"Pre-owned fashion market to grow by up to 24% globally during 2022"

"The second-hand fashion market foresees a growth of up to 24% globally during 2022 and is one of the trends that has most mobilized brands in recent months, attentive not to miss opportunities," explains María Ángeles Burguera, director of the new Master in Fashion Business Management at ISEM, the Fashion Business School of the University of Navarra in Madrid.

More and more brands are launching platforms and apps to provide resale and repair services for second-hand clothing to potential consumers in this sub-sector of the fashion market, which was estimated to be worth $130 billion globally in 2021, according to a report published by Business of Fashion.  

"This growing trend is supported by the habits of many consumers, especially young people, although they are not the only ones who are concerned about sustainability and seek to repurchase used garments at a lower price," says this professor, for whom the causes of the phenomenon are varied. "There is an interest in circularity, of course; also a desire to acquire valuable pieces -such as special clothing from luxury brands- and of course, savings, in a complicated economic moment", she stresses.

In many cases, greater respect for the environment is coupled with "a sense of community that technological platforms facilitate, especially some marketplaces, as interactions with other consumers increase with each purchase or sale. For this reason, "the fashion industry will have to adapt its professionals and invest in new departments that will undoubtedly become more important in its overall activity," says Burguera. "This is a new leap: it is no longer e-commerce but re-commerce, as some call this new phenomenon."  

New master's degree in Fashion Management: sustainability and digitalization

At ISEM, the preparation for younger professionals has been enriched with that vision and in September 2023 the Master in Fashion Management will begin, with two marked perspectives: sustainability and digitalization. "The University of Navarra has been training managers in the fashion industry in Madrid for more than 20 years and now it will go a step further. In addition to knowing the links in the production and distribution chain, our students will be able to suggest solutions to liquidate a stock at the end of the season, rigorously inform a customer about the materials of a garment or manage to extend their market to new consumers who are concerned about the sustainability of resources," says Burguera.

The curriculum combines seven months of theoretical teaching with three months of mandatory internships in important fashion companies in Spain. In addition, it offers an international internship based on two tracks, Sustainability, in Amsterdam; or Digitalization, in London. In his opinion, the new master's degree allows students to specialize, as soon as they graduate, in the most cutting-edge aspects of the fashion industry. "They will be professionals capable of analyzing the overabundance of data and facing operational challenges in the departments of finance, purchasing, e-commerce, communication, etc., without forgetting the most human values and perspectives that enrich all business activity."