LONDON — Online fashion resale platform Reflaunt is courting what it has identified as some of the most powerful players behind the scenes in the resale industry — personal shoppers, stylists and private client advisers — with the launch of Folio, a dedicated resale service rooted in a business-to-business infrastructure once reserved for luxury players like Balenciaga and Harvey Nichols.
The official launch on Tuesday, opening to a wider cohort of fashion professionals, followed an invite-only pilot that began last January.
For Stéphanie Crespin, Reflaunt’s cofounder and chief executive officer, the timing is directly linked to how the luxury market is reacting to the current geopolitical climate.
Citing a Bain & Company report, Crespin said that, despite the personal luxury goods market losing 60 million consumers since 2022, the top 2 to 4 percent of clients still account for 30 to 40 percent of all luxury spending, and are projected to drive up to 80 percent of the sector’s growth through 2027.
“Brands know this. The entire industry is recalibrating around that ultra-high-net-worth segment. And who holds those relationships? Not the brands. Personal shoppers do, and they are far more powerful stakeholders than the industry has ever recognized,” she said, adding that those professionals have effectively been running shadow resale operations for years.
