Vestiaire Collective exists to fix the waste issues in wardrobes. While the fashion industry is brilliant at creating desire and inventing new trends, it also fuels some of the world’s biggest problems. Overconsumption. Overproduction. Climate change.

Vestiaire Collective connects fashion lovers from around the world, enabling them to sell and buy luxury pre-loved fashion, promoting a more sustainable, circular model for fashion.

Our task was to help Vestiaire Collective expand their impact on the fashion industry by developing a new brand platform and brand campaign.

We needed an idea that would help them reconcile the tension between sustainability and desirability. One that was broad enough to appeal to all fashion lovers and that could help us talk to all the different motivations to shop pre-loved . And one that would build awareness for the brand, while ensuring cultural impact was driven alongside commercial performance.

Our creative solution lay in our name. The Collective.

If we wanted to have an impact, we had to grow our collective as much as possible.

To do so, we needed a brand idea that could rally fashion lovers. Empower them to drive change. And make joining Vestiaire Collective a testament to how deep their love for fashion is.

So we decided to assemble a team of influencers to help with the task. The twist? Rather than playing to the tropes of fashion and engaging with traditional influencers, we decided to make our own.

Introducing the Vestiaire Collective: a group of puppets that are crazy for fashion. Each character beautifully crafted from luxury pre-loved items, literally embodying our love for fashion.

Each puppet represented a different type of fashionista and to the rallying cry ‘Long Live Fashion’ expressed the brand’s love for fashion and desire to make it live forever.

Second-hand can be a vital part of the solution to wardrobe waste if more people buy, sell and care for pre-loved items. In fact, the more people love pre-loved fashion, the greater the impact.

But the way the fashion industry treats sustainability often feels like a trade off between buying something that looks cool or something that does good.

Truth is, buying second-hand has nothing to do with giving something up. Research into buyers’ behaviours showed us that people who buy second hand don’t love fashion any less. Actually, they love it more. And because of that they take better care of it, look after it better and, ultimately, make it live longer.

Our rallying cry “Long Live Fashion” reconciled this tension between desirability and sustainability, captured our Collective’s love for fashion and invited all fashion lovers to celebrate it by making their fashion live for longer.

The campaign ran in France and Italy on TV, social, and online video through May 2022. Hero OOH also ran in Paris and Milan at the same time.

In Italy, we collaborated with Italian artist Pietro Terzini who interpreted the campaign as part of a collaboration with luxury fashion retailer La Rinascente.

The work was also pushed on social and online platforms in the UK, Spain, Hong Kong and the US in May 2022.

But that’s not all. Our campaign characters started influencing and shaping the whole brand identity - from Vestiaire Collective website to their social media. The puppets have their own accounts and followers, they release interviews and, of course, they put their looks on sale on Vestiaire Collective.

The campaign created a lot of curiosity and buzz within the fashion community with iconic publications like Grazia, Marie Claire, Business of Fashion, Elle and Stylist picking up on it.

While brand awareness rapidly increased (+4.33pp just in the first 3 weeks of the campaign), people started searching for the brand more and Google searches for Vestiaire Collective grew 350% over a few days. Social engagement also went up 38% and our social followers grew 48% year on year.

But the work did not only make the brand famous, it delivered solid business results. Within the first three weeks, the campaign increased visitors to the app by 176%, resulting in 110% increase in membership and 67% of sales year-on-year.