But in the last few years, another online fashion resale format has emerged. It’s based on the idea that customers want to buy clothes from specific people, including celebrities, stylists, influencers and stylish people with an Instagram account. That’s due to a combination of factors, including the oversaturation of e-commerce options, which have led customers to seek more curation, and the rise of the influencer-as-celebrity. On these new closet-based resale sites, customers can follow specific people whose style aligns with their own. Meanwhile, the platforms often benefit from free marketing by their prominent sellers.

One such platform is Basic Space. Launched in 2020, Basic Space started with a small list of around 20 sellers, including big names in fashion like Emily Oberg, founder of Sporty & Rich, and Justin Reed, a vintage consignor who sources goods for celebrities. These sellers have their own Basic Space storefronts, plus they’re spotlighted in the platform’s editorial features and IRL events. In February, the company sponsored an event at Paris Fashion Week with Justin Reed, showcasing the products he’s sourced.

“For the buyers, there’s a lot of value in knowing who you’re buying from and finding a seller whose style really matches your own,” said Basic Space founder Jesse Lee.

In the two years since its launch, Basic Space’s seller count has grown from 50 in the first year to more than 500. It’s raised more than $23 million in funding from investors and takes a 25% cut of each sale.

The latest evolution of the model, Lee said, is opening up seller status. A new mobile app, launched this month, allows customers who have bought through Basic Space to apply to be sellers on the platform. Prior to this, all sellers were invited by Basic Space’s team. Lee said he still wants to keep seller status exclusive — applicants will be vetted before they’re approved, based on criteria including their social following and alignment with current sellers’ audiences — to ensure the quality of each storefront remains high.

Basic Space refers to its invite-only sellers as Tier 0 sellers, while the first wave of applicants through the app are Tier 1 sellers. Tier 0 sellers have the benefit of all their product being processed, photographed and shipped by Basic Space, while Tier 1 sellers will have to do the bulk of that work themselves.

Lee said Basic Space heavily benefits from the sellers having their own large platforms. Oberg has over 330,000 followers on Instagram, for example, and posts regularly about what she’s selling on Basic Space. But the company also does its own marketing. In addition to paid ads and an email newsletter, which Lee said gets an uncommonly high 50% open rate, Basic Space spends on out-of-home ads like billboards and wheat-pasting campaigns in NYC.

“One of the things we’re most proud of is our built-in-house algorithm that customizes [a user’s] app experience the more they use it,” Lee said. “It will show you more things like what you like and, hopefully, lead you to discover other sellers who match your style.”

Dora Maar, another resale company built on the wardrobes of noteworthy sellers, calls its 90 hand-selected sellers “muses.” Each muse has a separate storefront on the site. Among them are stylist Krystle Kastlez, who has styled Kim Kardashian, and Masha Ossovskaya, who has styled Bella Hadid and worked with brands like Miu Miu and Burberry.

But notably, Dora Maar doesn’t only allow the selling of pre-owned clothes. Beginning in 2021, the muses have been able to curate selections of new products from Dora Maar’s brand partners. The first curation was done by costume designer Antoinette Jones, who worked on the Matt Damon film “Air.” She selected a number of Rodarte pieces to sell new, alongside styles from her closet. Since then, Dora Maar has added 20 more brands to its new product selection, each of which is curated by sellers on the site. It has plans to roll out more in the fourth quarter of this year.

Lauren Wilson, founder of Dora Maar, said the company’s focus on stylists and celebrities plays into resale’s strong suit: It engenders respect for the clothes and reminds buyers that each piece has a pedigree and history behind it.

“Because there’s so much product out there, adding a layer of storytelling to a purchase makes you respect the item and want to take care of it,” Wilson said.

She gave an example of a Chanel jacket sold by Edward Barsamian, former Vogue.com style editor who is now head of editorial in North America for Michelin. He formerly wore it to important meetings with big clients, he told Wilson. Wilson herself bought the jacket and said she’s carried on that legacy, wearing it to meetings with investors as she seeks funding for her 3-year-old company. Wilson said a similar opportunity is possible on Dora Maar, as the muses post personal stories on their social accounts about the pieces they’ve put up for sale.

Closet sales aren’t just restricted to the platforms that specialize in them. Goop holds an annual celebrity closet sale that has included pieces from Beyoncé and Anne Hathaway. Celebrities like Vanessa Hudgens and Doja Cat have public Poshmark accounts where they sell their clothes, and Olivia Rodrigo and Winnie Harlow are on Depop.

And all of the same challenges that face other forms of fashion resale still apply here. Wilson said processing a vast number of individual SKUs, as required in resale, will always be more challenging than retail, whether celebrities are involved or not. And Lee said that Basic Space consumers care just as much about authenticity as they would at any other reseller like GOAT or StockX.

But, Lee said, the fact that the source of the clothing is a known entity increases customer trust and transparency. Basic Space has only found one proven case of a fake product that came into its warehouse: a pair of Louis Vuitton shoes that it pulled before they made their way to any potential buyer. What’s more, it’s only had two instances of returns since its launch.

“Our goal is to have a partnership with the sellers,” Lee said. A consignment platform like The RealReal may take a cut of over 50%, while a peer-to-peer site like Grailed may take only 10% but without any support to help the item actually get sold. In contrast, Basic Space offers promotion on its social accounts and sponsors IRL events for its top sellers. “For our top sellers, the ones who are hitting 80% sell-through, we work with them. We shoot the images, we co-lead the marketing, and we work together. It’s a true partnership.”

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