Revolutionising the Secondhand Economy with The Fashion People

The secondhand economy is not a niche. It is the fastest-growing segment in fashion, and this week’s news — Vinted’s €8 billion valuation and BlackRock’s entry — makes that undeniable. But here is the question we should be sitting with today: who captures that value, and on whose terms?

The core argument for The Fashion People

Vinted grows, brands lose

Every garment resold on a third-party platform is a customer relationship, a data point, and a margin that belongs to the brand — handed to an intermediary. Vinted’s model is consumer-to-consumer. It does not bring the secondhand economy back to brands; it cannibalises it.

EPR makes brand-owned resale a strategic necessity

Under the EU Textile EPR Directive — now in force, with schemes operational by April 2028 — brands will pay fees based on the volume of product they put on the market and how recyclable it is. A functioning brand-owned resale programme is not just good PR; it is a compliance asset and a fee-reduction mechanism.

The Fashion People bring resale home

The Fashion People’s model keeps the secondhand transaction within the brand ecosystem — protecting customer data, brand integrity, and commercial return. It is a white-label infrastructure for brands that want to own their circular economy, not outsource it.

Why Fashion Roundtable endorses this

Fashion Roundtable has spent years engaging with policymakers on exactly this tension: legislation that mandates circular models, and a market where the value flows away from the brands carrying the compliance burden. The Fashion People resolve that tension practically. We are proud to partner with them and to introduce Dias to this room — because the brands here are precisely the ones who should be onboarding first.

Videography: Hannah Bodsworth

Keen to learn more about The Fashion People for your brand? Book a meeting via the team at Fashion Roundtable.