Beg, Borrow or Style

The pre-owned luxury fashion market is appreciating in value in South Africa. We sift through helpful hints for prospective buyers – and resellers – and the trend towards conscientious fashion over conspicuous consumption.

- LILLIAN ROBERTS

IT DOES NOT TAKE A LOT OF CASH TO SASHAY stylishly on the streets of South Africa, the continent’s second-biggest economy.The pantsula style, inspired by the gardener uniforms worn during the Apartheid, are popular, and so also the lavish skhothane-inspired style from Soweto. For the customary catwalk down the streets of Sandton, Africa’s richest square mile and citadel of consumption, the Chanel handbag or Gucci loafers and sunglasses must always be at hand.

Who can tell if they are second-hand? It’s the label that counts. Which is why the pre-owned luxury brands market is big and burgeoning in South Africa.

For example, global management consulting firm McKinsey expects the pre-owned luxury watch market to be worth between $29 billion to $32 billion by 2025, growing annually at 8%-10%, unlike the expected growth of 1%-3% for the market for new watches.

“It really is expected and predicted to continue to quite exponentially grow in the next few years,” says Katie Pearse, founder of My Desert Rose, based in Cape Town and that sells preowned luxury items online.

Michael Zahariev, co-founder of Luxity, another luxury reseller based in Cape Town, notes that over the last decade long-term investments in brands like Rolex have outdone real estate, gold, and even the Dow Jones Industrial Average. In a press release, he says the reasons are price stability motivated by supply and demand.

Inflation from 1955 to 2015 averaged 3.7% annually in the United States. A Chanel Medium Classic Flap Bag purchased in 1955 at $220 would be $1,967 according to this metric, reports BagHunter. Now, it is roughly $8,800 plus tax if you want to buy it brand-new.