Second-hand fashion stages a comeback

Few followers of fashion will forget the moment when a super model arrived at a New York fashion week dinner, wearing a 1950s dress. The next day, a hunt for something similar began. That was 2003. Fast forward to the 2020s and second-hand fashion is renewing a new round of craze, and this time, arguably, it’s back for good.

When super models and designers were buying things at second-hand markets and matching them with expensive pieces, the act was more related to the old ideal of what fashion was — very trend-based and very season-based. Today, ordinary people always want to have new looks but they’re becoming more aware of the impact of their choices on the environment, and the best thing we can do in this climate crisis is to limit the resources we take out of the planet. Second-hand fashion speaks to what’s happening right now. And the world is speaking back. It’s estimated that the total resale clothes market is expected to rise in value from $96 billion in 2021 to $141 billion by 2023. More than ‘back for good’, second-hand fashion looks set to become the new norm.

The increased crafts of repair and upcycling offer another contemporary dimension to the trend. There’s a rise in young people looking at things that already exist, not only to take inspiration from, but also to use as material for next-stage creation. Current repair and upcycling skills make their wish a reality.

Even social media platforms are on board. “Once you start finding heat at the second-hand fashion shop, it quickly turns into an ever-growing addiction. Each piece has history behind it,” said an online celebrity with 1.7 million followers. He, along with other celebrities posting visits to shops of this kind, has pushed up sales. Their power in the field can’t be neglected.

7 . Tipping, customers paying service workers, usually at restaurants, for services they receive, has been a regular part of American culture for well over a century, but the emergence of new technology and shifting expectations have shaken long-standing norms around the practice. That uncertainty, together with the pressure it can often create, has left some consumers feeling exhausted by the frequency with which they’re forced to decide which workers to tip and how much.

A big reason for the growth of what is being called “tip tiredness” is the increasing presence of digital payment systems, which have replaced traditional cash registers at most businesses. Suddenly, rather than being given the chance to drop a dollar in a tip jar, customers are confronted with a tablet.     1     They have to tip for services they’d never considered tipping for in the past.

Tipping also makes labor laws more complicated. In all but a handful of states, employers are allowed to pay tipped workers below minimum wage. In some cases, the standard is as low as $2.13 per hour, as long as workers make enough in tips to earn the equivalent of minimum wage.     2     Many people are debating over whether tipping system need a repair — or even should be cancelled altogether. They say tipping needs to be eliminated and replaced by a fair wage for all service workers. The tipping practice increases the possibility that employees can’t get what they deserve.     3     In many cases, customers’ tip amounts are largely guided by factors other than quality of the service they receive, which makes the situation even worse.

However, defenders of the current arrangement say it’s still the best option.     4     It provides a chance for workers to have more control over their financial welfare. If a restaurant is doing well because it’s safely operated, properly managed and delivers great food, customers will usually tip. And when that happens, everyone — from the wait staff to the dishwashers — can share in the business’s success.

8 . One of the curious things about social networks is the way that some messages, pictures, or ideas can spread like wildfire while others that seem just as catchy or interesting barely register at all.

Before you go deep into the puzzle, consider this: If you measure the height of your male friends, for example, the average is about 170 centimeters. You are 172 and your friends are all about the same height as you are. Indeed, the mathematical concept of “average” is a good way to capture the nature of this data set.

But imagine that one of your friends was much taller than you. This person would dramatically skew the average, which would make your friends taller than you, on average. In this case, the “average” is a poor way to capture this data set.

Exactly this situation occurs on social networks. On average, your coauthors will be cited more often than you, and the people you follow will post more frequently than you, and so on.

Now Lerman from University of Southern California has discovered a related paradox, which they call the majority illusion. They illustrate this illusion with an example. They take 14 nodes linked up to form a small network. They then color three of these nodes and count how many of the remaining nodes link to them in a single step.

In one situation, the uncolored nodes see more than half of their neighbors as colored. This is the majority illusion — the local impression that a specific feature is common when the global truth is entirely different.

So how popular is it in the real world? It’s found out that the majority illusion occurs in almost all network scenarios. “The effect is largest in the political blogs network, where 60% of nodes will have majority active neighbours, even when only 20% of the nodes are truly active,” says Lerman.

It immediately explains many interesting phenomena. For a start, it shows how some content can spread globally while other similar content does not — the key is to start with a small number of well-connected early adopters fooling the rest of the network into thinking it is common. The affected nodes then find it natural to follow the trend. A real spread finally comes into being.

But it is not yet a marketer’s charter. For that, marketers must first identify the popular nodes that can create the majority illusion for the target audience. These influencers must then be persuaded to adopt the desired behavior or product, which is essential to the prospect of the marketing plan.

10 . I was in Chicago for a job training when I knew a nearby theatre was releasing a film about saving dogs. I love animals and this fundraising event sounded right up my alley. However, none of my co-workers could squeeze time for me. I got cold feet for anxiety about navigating the streets by myself at night alone.

But in my hotel room I felt restless and bored. The theatre was only about five blocks away from the hotel. How could I stray? Hence, I decided to brave it. I gathered my room key and set off.

I managed to find the street of the theatre but when I turned the corner I stopped in shock. The street in front of the theatre was full of bikers-lots of very big, tough-looking bikers.

Now I was a woman all alone at night. There were many large men, all wearing insignia suggesting they were in some sort of club or gang. Warning bells began to sound and my heart jumped in my throat. Was I at the right theatre? Had I misread the date of the event?

I finally decided that I would be safer inside the theatre where there was, presumably, a crowd of people. I scurried into the theatre. As I sat there, heart racing, waiting for the film to start, I muttered a prayer to contain my anxieties. A local blues-rock band was the opening act and their performance drew my attention. Enthusiasm for the band’s performance soon took away all my worries from my mind and I began to relax.

After the band, the film began and I understood the presence of the bikers after a conversation with the staff. Being part of an animal rescue group, they had escorted dogs from New Jersey to Chicago. At that moment, I was struck by the bond that had drawn so many disparate folks to the theatre. Singers, sportsmen, ordinary workers had all been brought together by our shared love of animals. I made new friends. I discovered a new band and supported an important cause. I stayed till the very end and made it to my hotel without any incident, overjoyed that I broke out of the boundary I used to set for myself and ventured into the unknown. To my amazement, the reward was one of the best nights of my life.