The latest fashion rules: buy pre-loved labels and just five new items a year

With a former Vogue editor running jumble sales, and fashionistas vowing to buy fewer clothes, attitudes to style are changing fast.

 

It’s 5pm on Friday night and a group of volunteers have gathered in an old, cold church in Willesden, north-west London, making last-minute adjustments to rails of floaty dresses, piles of sweaters, boxes of hats, shoes and scarves. Hosted by former Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman and novelist Zadie Smith, this isn’t any old charity jumble sale but a must-go event that sums up current trends in how people buy their clothes.

 

The provenance of much of the merchandise is starry. Shulman opened her address book and Sophie Dahl and Jemima Khan donated clothes. Labels spotted included YSL, Chanel, Jil Sander, Prada, Gucci, Manolo Blahnik, Margaret Howell and almost every other big name in luxury goods. Plus lots of Zara. Prices are £10 to £200.

When the shoppers are let in, the rummaging begins. Marina Beaumont, 40, who lives in nearby Kensal Rise and works in marketing, tells me she is prepared for the melee. “I’m wearing a vest and leggings to make it easier to try things on; you have to know what to expect.” She was encouraged to come out at the end of the week because “I knew that if Alexandra and Zadie had put their names to it, it was going to be worth it”.

And for her it is. She looks magnificent in a long black Bella Freud evening dress, which Shulman tells her is her own personal favourite from everything in the sale. A recent survey found that 67% of millennials buy secondhand now, and Beaumont is no exception: “I shop on resale sites a lot; most of my friends do too.”

Chiara Menage, who founded one such site, Menage Modern Vintage, in 2018, tells me the trend has gone mainstream with its obvious connection to sustainability. “That’s contributed hugely to why people are looking more favourably at secondhand and vintage. I aim to offer a really good alternative to buying new things that are as good as new, and 100% sustainable.