I like to think of it like this: there are two types of fashion. Retail consumerist fashion, is the home of microtrends and fast fashion, which brings an endless supply of clothes along with influencers telling you what to wear and when, and fashion as an art form. Fashion is one of the most accessible and accurate forms of self-expression one can have when separate from the commercial world. Unfortunately, the past few years have not been good for fashion as an art form. With the rise of Shein and hideous luxury brand logo lines, immersing yourself in fashion as an art form means sorting through a nauseating pile of nothing. That is until apps like Depop and Grailed started to surface.
I get it, online shopping is addicting. It’s so much easier to scroll through clothing websites while sitting at home instead of sorting through racks upon racks of clothing at a thrift store or hand-making something personal for yourself. But your fashion should be a reflection of you, and shopping at the same three websites as every other person in the world is taking the creativity out of fashion. So as a busy modern-day woman, how am I supposed to keep up with the ever-changing world of fashion and curate it to myself? The answer is thrifting apps.
I already know what you’re thinking: Depop has a reputation to be outrageously expensive. But there’s more to these thrifting apps than seventy-five-dollar vintage Brandy Melville tees. The secret to these apps is to make the algorithm work for you. From the comfort of your own home, you have access to thousands of pieces given to you by a social media equivalent algorithm that is specifically tailored to you. The more you like, click, or save, the closer you get to finding the perfect piece for you. My strategy is to express interest in every piece of clothing I would comfortably wear, regardless of price or size, and just like how Instagram’s algorithm tries to show you the posts you would be the most interested in, Depop will show you a whole collection of clothes you may like, updated every single day.
Thrifting apps are making it easier and more convenient for people to find their own personal style, bringing art back to fashion. The beauty of fashion comes from how people are able to make their outfits a reflection of themselves, their interests, and how they want to be perceived, which thrifting apps make so accessible to the everyday person without the need for extensive knowledge or expertise in fashion. Even if you are not in the market to be buying any pieces at the moment, the act of sorting through these clothes can give you the inspiration you never knew you had. Thrifting apps are for way more than just reselling, it gives you a catalog personally tailored to you of types of clothes you didn’t think you would ever find, and it’s updated almost every day.