.
Bannerman was keen that the show didn’t look like a retrospective. “I wanted to put preloved clothes from different eras together to make coherent looks, because that is something that people do find challenging, and I wanted to show it can be done.” Her whip-smart styling meant that each ensemble felt like it could have come from the pages of Vogue, or the feed of a style-savvy TikToker.
The markers of styling in 2024 were hit with laser-sharp precision. Trousers that mimicked boxer shorts were worn with boxer shorts peeping out of the top, a handbag had been given the Birkin treatment and was loaded with knick-knacks, as is the Gen Z way, and long, baggy shorts were decorated with a splattering of pin badges in a nod to the current trend for personalising everything. There were deconstructed trench coats worn as trains and an Oasis T-shirt worn with Chanel-esque tweed. Chaps over boxer shorts were the final signal that this was a million miles from moth-eaten, flammable shirts from the 70s.
On the other side of the capital, Oxfam, in partnership with secondhand resale app Vinted, hosted its own fashion show. Called Style for Change, a cast of names from stage, screen and the sustainable fashion space went down the catwalk, including Sex Education actor George Robinson, Dragons’ Den dragon Deborah Meaden, actor Robert Sheehan and activist fashion designer Katharine Hamnett
“Having a catwalk full of celebrities dressed in all secondhand clothing at London fashion week is a statement that this is, and has to be, the way forward,” said Kehinde Brown, Oxfam’s strategic communications lead, and director of Style for Change, before the event.
The show was styled by pioneer of secondhand fashion and longtime Oxfam collaborator Bay Garnett – she famously dressed Kate Moss in pieces she had found in charity and vintage shops for a shoot in British Vogue in 2003. It will be the fourth time the nonprofit has taken part in London fashion week but, while in the past secondhand fashion in some quarters was something of an outlier, now, said Garnett, “we finally seem to be seeing a real shift in the way people view [it].” A shift she said was long overdue.
It is a sentiment echoed by Brown, who said: “We are starting to see real change in attitudes, as people start to realise the benefits of preloved clothing. People are appreciating secondhand fashion as something more unique, often cheaper to buy, but also better for the planet.”
According to eBay data, nearly $50bn (roughly £40bn) worth of secondhand luxury products were sold worldwide in 2023. On the app, “preloved and refurbished makes up 40% of eBay’s gross merchandise volume, and in June 2024, global eBay users searched for ‘vintage’ over 1,000 times a minute, on average”.
It is not a moment too soon. New Oxfam analysis revealed earlier this month, to tie in with their Secondhand September initiative, found that buying just one pair of jeans and a T-shirt secondhand could help save the equivalent of 20,000 standard bottles of water.
But while things are shifting, those involved in Thursday’s secondhand spectaculars agree that more can be done. “I’d love to see more events or runway shows that celebrate preloved pieces and vintage collections,” said Anderson – she estimates that about half of her wardrobe is preloved, her most recent purchase being a secondhand Chanel handbag. “London fashion week is all about innovation and fresh ideas, so bringing more secondhand fashion into the schedule feels like a natural fit,” she said.
For Garnett, “fundamentally, we need to change the way we think about fashion. Something that was made four weeks ago does not hold more value than something that was made four years ago – they are both clothes. The difference with second-hand fashion is it has that edge that makes it cooler.”