Why Vestiaire Collective says your ‘got nothing to wear’ claim is a lie

It turns out that when Morrissey sang he “would go out tonight,” but he didn’t have a “stitch to wear,” his closet may have been overflowing.

That’s the takeaway from a new report from Vestiaire Collective, the Paris-based luxury resale platform, and WRÅD, a consulting and creative agency. They polled European and US consumers about how often they experienced the feeling of “got nothing to wear” (their acronym: GNTW), and set about to interrogate and debunk the sentiment.

While 32.7% of respondents experienced GNTW on a weekly or more frequent basis, nearly twice as many (57.3%) respondents aged 18–24 did.

Having a larger wardrobe, paradoxically, can intensify the feeling. The nothing-to-wear feeling occurs on a weekly-plus basis for ~6% of those with wardrobes of fewer than 50 items, for ~22% of those with wardrobes of 50–100 items, and for ~26% of those with 100–300 items.

This isn’t your first rodeo, so we needn’t remind you that reports from companies tend to illuminate a problem for which they have a solution. The report polled only registered users on the Vestiaire Collective platform, including those who’d registered but not yet purchased anything. And it found that 31% of active buyers experienced GNTW on a weekly-plus basis, compared to 39% of those yet-to-purchase registrants. That reinforces the tagline-y thesis articulated in the report: “You are not out of options, you are out of love. Find it on Vestiaire Collective.”

Another finding that conveniently could benefit the resale platform came during home audits for 10 of the respondents who lived in Rome, finding that the rarely worn designer and luxury items in their closets had an average value of €890 ($1,033 at the time of publication) if they were to sell them on Vestiaire Collective.

The survey polled 5,643 respondents in Italy, France, Germany, the US, and the UK.

The US accounts for about 10% of Vestiaire Collective’s revenues, and newly appointed CEO Bernard Osta told WWD in February that it could grow.

“The potential of Vestiaire in the US is very significant,” Osta told the publication. “It is a top priority for this year.”