In recent years, second hand fashion has evolved from a niche choice to a mainstream phenomenon. Buying pre-owned clothing has become easy, fast, and normalized, especially online. Often seen as automatically sustainable, it is almost always justified by the good intention of giving a second life to existing items.
And generally, buying second hand has a lower environmental impact than buying new, but what happens when second hand fashion becomes a consumption model that risks mirroring fast fashion logic?
Is pre-owned always okay? Regardless of the material, the production year, or whether negotiating the price between individuals leads to a devaluation of these garments?
In a system that rewards speed, volume, and continuous garment turnover, the risk is subtle but real: confusing circularity with merely passing items from hand to hand.
From this reflection on second hand clothes, we propose a series of questions to help you determine whether your purchase truly has a reduced environmental impact or if it falls into the usual pattern of compulsive consumption.
Second hand, but which materials?
Buying second hand does not automatically mean making a conscious choice. The question is not only where a garment comes from, but what type of garment we are adding to our wardrobe. Was it designed to last? Does it have a composition (possibly natural fibers) that withstands time, wear, and washing? Or was it made to be worn only a few times, regardless of the number of owners it will have?
Circularity does not start with the sale of used clothes, but with quality. Without it, even second hand risks becoming merely an intermediate step before disposal – a short-lived extension of a life born to be brief.
Second hand, but is it fast fashion?
A fast fashion item remains fast fashion even when pre-owned. The price changes, not its nature. If a product was designed for a fleeting trend, with low-quality materials and construction, putting it back into circulation does not fix its structural limits.
The risk here is feeding the purchase of new fast fashion, normalizing the mindset: "I’ll buy it, it’s cheap, and I can resell it later." Yet what made that garment unsustainable in the first place – whether poor materials or large-scale overproduction – is not eliminated just because its life is extended slightly.
Second hand, but how old is this item?
This leads us to ask: when was the garment we are about to buy pre-owned actually made? Was it purchased new yesterday by someone who realized they didn’t need it, or is it vintage clothing with a story?
Not all pre-owned clothing is vintage. Items from ten, twenty, or thirty years ago often reflect a different approach to design and production: more stable materials, construction built to last, and styles less tied to extreme seasonality.
Decluttering your wardrobe and selling pre-owned clothing instead of throwing it away is a sustainable gesture. However, if this happens twice a year, with an overflowing wardrobe of unworn clothes, the pattern risks feeding the same cycle: buy, wear—if at all—discard—or resell.
Second hand, but how much am I devaluing it?
Private sales and bargaining may seem accessible, but often create a consumption model that devalues the items. Buyers try to negotiate the price down, sellers often give in just to get rid of items. The price is not mediated by the brand, which must, even when offering discounts and sales, ensure that the value of all the processes and materials involved in producing the garment is preserved.
If second hand platforms offer items still new with tags at a lower price, it sets a precedent of devaluation. The value of a garment is no longer defined by its objective qualities, but only by negotiation dynamics.
Lowering prices risks eroding the real value of a garment: its materials, labor, and production time.
When price becomes the only criterion, second hand can encourage impulsive consumption instead of responsible shopping. Items perceived as “disposable” are unlikely to be cared for, repaired, or kept long.
These reflections led us to create, like other brands, our own pre-owned clothing platform: Re-Rifò, available at secondhand.rifo-lab.com/it. Here we care for our pre-owned items, evaluate their quality, and ensure the price is fair and accessible, without dropping below the threshold that reflects the garment’s true value, both at birth and in its second life.
Second hand, but how much am I consuming?
The most uncomfortable point: overconsumption remains overconsumption, even in the second hand market. If second hand justifies growing volumes, environmental benefits drop drastically.
A Nature study of over 1,000 US consumers supports the idea that those who buy lots of second hand often buy lots of new items too, showing that consumption patterns add up rather than replace each other.
Conclusion
Sustainability is often not about labels, but about quantity. Buy less, choose better, use longer: this is where second hand truly makes sense, not in the rush to resell.
We must remember that sustainability concerns not only where clothes end up, but also how many we buy, how we use them, and why we purchase them.
If second hand ever made you feel out of control, it probably did. We hope these reflections and questions help guide future purchases.
