Fashion resale platform Vestiaire Collective expands into South Korea

An staff at “Vestiaire Collective” an on-line market to acquire and market pre-owned designer apparel and add-ons, checks clothes in Tourcoing, France, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

PARIS, July 26 (Reuters) – On the internet vogue resale platform Vestiaire Collective reported on Wednesday it is growing into South Korea, picking the quick-escalating luxurious market place as a springboard for a further press into Asia.

The growth of the Paris-based tech start-up that hit unicorn position last yr comes as pre-owned fashion gross sales keep on to grow speedily, fuelled by young, environmentally mindful shoppers looking for bargains for next-hand clothes.

The platform will be out there in Korean and the firm is including an authentication site to its operations in Seoul.

Even though luxury labels have traditionally been cautious of secondhand sellers, an growing variety are checking out ways of obtaining included in the industry, partly as a way to interact with younger people or to offer an further assistance to superior-expending shoppers.

Buyers in Vestiaire Collective incorporate French luxurious group Kering SA (PRTP.PA) which took a 5% stake last year, as effectively as personal fairness organization Eurazeo SE (EURA.PA), Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T), U.S. expense business Tiger World wide Management and Vogue publisher Conde Nast.

Founded in Paris in 2009, the system sells fashion and leather-based add-ons from luxurious labels these types of as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada and Dior, and in May marked its greatest transaction – a Birkin handbag from Hermes that offered for 158,000 euros ($160,117).

($1 = .9868 euros)

Reporting by Mimosa Spencer Modifying by Christopher Cushing

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