(Bloomberg) — Oscar de la Renta fans will soon be able to buy vintage dresses from television shows like “Sex and the City” and “Succession” as the luxury fashion house moves further into the resale business.
Since last November, the designer has been curating looks from past runway collections in its secondhand shop, Encore. Pre-owned clothes are sold on consignment and the company authenticates, restores, and ships the items with an eye toward giving customers the same level of service as in its brick-and-mortar stores.
The logistics and payments are handled by Archive, which is a platform that is specialized in resale businesses and gives companies a high level of insight into customers and their purchases. Archive is also used by other secondhand businesses including North Face’s Renewed Marketplace and Dagne Dover’s Almost Vintage.
The platform just raised an additional $8 million in investment, bringing its total funding to about $10 million. Investors in the company include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures and Oscar de la Renta’s Chief Executive Officer Alex Bolen, as well as the founders of Warby Parker, Allbirds and Harry’s.
Oscar de la Renta’s plans and Archive’s funding underscore how the fashion resale market is attracting greater attention from companies and investors. It’s a segment that’s currently worth $130 billion, according to BofF Insights, and dominated by large marketplaces like RealReal Inc. and Poshmark Inc.
Oscar de la Renta’s Bolen sees Encore as a valuable tool in gaining and keeping customers.
“We think about resale as a way for us to acquire new customers and most importantly retain existing customers,” Bolen said in an interview. The companies sees it “as a fundamental change in luxury fashion going from a consumable or disposable to an asset.”
Bolen said the company sold 40 pieces from its first batch of vintage items and is getting ready to release its second batch on Jan. 26, which will feature 31 iconic dresses and 15 pieces of fine jewelry from DKF, which sells estate jewelry, from designers such as Van Cleef & Arpel and JAR.
In the coming months, Oscar de la Renta plans to introduce an auction function that lets customers bid on dresses previously worn by celebrities in films and TV as well as on the red carpet and at events like the Met Gala.
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