At the same time, a very interesting trend emerged when combining sustainability and e-commerce, I am referring to the resale of new or used luxury fashion products.

But, how was this new form of business in the fashion industry born?

Well, it started a long time ago with the rental of luxury garments and accessories, through the digital platform Renttherunway https://www.renttherunway.com/ and then with the sale of luxury brand products through platforms such as Farfetch https://www.farfetch.com/pe/ or Mytheresa https://www.mytheresa.com/ and is that the acquisition of luxury products via online is not a novelty, although luxury does not have an exact definition, since it is very subjective, in fashion, much has to do with the “aspirational concept of the consumer” in addition to the fact that it values exclusivity, superior product quality, history and reputation, among other characteristics, which makes it willing to pay a high price to get it. 

In the case of resale, on the one hand, the seller recovers or has a profit margin for the investment made in the purchase of a luxury product and on the other hand, the buyer acquires a product at a lower price (although this is not necessarily so, we will explain that later) and also feels that he is fighting against environmental pollution thereby reducing the carbon footprint by using a second-hand product.

It should be noted that within the resale market of used luxury brand products, we also find that shoe or watch boxes, bags and/or wrappings of such luxury products are being commercialized, such as the Louis Vuitton box or the Tiffany turquoise blue color box, better known as Tiffany Blue with Pantone Blue number 1837C, that is, through social networks such as Instagram in which people presume that they are luxury consumers, the acquisition of such boxes is a way to get closer to being this type of products, given that among Instagram followers or Facebook friends do not actually know what it has inside the box. 

However, we must be careful because this black market of acquisition of boxes and/or wrappings could generate an increase in the manufacture and marketing of counterfeit products that would be susceptible to be reported for trademark infringement or copyright, as the case may be.

On the other hand, we have that some consumers who purchase luxury products are seeing it as a long term investment, for example, owning a Birkin handbag of the Hermés brand. As you know to acquire this handbag is not only enough to pay its high price (it costs approximately US$ 50,000.00) but you have to sign up on a list and wait to be called to buy the handbag, this can take months or just do not call you, that reminds me of the famous scene in which the actress Kim Catrall playing the character of Samantha in the series Sex & The City, pretends to be a famous actress played by Lucy Liu to have the Birkin. 

The resale of this type of luxury products can be very profitable and with the passage of time such items are revalued, even up to triple its value, in fact, auction houses have been the first to realize this business, either by auctioning jewelry or clothing of Hollywood artists or royalty.

But now the resale through digital platforms can be available to everyone, and it is more with the rise of digital platforms such as the startup StockX https://stockx.com/, which resells only sneakers, considered as a unicorn since it is valued at 1,000 million dollars, the digital platform Grailed www.grailed.com that resells all kinds of garments such as polo shirts, jackets, pants, among others, or the virtual platform The Real Real https://www.therealreal.com/ that sells second-hand luxury clothing and accessories, among others. 

In this sense, resale is becoming more and more popular, which could imply a problem for the fashion industry, since the big brands cannot have control of their products or, if this is the case, cannot participate in the profits of such resales, and even start selling fake products in market places, which would violate the intellectual property of the big brands.

However, on the other hand, big brands could take advantage of technology and use blockchain to track their products as is the case of aura blockchain consortium https://auraluxuryblockchain.com/ an alliance of the LVMH, Prada Group and Richemont groups, which will allow traceability throughout the production and marketing chain of their products supervising that these are only sold in authorized channels or are encouraged to participate in resale marketplaces as is the case of the platform of second-hand luxury brands Vestiaire Collective https://us.vestiairecollective.com/ where the Kering Group has already acquired a percentage of shares of this platform. 

Undoubtedly this secondary market better known as resale is a new business alternative in the fashion industry and that surely the fashion law will participate in its development and regulation in the future. 

Annalucia Fasson Llosa 

Partner of the corporate area and head of the fashion and retail law department at Muñiz, Olaya, Meléndez, Castro, Ono & Herrera Abogados

The fashion industry was no stranger, and began to transform and in fact one of the great changes that have happened in 2020, is that the consumer has become more responsible, has realized the damage we were doing to the planet and has begun to value the handmade clothing, footwear and accessories even handmade decorative objects, i.e., in an artisanal manner.

