© Angel Chen SS25 Campaign "Black Knight", photographed by Szilveszter Makó
It’s been a long day at work, you sit on your couch and rotate between Instagram, Pinterest, eBay and Vinted. A quick like here, a new search for this brand there and - yay - the seller accepted the offer. A little scroll on Vinted or Depop takes the edge off just right, the occasional purchase is part of the routine. And what about it? You traded this flowy summer skirt down to a tenner and the dopamine rush of finding a reasonably priced vintage gem; the last vehicle to fully let go of the busy day.
It’s second hand, it’s cheap and one scroll at a time you turn into the circular consumer we all praised. At least so I told myself. Wanting to minimise my screentime on Instagram, Vinted was a welcome alternative that swiftly sneaked into my scrolling habits. And, in the blink of an eye, into my consumer behaviour too. It was not only the bill at the end of the month that struck me. It was also the realisation that by substituting Instagram through Vinted, I had just lured myself into putting fast fashion consumerism on display, thinking that because it’s circular, it’s okay.
Algorithms improve rapidly and with a certain ‘Pinterestification’ of resale marketplaces, you know you’ll see something you like whenever you open the app. We did not only go from stigmatised ‘hand-me-down’ to ‘curated’ and ‘pre-loved’, but the false sense of scarcity is also inherent to a one-of-a-kind product. If you score a unique item for a great deal, the momentary bliss is complete. Under the first layer of circular consumption lies a purchase characterised by cheapness and impulsiveness. Rings a fast fashion bell, doesn’t it?
In other, more scientific, words: this is a heavy case of what researchers call the ‘rebound effect’: A phenomenon describing that increased efficiency reduces the cost and in return oftentimes boosts consumption instead of minimising it. Or in our case: we save money buying second hand and - ta-da - end up buying even more.
So, does this fall into the category of fast fashion?
So, are platforms to be held accountable?
Depends on how complex of a conversation we are down to have. On one hand, the overall popularity of resale platforms rises, while the average price point of second hand clothing drops. Of course, one can argue that this makes circular consumption more accessible and lowers financial barriers. If this, on the other hand, leads to fast fashion patterns creeping up on resale, the rebound effect is once again being amplified. This especially applies to platforms like Sellpy, which is H&M-owned and might qualify as the most obvious Trojan horse. With this perspective, it is not far-fetched to assume that resale mutates into fast fashion’s undercover companion with better PR. And if the overall hunger for consumption grows anyway, isn’t it better if it’s satisfied through second hand?
Wow, hold on. How did a nightly scroll on my sofa lead us to EU policies and fundamental capitalist dilemmas? Let’s get back to where we started. There might be more to browsing and getting the edge off through a flowy summer skirt than it seems:
Studies show that materialistic and eco-conscious consumers are more prone to impulse buying than those who are not materialistic and eco-conscious. Quite uncomfortable to admit but could this be the root of the problem? In fact, I pride myself on almost only buying second hand for environmental reasons and I have a genuine interest, cultural and historical, in the design industry. Would I call myself eco-conscious? I guess so. Would I call myself materialistic? I’d certainly like to find reasons not to. I rarely buy new. Once I’ve successfully hunted down an item, I keep it for years. Materialism is a pre-loaded bias that comes to my mind when I think about consumerism linked to fast fashion or wildly expensive wardrobes. What’s wrong with the skirt I traded down to a tenner? Short answer: nothing. Long answer: perhaps I need to rethink what algorithm-backed treasure hunting on ‘designed-to-make-you-buy’ apps does to my brain chemistry.
Second hand is not evil and this is by no means a plea to stop buying vintage. It is the opposite: celebrate it! After all, the end-of-life phase of clothing accounts for less than 1% of its environmental impact and 75% of emissions are released in the production phase. From an emissions-only perspective, I hereby close this case: alarming trends in resale do not really overshadow first hand fashion consumption. What remains worrisome is the fast fashion consumption habits creeping up on resale platforms. So, instead of falling into the trap of doomscrolling and frequent purchases, let’s pay attention again:
This is SO me!
Can I get an even better deal?
Be quick before it’s gone forever!
Generally, fast fashion is characterised by low-quality manufacturing, frequent consumption, and short-lived garment use. Frequent consumption? Check. Short-Lived garment use and cheap manufacturing? This is where the lines get blurry. Yes, the items are already produced and ideally change owners more than once. Yet, there is an environmental cost that is not to be underestimated. A recent study finds that frequent shoppers of second hand tend to buy more new clothes as well. The study also found that those most engaged in second hand markets tend to get rid of their clothes faster. Seemingly driven by novelty, they end up generating more textile waste than other consumers. Not only another rebound effect, but also a stress test for charity systems which are already at their limits. An estimated 45% of presumably well-meant donations are sent away, oftentimes to Sub-Saharan Africa, where about 20-50% of the garments end up in landfills. Just because a garment stops by on a resale platform or in a charity shop, it doesn’t necessarily stay in circulation. This also doesn’t necessarily mean that all items in circulation are a sustainable shopper’s wet dream: admittedly, there is no reliable data for this but as an experienced scroller myself, I often come across listings labelled as ‘no brand’. Disguised as vintage clothing, they often turn out to be cheaply bought from platforms like Temu or Alibaba. Shifty resellers cut out tags and mislead buyers into paying for low-quality ultra fast fashion. We have not even addressed the environmental cost of shipping countless Vinted and eBay parcels yet and are already pretty deep down in the dirty laundry of second hand.
So, who is responsible for all this?
A tale, of course, as old as discourse around sustainability. We really, ahem, “circle back“ to the same questions again and again when we talk about circularity.
Is it a policy question?
Arguably so. Despite various policies in place, the EU consumption flourishes and increases steadily. In fact, around 47% of potential environmental gains are lost to the rebound effect. The positive results of policy action are not quite where they need to be in order to achieve significant environmental benefits.
Are you actually on the search for something you need?
Or are you subconsciously looking for cheap dopamine?
Are you buying for the price or does it fill a real gap in your wardrobe?
Are there more urgent gaps to fill first?
How many seemingly small purchases have you already made this month?
And would it help you to delete the app and browse on your laptop only?
Let’s give second hand the attention and thoughtfulness it deserves. This is an effective way to free it from traps that sooner or later creep up on any product category in a capitalist market. The ‘faster, cheaper, more’ ethos doesn’t stop from second hand and with today’s algorithms, we can watch it grow on steroids in real time. In reality, it is easy to feel like the next gem is just a scroll away. It is easy to feel satisfied by the rush of closing a deal and it is easy to buy when Apple Pay is not more than a double-click. Can we really blame ourselves for falling into these traps when the world around us is designed for doomscrolling and shopping? Honestly, it happens to the best. Much rather, we should notice when we’re down too deep. Am I aware of schemes tricking me into buying often and impulsively? Do I have them under control? Those are the questions to pose and prevent second hand from mutating into fashion’s next iteration of its ever-present sustainability conundrum. After all, second hand remains a great way to avoid fast fashion brands, so let’s celebrate it by buying with mindfulness again.
Is Second Hand the Trojan Horse of Fast Fashion?
21 August 2026
Words by Lilian Weiermann
Cover by Szilveszter Makó
