Other cultural and economic shifts are helping to bring WGACA and Fashionphile to the fore. Instagramming from the front row of a show might earn editors a few extra followers, but it softens the excitement that once surrounded the delivery of new clothes to a retailer, notes Goodman. “By the time someone wears a look from the runway out to a party now, the clothes already feel like last season. But if it’s vintage, it will exist outside of this cycle and won't have been liked 5,000 or 25,000 times on Instagram already. It’s special, unique, and it’s yours. You are making a bold, personal style decision.” This same impetus lay behind Burberry’s decision to create runways with instant buying options, starting in September.
The Threat Of Fraud
It might seem that the rise of luxury vintage is unstoppable, but a danger looms that could derail the entire industry: fakes. The resale market is lucrative and generally un-policed—charges around selling fakes are usually pleaded down to disorderly conduct, resulting in minor fines and no jail time—so it’s ripe for unscrupulous exploitation. The situation is made trickier by the emergence of a new class of counterfeits known as superfakes, essentially production overruns stolen from the factory and indistinguishable from authorized merchandise.
It’s a threat that WGACA’s Weisser takes seriously. “We handle more of this product than anyone’s ever seen, so we get a very good comfort level on how to spot a fake. Our senior buyers are like scientists, and they will get down to counting stitches or even using techniques we’d prefer not to disclose.”