عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Fashion

Fashion Resale Site Vestiaire Collective Launches Crowdfunding

FILE PHOTO: An employee of "Vestiaire Collective", an online marketplace to buy and sell pre-owned designer clothing and accessories, checks shoes in Tourcoing, France, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: An employee of "Vestiaire Collective", an online marketplace to buy and sell pre-owned designer clothing and accessories, checks shoes in Tourcoing, France, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo
TT
TT

Fashion Resale Site Vestiaire Collective Launches Crowdfunding

FILE PHOTO: An employee of "Vestiaire Collective", an online marketplace to buy and sell pre-owned designer clothing and accessories, checks shoes in Tourcoing, France, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: An employee of "Vestiaire Collective", an online marketplace to buy and sell pre-owned designer clothing and accessories, checks shoes in Tourcoing, France, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo

Second-hand fashion marketplace Vestiaire Collective launched a crowdfunding campaign on Tuesday to raise at least one million euros ($1.09 million) from individual investors as the Kering-backed business aims to become profitable by year-end and potentially go public.
Vestiaire Collective will advertise the crowdfunding, which is open to anyone over age 18 in Europe and the UK, on its website and mobile app, CEO Maximilian Bittner said.
"The goal is really to bring our most loyal customers into our shareholder base," Reuters quoted Bittner as saying. "We really see this as a marketing effort to connect with our community."
The crowdfunding is priced at 1.78 euros ($1.94) per share, valuing Vestiaire at 1.1 billion euros ($1.20 billion). That is in line with a November funding round led by private equity firm Eurazeo, its biggest shareholder with a stake of around 25%. In mid-2022 the company was valued at 1.4 billion euros.
"It's reflective of the current environment but I think it is a fair valuation," said Bittner. The luxury sector is slowing down globally as aspirational and high-end consumers curb their spending.
Still, sales grew 25% on the Vestiaire platform last year, a spokesperson said, as people are increasingly buying second-hand clothes and accessories, a trend that has driven top fashion houses and retailers to set up resale sites.
Vestiaire, which earns a fee when customers sell items like Gucci bags or Burberry trench coats through the site, calls itself a marketplace for "desirable" pre-owned fashion. Since November 2022 it has banned more than 60 "fast fashion" brands from being sold on the platform, including Boohoo, Gap, H&M, Shein, Uniqlo, and Zara.
Founded in Paris in 2009, the company aims to become profitable around the end of 2024, and an initial public offering "would be the natural next step after we reach profitability," the spokesperson said in an email.
Gucci owner Kering holds a 5% stake in Vestiaire. Softbank has been an investor since 2021, though the company has not disclosed the size of its stake.
The crowdfunding, through UK-based platform Crowdcube, will open on Tuesday with a subscription phase starting on Feb. 6.

Most Viewed

 
 
Fashion

80-year-old LL Bean Staple Finds New Audience as Trendy Bag

Gracie Wiener poses with some of her tote bags in Washington Square Park in New York, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Gracie Wiener poses with some of her tote bags in Washington Square Park in New York, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
TT
TT

80-year-old LL Bean Staple Finds New Audience as Trendy Bag

Gracie Wiener poses with some of her tote bags in Washington Square Park in New York, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Gracie Wiener poses with some of her tote bags in Washington Square Park in New York, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

L.L. Bean created it 80 years ago to haul heavy blocks of ice. Now it's a must-have summer fashion accessory, The Associated Press reported.

The simple, sturdy canvas bag called the Boat and Tote is having an extended moment 80 years after its introduction, thanks to a social media trend in which they're monogrammed with ironic or flashy phrases.

New Yorker Gracie Wiener helped get it started by ordering her humble bags from L.L. Bean monogrammed with “Psycho” and then “Prada,” the pricey Italian luxury brand, instead of just her name or initials, and posting about them on Instagram. Then others began showcasing their own unique bags on TikTok.

Soon, it wasn’t enough to have a bag monogrammed with “Schlepper,” “HOT MESS,” “slayyyy” or “cool mom.” Customers began testing the limits of the human censors in L.L. Bean’s monogram department, which bans profanity “or other objectionable words or phrases,” with more provocative wording like “Bite me,” “Dum Blonde” and “Ambitchous.”

Social media fueled the surge, just as it did for Stanley’s tumblers and Trader Joe’s $2.99 canvas bags, which were once selling on eBay for $200, said Beth Goldstein, an analyst at Circana, which tracks consumer spending and trends.
The tote’s revival came at a time when price-conscious consumers were forgoing expensive handbags, sales of which have weakened, and L.L. Bean’s bag fit the bill as a functional item that’s trendy precisely because it’s not trendy, she said. L.L. Bean's regular bags top out at about $55, though some fancier versions cost upward of $100.
“There’s a trend toward the utilitarian, the simple things and more accessible price points,” she said, and the customization added to the appeal: “Status items don’t have to be designer price points.”

L.L. Bean’s tote was first advertised in a catalog as Bean’s Ice Carrier in 1944 during World War II, when ice chests were common. Then they disappeared before being reintroduced in 1965 as the Boat and Tote.

These days, they’re still made in Maine and are still capable of hauling 500 pounds of ice, but they are far more likely to carry laptops, headphones, groceries, books, beach gear, travel essentials and other common items.

Those snarky, pop-oriented phrases transformed them into a sassy essential and helped them spread beyond Maine, Massachusetts’ Cape Cod and other New England enclaves to places like Los Angeles and New York City, where fashionistas like Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Jessica Parker are toting them — but not necessarily brandished with ironic phrases.

“It’s just one of those things that makes people smile and makes people laugh, and it’s unexpected,” said Wiener, who got it all started with her @ironicboatandtote Instagram page, which she started as a fun side hustle from her job as social media manager for Air Mail, a digital publication launched by former Vanity Fair Editor-in-Chief Graydon Carter.

The folks at L.L. Bean were both stunned and pleased by the continuing growth. For the past two years, the Boat and Tote has been L.L. Bean’s No. 1 contributor to luring in new customers, and sales grew 64% from fiscal years 2021 to 2023, spokesperson Amanda Hannah said.

The surge in popularity is reminiscent of L.L. Bean’s traditional hunting shoe, the iconic staple for trudging through rain and muck, which enjoyed its own moment a few years back, driven by college students.