Reselling with Purpose: How a Vintage Stylist Navigates Depop’s Trend-Driven World
Vintage collector, reseller, and stylist Shannon gives us a candid look into the realities of running a small business while trying to stay true to sustainability on a trend-driven platform like Depop.
Shannon began her journey reselling as a utilitarian way to refresh her wardrobe and earn a little extra cash. Now, a decade later, she's built a curated archive, works full-time at Heavn by Marc Jacobs, and still keeps one foot in the resale world.
Originally from Texas and now based in Los Angeles, Shannon offers a look into her Depop journey, sharing observations on the rise of fast fashion resellers, how resale has altered thrift culture, and the relationship between sustainability and secondhand shopping.
Shannon's love for fashion first ignited in middle school during the peak of Tumblr's influence in the early 2010s. While the platform was notorious for promoting toxic diet culture and romanticizing mental illness, it also served as a space for creative exploration and expression, especially for fashion.
For Shannon, it was where she first discovered Maison Margiela's iconic Tabi shoes, sparking her obsession with archival and designer pieces, and this fascination is still alive and well over 13 years later.
What began as a convenient way to cycle through her wardrobe and make some extra money quickly shifted to something much deeper. Pre-pandemic, Shannon worked at a vintage store with access to wholesale clothing and joined Depop's college program. Here, mentors encouraged her to take selling more seriously, "They really encouraged me to start selling more, and at the time, I was working at a vintage store where you could buy stuff wholesale," she recalls.