It should be noted that the fast fashion movement has been hard hit by the pandemic, and is that for some time to date grew by leaps and bounds, making the purchase addictive since it launched between 20 or 30 collections a year, at a low price using average materials, inspired by the catwalks of the major fashion weeks in the world, such as New York, Paris, Milan and London, to name a few examples, But due to the health crisis they were forced to suspend the fashion shows and stop producing so quickly, growing a slower fashion (Slow Fashion) where cycling, which consists in the use and reuse of garments and upcycling, which consists in making an improvement to a used garment, as when you sew a hood to a suit to protect the wearer from the cold, began to take on greater importance.  

And is that the fashion industry, was clear since before the pandemic that it was the second most polluting in the world, so much so that the UN held a sustainable fashion alliance in Nairobi in March 2019 and in August of that same year, more than 32 companies including textiles, fashion retailers and fast fashion signed a Fashion Pact in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron, having as main pillars: i) avoid climate change, ii) conserve natural resources and iii) protect rivers and oceans. 

However, the Covid-19 accelerated this transformation in the industry and the concept of circular economy and sustainability in fashion that we have been hearing for a long time began to grow exponentially and in my opinion, it is no longer a trend but a reality, where the starting point is a more conscious consumer who asks where, how and who manufactured their clothing or accessories, where they ask if the labor rights of workers or workers who manufacture such products are respected, as well as they are interested in complying with environmental standards and regulations.

Thus, in the face of fast fashion, not only sustainable fashion has been re-powered but also artisanal fashion has begun to be valued, that is, we have returned to our roots and now as a major trend of 2021, we have that the “handmade”, begins to be valued by the consumer talking about a new luxury, that which in the beginning was born of artisanal brands that were bought by large conglomerates to then sell their products around the world, that is, in front of the massive emerges the handmade, the artisanal, giving birth to new trends such as the Craftcore and Cottagecore.

The Craftcore reinvents the concept of sustainable fashion and proposes that garments be designed from second-hand or home-made garments. One of the great changes brought about by the pandemic was remote work (homeoffice), which forced many to spend more time at home without being able to go out, since all activities were suspended except those of primary necessity, which in Peru were the sale in supermarkets, pharmacies and the operation of banks. 

This made people realize that they could reuse textiles and create new designs based on natural dyes for example using techniques such as tie dye to dye garments with natural dyes under the Japanese Shibori method, appearing techniques such as patchwork that unite different pieces, quilting that combine layers of fabric (quilting), coming back into fashion knitting or crochet, among others.

Also, as we know, by fashion we should not only understand clothing, footwear or accessories but also includes decoration, giving birth to the cottagecore movement that seeks to be in contact with nature and many people working remotely were able to leave their urban homes and move to live in a country house or beach house continuing to provide their work remotely. 

This movement revalues country life, reuses textiles or other materials in order to make a space in the house cozier, using in the decoration elements such as natural flowers, the color green and eco proposals, which transport us to a country life and in what refers to clothing using textures such as linen fabric or floral prints. 

The elaboration of handmade and sustainable garments is undoubtedly the path that the fashion and textile industry is following, we will find a new way of making luxury, and we will call it sustainable luxury in which the details will be valued, as well as the work invested manually to produce it and will try to achieve traceability and transparency throughout the production chain of the product that will become more relevant and will gain more and more importance among consumers. 

On the other hand, entrepreneurs will start to set up triple impact companies, that is, companies that not only have an economic purpose but also a social and environmental purpose, aligned with one or more of the 17 sustainable development goals that the UN declared in 2021 and that the challenge of meeting them for its 2030 Agenda. 

We are facing a new alliance where sustainability and craftsmanship will become the main pillars of the fashion industry and where fashion law will undoubtedly take a leading role, enforcing compliance with labor, environmental and human rights standards, as well as implementing good corporate governance policies for its growth and development.