Fashion resale platform Vestiaire Collective expands into South Korea

An worker at “Vestiaire Collective” an internet market to purchase and promote pre-owned designer clothes and accessories, checks clothes in Tourcoing, France, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

PARIS, July 26 (Reuters) – On-line vogue resale platform Vestiaire Collective mentioned on Wednesday it’s increasing into South Korea, selecting the fast-growing luxurious market as a springboard for a deeper push into Asia.

The enlargement of the Paris-based tech start-up that hit unicorn standing final yr comes as pre-owned vogue gross sales proceed to develop shortly, fuelled by younger, environmentally acutely aware customers searching for bargains for second-hand clothes.

The platform might be out there in Korean and the corporate is including an authentication web site to its operations in Seoul.

Whereas luxurious labels have historically been cautious of secondhand sellers, an rising quantity are exploring methods of getting concerned available in the market, partly as a solution to have interaction with youthful customers or to offer an additional service to high-spending customers.

Traders in Vestiaire Collective embody French luxurious group Kering SA (PRTP.PA) which took a 5% stake final yr, in addition to personal fairness agency Eurazeo SE (EURA.PA), Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T), U.S. funding agency Tiger World Administration and Vogue writer Conde Nast.

Based in Paris in 2009, the platform sells vogue and leather-based equipment from luxurious labels equivalent to Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada and Dior, and in Might marked its highest transaction – a Birkin purse from Hermes that offered for 158,000 euros ($160,117).

($1 = 0.9868 euros)

Reporting by Mimosa Spencer; Modifying by Christopher Cushing

: .