Can we ever win with sustainability?
21 December 2020
A few weeks ago, I was avoiding work responsibilities in my home office by aimlessly scrolling through Instagram (something I have curbed in the last few weeks, thankfully) when I encountered a post from one of my favourite meme accounts, @Depopdrama.
This anonymously-run account is known for posting screenshots of interactions between users on the clothes thrifting app Depop, which has amassed over 21 million active users as of November this year︎︎︎. These reactions range from rude to just plain weird to hilarious, and show the weird and wonderful user base that uses this peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace, often racking up thousands of likes and comments at a time.
I've laughed at some and been grossed out by others, but it was this one post that really got me bewildered, then annoyed, then confused:
So. The seller (grey texts) has sold something on her Depop account for £20 - some kind of top, apparently. The complainant (in blue) has confronted the seller for hiking up the price of the said top by about 200% - and calls the practice a scam. She (let's assume) bough the very same top for £2.50, the approximate price of an Americano in London. I can probably extract that the blue texter bought this shirt for £2.50 from a store, let's say from the online clothing site, Boohoo.
It's the combination of the second blue and final grey text that really made my head spin, and I'll delve into why. Before, I want you to decide, just by this message exchange, who's 'side' you'd be on.
Ok, now let's dissect this.
What the buyer is accusing is, in my opinion, not a scam. It's something else entirely, which albeit very common on an P2P platform, can also be - and I'm using this term very lightly - exploited to the point of what some people might label gentrification.
As somebody who sells stuff on Depop on a minimum level (I'm lazy and don't like going to the post office, ok!) I am not exactly making a side hustle out of this. However, I know a few people and can name huge Depop accounts who do, genuinely, make a good amount of money each month by thrifting clothes on Depop. Some sellers have genuinely gorgeous stuff that they don't wear anymore, which is in great condition and often from nicer, more sustainable brands. They don't want to keep this stuff anymore, and rather than throwing it away or bunging it in storage, they want to sell it, for both the good of the planet and a happy second-hand shopper who wants to buy responsibly. While I don't think selling an H&M top for three times the price is ok, I think selling lightly-worn yet good-quality clothing for a fair price is the way to go. Lord knows we need to stop buying fast fashion, what with the emissions it produces︎︎︎, the slave labour and fatalities behind it︎︎︎, the excessive capitalist mindset it perpetrates - I'll get to that later. The point is, I feel a whole lot better selling my clothes to somebody who really wants them rather than throwing them in a skip.
The platform is, as capitalism entails, an unregulated free market, where people are going to take advantage of you. That is unfortunately the way it is, but at the end of the day, it's the buyer's choice - caveat emptor. The other side of the sword with Depop is the act of selling 'vintage' pieces, often just older clothing from charity shops, in which the seller inflates the price to an often unjustifiable level. Vintage does not simply mean 'old', and 'deadstock' is not something you bought in 2015 and never wore. Seeing Brandy Melville vests that retail for £15 being described as 'rare' and sold for a 300% markup is not ethical either, and, in my opinion, a way of ripping off impressionable buyers, often younger girls. Since Depop does not limit the price settings on items, it is obvious that people will take advantage of it. I don’t think this is necessarily a way of Depop trying to exploit people, but rather a feature error that should be fixed, mainly to avoid problems like this ︎︎︎.
The 'gentrification' aspect of this argument is something that I haven't grappled entirely yet either, and I want to tread lightly with the term. I researched the goals and business ethos of Depop, and saw a common rhetoric of solving a problem that the greater fashion industry just can't seem to genuinely solve - the issue of fast fashion and the enormous economic, environmental and ethical problems it brings with it. When Depop came along and offered an accessible and transparent way of offloading excess wares for the greater good of the planet and humanity, I applauded it. I still think that it's doing a better job of tackling the problem than any other sites, and with the uptick in people buying second hand clothes, I look on the side of societal change for the good.
When people say that sites like Depop are being gentrified, they say it from the point of people who 'really need the clothes' being ripped off by middle-class grifters, much like this girl below. There's a lot to unpack in this post, ranging from the cringey description to the justifying of the price, but I'm tired. I'll just leave it here, and you can experience your brain explosion/WTF moment by yourself.
When I look at Depop prices on the whole, which excludes the overpriced "Y2K VINTAGE WAVEY GARMS RARE PIECES" narrative that permeates a lot of accounts, I have to be honest and say that the prices are, compared to full retail prices, pretty damn fair. The way that the critics of Depop gentrification are speaking is almost equating the selling of basic, non-designer clothing to price gouging toilet paper and hand sanitiser during the first lockdown. Most logical people are not buying £200 Supreme hoodies from Depop - this isn't a class divide, it's common sense. It's not the baseline for the general population to be doing that. You can still buy clothing on Depop from everyday sellers for low prices - even with Depop taking a 10% cut of the price. On a side note, with people comparing the early years of Depop to charity shops pre-vintage shopping boom, I don't really buy it either. It's not realistic for somebody to sell something for £1, when they get 90p in earnings and still have to go to the post office and pay for shipping or cargo, which also has a large carbon footprint.
Also, I don't know why I still have to say this, but if you have the means, you should never be buying clothes for the price of a coffee. By this I am referring to fast-fashion sites like Boohoo and Pretty Little Thing, where you can get a sports bra for £2, and not sites like Depop or eBay. Buying sustainable second-hand clothes for such a low price is a cause to celebrate, and sustainability advocates and experts are welcoming this change in societal attitude to vintage shopping. We are constantly being told to buy more and more, with multimillionaire celebrities such as Kylie Jenner and Cardi B endorsing these cheap clothing mills, advertising Fashion Nova dresses for $30 while wearing a pair of Louboutins that cost $600. These fast fashion companies advertise themselves as very affordable, therefore naturally appealing to those on the lower-income side, who in turn are ridiculed and vilified by the middle-class for not contributing to a sustainable world. Those who can afford to or simply choose to buy more ethical products are called gentrifiers, those who can't afford it are called cheap and criticised for it.
It's a constant loop of dissatisfaction with people and not these mega corporations whose sole aim is to sell cheap, unsustainable clothing with human and ecological exploitation at its core. We all desperately need to be doing better with the choices we make regarding our carbon footprint or fashion choices, but we can't ignore the bodies at the top who push this mountain of shitty, unethically made clothes to the masses.
Looking back on the message exchange once more, I think both girls have a point. Yes, hiking up the price of things on Depop is not a great move. It's annoying when there's something you really want, but can't afford it/ don't want to be ripped off. People are also shitty in the free marketplace of selling. That's life. Is it the norm across the board for Depop sellers? No, it isn't. Do companies like H&M produce clothes for pennies and hike up the price? Absolutely. Until people pivot away from these companies and dismantle capitalism for what it is, this is unfortunately the norm. Until then, keep shopping P2P and charity shops, research where you are buying your clothes from, ask yourself if you really need to buy five dresses in the Zara sale. We all have a responsibility to do so.
Sites like Depop aren't perfect, but they offer a sustainable solution to a problem that we all have a part in solving. We all need to work towards a fairer future that benefits ALL of us, and where fashion is accessible for everyone. Second-hand selling isn't slowing down, and while there are discussions to be had about potential problems within it, our planet will thank us in the long term.
This article stopped me from ranting on Twitter to my minimal followers. BTW, follow me there: @fraeji︎