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Home » 4 Ways Depop Is changing The Fashion World
Content Specialist
440 Industries
Depop’s influence in the fashion industry is undeniable. Chances are you probably know someone who runs a Depop business, have purchased vintage ensembles from Depop, or you might even run a Depop business yourself. Depop is a peer-to-peer second-hand shopping app that allows its users to be their own boss and give its sellers full creative control of how they want to market their vintage finds.
As of May 2020, Depop has amassed 15 million registered users worldwide with 90% of its users being under the age 26. Since the creation of Depop, and with Gen Z’s romanticization of the ’90s and early 2000s, the 90’s aesthetic and Y2K(the year 2000) fashion trends have become more and more popular further creating a ripple effect of people increasingly purchasing their clothing from second-hand shops and thrift stores.
To help you navigate the post, here’s a breakdown of the article’s sections:
1. Promoting Sustainability
2. Bringing the Past into the Future
3. A New Way of Conducting Business
4. Influencing Fashion Trends
5. Conclusions
How is Depop sustainable? Depop recognizes the fact that we are currently living in a climate emergency with fast fashion making the crisis exponentially worse. Fashion all together is responsible for 10% of global carbon emissions and 20% of global wastewater. We are currently in the midst of a fashion crisis! With Gen Z being extremely environmentally conscious, Depop is the perfect avenue to turn to for today’s young shoppers that hope to make a difference. The Instagram-esque format of the app is typically brimming with an infinite parade of vintage and gently or moderately used clothing to purchase.
Previously loved fashion is often more suitable for the environment because instead of perpetuating the vicious cycle of throwing away and purchasing new clothes, users recycle items they’ve lost interest for by passing it on to someone who appreciates the pieces for all that they are. This extends a garment’s life as opposed to sentencing it to a premature death by tossing it in the trash and sending it off to get buried in a landfill. The trend of upcycling has been on the rise, but Depop has played a key role in this by providing an easy to use platform. Sustainability is more accessible than ever before, and since the social selling app’s feed resembles that of instagram, it brings a sense of familiarity to its audience in a new fun way. Practicing sustainability is now more universal.
The revolutionary brand has recognized we don’t have much time to fix the environmental damages that have been done. An end of the year goal for Depop is to become a climate-neutral company by addressing the fact that shipping can make up to 98% of a marketplace’s carbon footprint. For each transaction made on Depop, they will offset 100% of greenhouse gas emissions caused by shipping, by purchasing verified carbon credits.
With the increase in young people shopping for clothing items that were popular 20-30 years ago there has been a rise in mixing vintage pieces and adding a twist of modernity to create funky ensembles. Notable ultra-niche aesthetics that have been born from such practices are “cottagecore”, “witchcore”, “dark academia” ,and “e-girl/e-boy” among many others. It seems to be a merging of different notable eras.
In Depop, sellers have the freedom to curate their own shops and choose what niche fits them best based on their aesthetic, and artistic expertise. Modern technology has allowed historic craft-based industries to increase the capability for indie creators and individual sellers to offer an in store-like feel that each ‘shop’ curates, with the ability for relationships to grow between buyer and seller in what creates a much more authentic customer experience. With Depop’s peer-to-peer e-commerce platform where sellers and buyers have the space to interact and mingle creates meaningful exchanges and selling becomes a personal experience.
With seller profiles resembling those of Instagram influencers, sellers have the freedom to artistically curate their items and content feed to their niche, without the concern of mainstream fashion. The commonly used ‘verification badge’ on social media platforms is a tool Depop utilizes and helps encourage sellers to invest time and effort into shaping and perfecting their ‘shops’ image. An important aspect of Depop’s appeal is how the pieces being sold on the app are original and are scarce in quantity. This offers buyers a “one-of-a-kind” feeling, a rejection of the conformity that fast fashion represents.
Depop’s format reflects Generation Z’s sense of individualism that influencer culture has made popular. Sellers have been known to offer bundles to buyers inspired by their own style, which gives buyers a chance to be personally styled in ways they would have never attempted to do themselves. The well known Depop seller iGirl offers her cult-like following a chance to try out different themed styles they may have missed when they originally were the pinnacle in fashion, in which most of the time it was before they were even born. Depop has a cool factor that young people flock to for style inspiration and is seen as a tool to rebrand and reinvent themselves. Today’s youth has more influence on the fashion world than ever before, these young visionaries are the ones setting the new trends and rewriting the rules. Vintage styles have become more appealing in the sense that it gives buyers an added layer of individuality and a cooler edge compared to the homogenous landscape of fast fashion. Depop’s utilization of second-hand fashion played a major role in propelling a less stigmatized view and a more socially accepted view on second-hand fashion.
Depop is leading the industry in a magnitude of ways. Depop is bringing more power to the people, which is a big social concern among Gen Z. The fashion world is now a consumer-led industry with consumers starting the trends and the rest of the industry following suit to meet the demand of distinctive aesthetic niches created by thrifting one-of-a-kind vintage pieces. I have a feeling those game-changing practices are here to stay and Depop will continue to carve out new landscapes in the fashion world.
I’m a Latina from the small Southern California town Fillmore, famous for its orange groves and featured in many television shows and movies. I’m currently finishing up my Bachelors in Global Studies at California State University Channel Islands. I have a strong appreciation for all things fashion and combine this appreciation with my interdisciplinary background in contemporary issues facing humanity in a globalized world to conduct research on trends, inclusivity in the industry and the evolving landscape of the fashion world.
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