Does Resale Extend the Use Phase of Garments? Exploring Longevity on the Fashion Resale Market

This paper presents a follow-the-garment exploration in which the two Danish fashion brands GANNI and Baum und Pferdgarten (BuF) have been followed in selected resale environments from September 2020 to September 2022. Drawing on data from two pilot studies and an ongoing PhD project which is part of the large-scale Danish research program TraCE (trace-im4.dk), an actor-network theoretical (ANT) case study approach is used to explore how mechanisms on the resale market can inform design strategies with the purpose of extending the use and lifetime of garments. Following the idea that design strategies can be improved by studying actual examples of garment trajectories, the resale market is proposed as an appropriate field of research to explore mechanisms that determine how garments perform in circular business models. As resale is considered one of the most effective circular business models in the fashion sector (Niinimäki, 2018), we dive into the market to stimulate a shift in gears from theoretical possibilities to design for longevity and to practical realities where garments are shifting hands. The paper contributes with insights that can further understandings of relationships between fashion design and resale mechanisms and finds that design for longevity strategies are limited in their possibilities to succeed due to the dynamic existence of garments whose destinies rely on user behaviours and are modified with everything that happens with and around them.