Little did ReSee founders Sabrina Marshall and Sofia Bernardin—two American fashion editors living and working in Paris way before Emily ever made her way there—realize how ahead of the curve they were when they founded their company a decade ago. ReSee is a retailer dedicated to selling…well, let’s ask them to decide how to describe it. “Resale…hmm,” says Marshall, her voice trailing off in a way that suggests that word isn’t quite right. “Secondhand isn’t sexy. I think pre-loved is the best way to say it.” Bernardin chimes in: “It’s just fashion, right?”
Bernardin’s not wrong. ReSee has made its raison d’etre the notion that great clothes are great clothes, regardless of whether they’re brand-new or not. To underscore that point, on April 25th they’re launching at 6PM CET a special 10th anniversary auction of adored pieces—of adored fashion—donated by pretty incredible women, from Oprah Winfrey to Cate Blanchett, Naomi Campbell to Cindy Sherman, among others. (Some of the women contributing chat about their donations below.) The proceeds will support the Women for Women International charity, which supports survivors of war zones in rebuilding their lives economically and socially, something sadly— tragically—needed more than ever right now.
Marshall and Bernardin were certainly prescient when they decided to launch ReSee. It’s almost hard to imagine, given how much the pre-loved has become part of how we shop and style ourselves. Ten years ago, we were, for the most part, still shopping in an era where vintage was either super-fancy and expensive, destined for collectors and celebrities alike, or we were out rummaging around Portobello Road or the Rose Bowl at the crack of dawn with a dream of finding something amazing. Stores selling near-vintage via consignment were certainly a mainstay of New York—I moved here and discovered the likes of Tokio 7 and Ina; we had nothing like them in London—but the market certainly didn’t have the online presence or ubiquity it has now. And like so many of the best business ideas, ReSee came out of what Marshall and Bernardin were looking for themselves, figuring that they were likely not alone.
“Sabrina and I were having lunch at Toraya [a Japanese tea room in Paris] and talking about the wonderful collections of the last few years—Nicolas Ghesquière’s scuba collection of spring 2002, or Mrs. Prada’s lip prints in 2000,” says Bernardin, “and how we couldn’t afford any of them. We were chatting about how amazing it would be if we could create a space where people could find those iconic collections again—in a space that was curated, and which showed you how to wear those things in a modern and relevant way. Not just an archival spot, which targets collectors and people who buy things to keep them in their closets, but women who want to see how they can wear pieces today. We’d grown up in a time in fashion when everything you wore had to be that season. That phrase ‘So last season’ was ingrained in all of our heads—that you just had to keep up. And Sabrina and I felt there was something innately wrong about that.”
What they did differently, Marshall says, was give an editorialized, high-fashion treatment to the pieces they selected: ReSee wasn’t a come-one, come-all marketplace, but somewhere you’d find strong curation of the pieces that had entered fashion’s nowhereland: Things not old enough to be vintage, yet not new enough to be considered desirable given the prevailing mindset; where everything they would sell was treated with respect. “When we started, we would sit there,” recalls Bernardin, “and say to each other, ‘Babe, how much would you pay for this?’ And we’d say, ‘Oh my God—at that price I’d get it.’ I think women understand that it’s cool and modern to wear things which are a few seasons old.”
Marshall and Bernardin started with Saint Laurent—and Hermès and early Miu Miu. (Can you imagine? Who isn’t kicking themselves right now they didn’t snap that up?) Then came the rush of Nicolas-era Balenciaga and Phoebe-era Chloé, which then became Phoebe-era Celine (which is, incidentally, still ReSee’s number-one seller). When Alaïa’s Pieter Mulier wanted to do a big sale of the house’s archive, it was ReSee he turned to. Meanwhile, Miu Miu has also become, unsurprisingly, super-desirable again. And Marshall’s tip for the next big thing? Chloé’s Hannah McGibbon years.
“But what it would always come back to,” says Marshall, “is that we wanted to be able to mix everything up and wear it the way we wanted to wear it. We have never worn anything head to toe.” More recently, ReSee’s founders have delved into making some pieces of their own design, specifically a series of vintage tweed men’s jackets which they have had cut down and re-sized and re-finished by someone who once worked in the tailleur atelier at Christian Dior.
While their special sale to celebrate their 10 years in business comes with a lot of buzzy names and equally buzzy clothes—take a look at Adèle Exarchopoulos’s zippered floral dress from Louis Vuitton resort 2015, or Kardashian’s leopard print Alaïa coat from 1991—they also hope it will continue to make people reflect on how clothes have an enduring power, a sense of attraction which can’t be diminished. And none more so than famous types, where the expectation is that you can only ever be seen in something once. “Wouldn’t it be great,” says Marshall, “if celebrities wore something two, three, more times over? Wouldn’t that be a game-changer? The conversation would become so different.”
Cindy Sherman, Marc Jacobs Op Art dress, Spring 2013
I bought it [the dress above] from the Soho store and wore it twice—don’t remember the first occasion (some benefit, I believe, after my retrospective at MoMA)—and then, because I loved this dress so much, wore it again maybe a month later to the MoMA benefit. And to my surprise, Rachel Feinstein wore the exact same dress (there is a photo of us together). We thought it was hysterical! She said that Marc told her that since I’d already worn it a month prior, there’s no way I’d wear it again—little did he know! I saved it all these years thinking I’ll wear it yet again, but maybe those two times were already worth the price—and this is for a good cause. I think fashion is too often considered disposable every season, and while I, too, succumb to wanting the latest whatever, resale is a great way to make it more affordable to more people and for the clothing to live on.
Kim Kardashian’s Azzedine Alaïa leopard coat, 1991
“I’ve had such a long relationship with Alaïa—and some of my favorite memories are when I’ve worn the brand. Through the opportunity to auction off this fashion piece [above] from Mr. Alaïa’s Fall 1991 collection, I hope to bring more awareness to Women for Women International and the incredible work they do for survivors of war and conflict.”
Emma Chamberlain’s Louis Vuitton bag, boots, and sunglasses
“All Louis Vuitton pieces remind me of the beginning of my fashion journey. The first fashion show I ever attended was a Louis Vuitton show, and I wore Vuitton to my first Met Gala. Their team brought me under their wing and showed me the fashion world through their eyes, and my passion for the industry has blossomed from there.”
