Over the last few months, I have sold super luxury shoes like Dolce & Gabbana for a fraction of the price I bought them for. Using the online platform Vestiaire I have managed to sell brand new never worn shoes that I could never walk in let alone fit into. Why did I buy shoes that were of no use to me anyway? But damaging to my bank account?
Vestiaire has become the go-to destination for limited edition items that often require a relationship with the brand for first dibs. According to the resale company, 60 percent of people who visit the app are looking for unique rare pieces they can’t find elsewhere.
What Is A Shoe Bargain?
For me, a bargain is a highly valuable shoe bought at a fraction of its original price. A shoe that I can actually wear and walk in for most of the day. All the shoes I have sold on Vestiaire have been bought at a good price but not with the intent to walk in them, some don’t even fit me properly.
Why on earth did I buy them? I have a shoe buying problem. I buy the shoe because it’s a luxury brand at a discount price.
I buy it as I love the look of the shoe. I also splash my cash because in my mind it’s a bargain. Sometimes I buy because I am sad about life and where I live.
This deluded mindset is why I own around forty brand new pairs of shoes that I can’t walk in. Let alone never worn. How many shoes do you own that you know you will never, ever wear?
This is not a value for money mindset. I am not saving on the shoes on sale at all.
Shoes Are Great For Weight Gain Or Loss
We, women, have a natural DNA fetish for shoes. We all have an obsession and for me it is shoes. Because most shoes can be still worn when I gain or lose a few kilos. I am a big lover of leather shoes, full leather soles included all Made In Italy. When I see a beautiful pair of leather shoes I buy them. Just because they are wonderful to look at. Shoe art purchasing I call this.
I only buy new shoes because in Indian culture shoes that have been worn can curse you.
It’s hard to sell my current shoes because I do have two daughters. I could keep them sitting there for another few years. But is that of real value?
The Cost Of Storing
In my digital nomad lifestyle in where I don’t own a fixed home. I can’t afford to have clothes and shoes lying around. I simply don’t have the house space. Also keeping items in storage is costly and for the most part, can be left damaged. o those bargain shoes I thought were a good buy ended up costing me much more.
How much stuff do you have in storage not worn or could do without? How much stress this has caused me in the last two years is simply not worth the storage or mental strain.
In the last 22mths during the lockdown, my wardrobe has become massive stress for me. Owning so many shoes has cost me more in time figuring out what to take on my trips. It’s been real travel stress. The cost of taking it around Italy also has cost me so much time and money. Most of the part clothes that I hardly wore.
Hermes & Chanel
At Vestiaire owned by Kering Group. The only stuff worth ever holding onto is Hermes & Chanel bags. The second-hand resale site is backed by fashion conglomerate Kering, which owns Gucci, Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta.
It is a clear play: Chanel is taking back the power from the vintage market, which has cashed in on the rapidly rising value of its accessories. The Classic Flap Bag fetches up to £28,000 on Vestiaire Collective. A small Chanel Classic retails at £5,410 – and it’s not even guaranteed you can buy one by going straight into the store.
The Digital Nomad Lifestyle
At fifty I never planned to travel as I have in the last five years. So I have slowly decluttered. During lockdown one, I decided to be very ruthless and sell all my furniture, cars and everything that I could not store in a small garage. In this process, I have discovered how much I don’t need, and how much I don’t wear. I actually have been like this for many years. Buying bargains then giving them to Oxfam. So can I change my spending fashion habits? I have to because I don’t have the luxury of storing clothes in many places anymore.
Mental Decluttering
I don’t sell to make money. This platform Vestiaire unless you get luxury shoes at rock bottom prices it is not a platform to make a lot of money.
My top tip is to declutter not to make money. Anything under 120euro sells well. If you get an offer take it, it may be the only one you get.
Unless it’s Gucci, Chanel or Hermes otherwise upload to sell. Don’t hoard as you have in the past it won’t do your mental health any good. Getting rid of unwanted items is also feeding you an unwanted past.
That is my personal experience regarding selling second-hand clothing. But it is a place where I can crawl back some cash. I have simply wasted so much cash in buying unworn, unwanted shoes. By decluttering and selling it’s all about mentally preparing me for the next stage in life.
Make sure you write down goals to achieve on why you are selling your wardrobe?
This mental health exercise is so important for me to free my mind from bigger challenges to come as a mum and businesswoman.
Think Before You Buy
I do buy items I truly love now. I get many items made for me now. In fact, because it’s so hard to work to sell and store my items due to my lifestyle. I am on a mission to buy nothing at all. That is so damn hard as I am a lover of fashion. But I am on a different mission. To rebuild my talent and energy in interior design, classic cars and real estate. I have not owned a home for many years by choice.
My Burberry Carbon Foot Print Journey
For me, I feel this is rewarding on an eco-friendly front. I hate fast fashion.
I have sold brand new luxury shoes, never worn due to getting rid of clutter. Getting rid of shoes that I have no storage or place in my life no more.
Fast fashion has destroyed the clothing industry and creativity. It’s why I am a big advocate of vintage clothing.
I worked out what one pair of new shoes cost me both in time, money, stress and carbon footprint. It weighed less than a kilo. I bought it because it was Burberry and at a so-called bargain.
The carbon footprint for my now sold Burberry shoes I bought and never wore was utter ridiculous. This shoe travelled 8000km, from the moment I bought it to when I sold it. The shoes travelled from London, Belfast, France, Spain, Andorra, Italy, Holland Hungry and sold from Romania.
The stress and carbon footprint to take them around was 2.8kg of carbon, it’s equivalent to driving 28km in a car.
For wealthy travellers who fly in their private jets and sail their superyachts. Travel with a wardrobe of excess . Or like Amazon and Tesla who prefer to fly to space.With no mission or purpose needed.
I do wonder why I should be concerned about the carbon footprint regarding fashion?
Storage Costs Versus That Shoe Bargain
I have around 3m cubics of clothes left in storage for the last 22months. I have to now travel 2500km to get the rest of my unwanted so-called bargain shoes. To collect, unpack, repack and sell. The mental stress on knowing it has to be collected and also it has been sitting there has taken its toll on me.
But due to my lifestyle change, my purchases have become such a burden over the last few years. Don’t beat yourself up for all the unwanted clothing you have bought. Deal with it. Sell it, give it away. But do it for the right reasons.
What lockdown life has taught me and so many others. Is how little stuff we truly need to be happy, content and live a simpler lifestyle.
What Is Your Wardrobe Mission?
By selling most of my items. I truly believe it will clear the path for new and bigger adventures for me personally. So as each item leaves me, the last sell was a Givenchy denim jacket. I bought it way too small. The more I declutter, I am feeling free, happier and have a sense of purpose.
That purpose is to seriously think before I buy anything in the future. I have had shoes and clothes to last two lifetimes.
It is true that when I now buy items, shoes I truly love even at full price. It has been the best investment of all. Why? Because it suits my current mental state of mind and lifestyle.
I use the item, it fits me well, I feel amazing within when wearing those shoes I can actually walk in.
For this reason, my hard earn cash is being put to use. Otherwise, why am I holding onto excess fashion that creates so much storage stress?
Storage stress means it clutters my mind.
Why Sell Not Give Away?
I actually sell and give away. I follow my gut instinct when I need to give an item away to a particular person. It is so rewarding to give items I no longer love. And to give to people who love my wardrobe. When you give an item make sure it’s done with the right mindset.
Don’t fall for the sale bargain. There is now always a sale or a bargain to be had. You and I will never miss out on items. There is plenty for the world to go around over and over.
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