Global resale platform for luxury second-hand fashion, Vestiaire Collective, has built a UK authentication and logistics center to meet rising consumer demand. The center, which was soft-launched in November, joins three others in France, the United States, and Hong Kong.

According to the company, authentication expertise has always been at the core of its experience, and the new site will help give localized authentication while also providing faster logistics and improved customer service.

The center is also expected to create 50 specialized jobs and ensure the authentication of up to 1,000 items every day that would have otherwise had to be shipped to France, reducing the objects' carbon footprint significantly.

Vestiaire said it made the decision based on statistics showing that demand for second-hand fashion in the UK has been rising, with one-third of UK fashion customers planning to buy or buy second-hand over the festive season in 2021, and nearly one-third starting to sell or sell more last year. 

The company said that the research shows that roughly one in every six of us now has a wardrobe that contains at least 50% second-hand clothes.

Vestiaire also discovered that over a third of consumers have found online shopping to be more expensive and have faced longer lead times as a result of Brexit, with several categories not being able to be sent across borders.

According to the UKFT's Brexit Survey, 74 percent of fashion businesses have suffered setbacks as a result of Brexit-related cost increases, which will exacerbate when full customs declarations and restrictions are implemented on January 1, 2022.

Maximilian Bittner, CEO of Vestiaire Collective said that Vestiaire Collective has previously proved that style should not come at the expense of the environment. However, Brexit has hampered the UK's efforts to build a sustainable future. Consumers in the United Kingdom have been unfairly punished at a time when counterfeits are on the rise, making the need for world-class expertise more important than ever. Their new hub will make circular fashion more accessible, trustworthy, and sustainable than ever before, allowing it to fully compete with and mitigate the environmental impact of rapid fashion.