The “fast fashion” phenomenon that took hold in the ‘90s and ‘00s, with companies rushing to produce trendy, catwalk-style clothes in a bid to bring them to retail at just the right time for sales success, has been increasingly criticised in recent years due to its adverse environmental impact.

Much of the problem comes in how fast fashion encourages waste, with many consumers opting to discard once-trendy clothing items within only a few years of buying them. According to the United Nations, fast fashion is responsible for about 10% of global carbon emissions. 

It appears timely, then, that TikTok — the video-sharing app known to be especially popular with the eco-conscious Generation Z — has recently added a second luxury category to its UK arm of TikTok Shop, the social media platform’s ecommerce marketplace.

How is TikTok encouraging eco-conscious fashion? 

TikTok had already, more than six months earlier, expanded its US shop with a section dedicated to preowned prestige fashion. Now, TikTok is also enabling UK users to purchase second-hand, high-end clothes and accessories easily and seamlessly within the TikTok app. 

Five UK brands have directly offered such products via the UK TikTok Shop since its launch: Sellier, Break. Archive, Hardly Ever Worn It, Luxe Collective, and Sign of the Times.

TikTok is also guarding against the risk of customers inadvertently picking up fake products. A TikTok spokesperson told TechCrunch that all of the above-mentioned UK brands represented on the UK Shop have their own in-house means of authenticating goods. 

The second-hand luxury market is now a global movement 

In 2023 alone, this worldwide market is estimated to have sold second-hand designer items worth a total of $49.3 billion. Meanwhile, more than 144,000 TikTok posts using the hashtag #secondhandfashion have attracted about 1.2 billion views between them. 

The market’s growth has doubtless been fuelled largely by Gen Z’s dual loves of vintage merchandise and eco-friendly living. Generally, the longer a given piece of clothing remains in regular use without being thrown away, the better the implications are for the planet. 

TikTok is in a strong position to foster Gen Z’s sustainable approach to fashion. In an October 2022 survey of social media users aged 16-24 in the UK, 73% of female respondents and 63% of male respondents claimed to use TikTok daily.

The climate crisis provides your business with opportunities to thrive

Our luxury digital marketing consultancy has worked with a wide range of brands. However, you don’t have to be a big name in order to benefit from our specialist expertise. 

Indeed, key to the appeal of TikTok is how it can help “small” companies effectively reach out to people who may otherwise have been left engaged only by the fashion sector’s biggest players.

As the much-publicised environmental problems of fast fashion have shown, many of us can, and should, be much greener with our clothing choices. Doing so could even help us save money without having to compromise on the “luxury” aspect of our day-to-day attire. 

To learn how our luxury digital marketing consultancy can put together an effective social media strategy for your ethical organisation to adopt, please email [email protected].

Photo by Ahmed Carter on Unsplash