Say no to fast fashion – why even our MPs are buying vintage

If you had to make a list of style icons, an MP probably wouldn’t make the cut.

Enter Rosie Wrighting, the Labour MP for Kettering who is revamping the way politicians dress. The 26-year-old studied fashion at the University of Westminster, and prior to that worked as a buyer at Asos. Her personal style seems to consist mainly of trench coats, tailored jackets and bright red blazers. But earlier this week, Wrighting elevated her style status even further when news broke that she was selling her clothes on Depop.

If you’re one of the uninitiated, Depop is a clothes-selling site popular with Gen Z right now, due to its focus on trendy, sustainable items. Users can set up an online store to show off – and sell – their particular aesthetic.

Sadly, Wrighting’s shop seems to have been taken offline since news broke of her thrifting. Hopefully, she will continue to sell off her wardrobe under another name instead. Frankly, if she has any interest in fashion, she should.

She should also buy her own clothes on the platform too, or on ones like it. Because this is the way young people are consuming fashion today – and if you ask me, it’s the best way to do it.

During 2023, Depop’s user base grew to 35 million, all of whom have collectively made more than $3.5bn to date. It’s an enormous marketplace, with people selling everything on the platform from preloved designer dresses to never-before-worn swimwear. This is likely to increase even further given that earlier this month, Depop revealed it would be removing its selling fees for all new listings, meaning users will be able to receive more money for selling their items on the platform.

Depop’s competitors are doing incredibly well, too. In April, Vinted, which is expanding rapidly across Europe, made a profit for the first time, turning a €20.4m loss in 2022 into a €17.8m profit. The company’s revenues also surged by 61 per cent to €596.3m in 2023, compared with the previous year.

There are endless reasons behind this surge. The cost of living crisis has made the prospect of buying new clothes harder. Fast fashion has firmly fallen out of the zeitgeist, and most people want to shop sustainably where they can. And to be honest, at this point, buying and selling second-hand clothing is just a lot cooler. 

Firstly, you can find incredibly unique items on these platforms you can’t source elsewhere. For Glastonbury, I found myself desperately wanting one of those iconic Hunza G cutout dresses – the kind that Julia Roberts wears in Pretty Woman – but the brand itself had long sold out of them. So, I found one on Depop, and while it was in a different colourway (orange and yellow instead of white and blue), it was a fantastic alternative and came at a fraction of the price of the original.

I’ve found items from all of my favourite brands on Depop: Gimaguas, Realisation Par, Reformation, Ganni, Molly Goddard, and so on. All the pieces I’ve bought from there have arrived in mint condition (sellers are obliged to let potential buyers know of any faults in advance) and have been neatly packaged. 

This is despite the hilarious findings of @depopdrama, which has since been renamed @dmdrama, an Instagram account that posts hilarious exchanges between buyers and sellers on second-hand shopping platforms. Highlights include arguments over postage (“I don’t post overseas I’m afraid,” wrote one seller. “Afraid of what?” asked the buyer) and items arriving with drugs in the pockets. 

I’ve sold more than I’ve bought, mostly on Depop because I’m too lazy to set up an account on another platform, and also via the Instagram account @anotherhand_sale, where I send a lot of my more expensive dresses – they take a larger percentage as they sort the postage and packaging for you but frankly, it’s a massive load off and worth every penny.

Gone are the days when buying and selling second-hand was a faff, or something reserved for the particularly idiosyncratic dressers. Today, it’s an integral part of the sartorial ecosystem, and it seems like everyone is doing it – even MPs.