Author: Trina

In my search for reliable secondhand luxury sites, I came across Vestiaire Collective. Even though it worked a little differently than The Real Real, the items came authenticated and they had some killer deals so I gave them a try.

Vestiaire Collective is a luxury resale site that offers pre-owned luxury fashion, home decor, and lifestyle goods. This site operates a little more like Poshmark and Depop in that individual sellers list luxury items themselves on the site. Vestiaire Collective does still authenticate their items, but that process doesn’t start until the item is actually purchased.

The Shopping Experience

Shopping on Vestiaire Collective took a little more research than I had used for The Real Real. Because the items are listed by individual sellers, all the photos, descriptions, and prices are also provided by the seller. This means that sometimes you’ll come across an items that looks red in the picture but is actually listed as orange in the description, or a pair of shoes that are listed as a US 7 when they are really a UK 7.

I was originally looking for a pair of kick-ass leather boots, but the sizing inaccuracies were especially bad for footwear. Also, you can’t return a majority of items from Vestiaire Collective, you can just try and resell them back on their site. So I basically gave up on buying shoes off the site.

I ended up buying a graphic tee from Saint Laurent and a printed dress from AllSaints that I had found and loved a few season ago but never pulled the trigger on buying. The tee was originally in the $400 range but I bought it for about $150 in pristine condition with the tags attached. The dress was originally in the high $200 range and I bought it for under $100 in pristine condition.

The Buying Experience

Like The Real Real, Vestiaire Collective offers financing for items through Affirm. However, I would be very careful about what you finance since it can go off the rails really quickly.

The seller for the Saint Laurent tee shipped it to Vestiaire Collective for authentication right away, however, the seller for the AllSaints dress didn’t send it out until 4 days later. According the Vestiaire Collective’s website, the seller has up to 7 days to ship the item to them before they just issue you a refund.

It took a couple of days for Vestiaire Collective to receive the products. Then it took another day for them to authenticate them. After they were shipped to me, they took a while to be delivered since they were coming from France. Overall, the shipping process took a really long time, especially in the age where you can next-day ship most things. They do offer a Direct Buy option where you shop goods that have already been sent to them, but this really narrows down your options. I just feel like they could find a way to streamline the process a little bit more.

Because Vestiaire Collective uses DHL to ship, you do have the option to sign for your package, which is important when you’re buying more expensive items that you don’t want to get “lost” during delivery.

The Products

When I did finally receive my tee and dress, they were both amazing and matched their descriptions exactly.

Overall, buying from Vestiaire Collective was a decent experience. While you definitely have to do a lot more research into what you’re buying and shipping times are way longer than you’re probably used to, they do have a huge selection of items and you can find great deals since the pricing is determined by the individual seller. You could even negotiate the price down if you wanted.

I made a little list of amazing finds that I’ve come across on the site:

The Real Real was the first website I ever came across that sold pre-owned luxury fashion. I was still in college and definitely not able to afford buying any clothing, let alone luxury, so actually buying anything from the site was kind of out of the question. Still, stumbling upon a site like that was the first time that I felt that buying luxury fashion could be in my future. Fast forward about 7 years and I’m obsessed with the site.

The Real Real is a pre-owned luxury website that also has a few brick-and-mortar locations in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. All of their items come authenticated and checked for quality, which is super important when dealing with luxury goods.

The Shopping Experience

Shopping The Real Real is super easy. They have tons of filters so you can narrow your search down by size, condition, price, and brand. I ended up finding an amazing pair of Saint Laurent suede boots in pristine condition. Originally, these boots were in the $1000-$1500 price range, but I ended up paying less than $300 including shipping.

When someone sells something on The Real Real, it has already been sent to one of the store’s offices where it’s authenticated, photographed, and put into their inventory. Because they’re in physical possession of the piece, you don’t have to worry that photos aren’t accurate or that the item won’t ever be shipped out.

The Buying Experience

The Real Real does offer financing through Affirm if you fall in love with a piece that is still a little bit out of your price range. While I’ve used Affirm to finance large furniture purchases, I’ve actually never used it on a clothing site.

As far as the shipping goes, The Real Real is able to compete with the shipping times from regular department stores because they’ve already authenticated the item and have it in their possession.

My shoes arrived via UPS in about a week. The only thing I didn’t like was that they didn’t require a signature for my delivery. While that may not be as big of a deal when you’re dealing with $300 shoes, if I were to purchase a Saint Laurent jacket for $2000, I would definitely want a signature to be required.

The Product

These shoes are amazing, and I’m not even exaggerating. They really were “Pristine” as listed in the description of the item. There wasn’t a single mark on them, including the soles. They came in a The Real Real dust bag instead of a box, but I’m not someone who stores shoes in their original boxes so that didn’t really bother me.

Overall, I loved buying from The Real Real. They’re definitely going to be one of my main sources for pre-owned luxury fashion in the future.