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bne February 2019 Central Europe I 53
but has expanded strongly since then. It remains a family concern, operating out of the Stoicans' home in the Bucharest suburb of Mogosoaia, where the couple make plans for the day and answer mes- sages while preparing breakfast, and in the evenings their son does his home- work next to his mother as she works on her computer. Her husband is respon- sible for photographing the thousands of garments that come into their home, two-thirds of which is now dedicated to
ery and check the size: “This is a big problem for online businesses. If a client receives something that is too big or too small, he will get nervous and avoid the online shop afterwards.”
Stoican says MyDressing, like other secondhand outlets in Romania, has struggled with negative perceptions of used clothes but that customers come to the site in search of quality clothing and western brands. Most of the clothes
accessories by the kilo, and there’s a frenzied free for all when new deliveries arrive. The secondhand trade in some cities in Romania and the region is now moving upmarket, selling quality or even vintage clothes and accessories either in bricks and mortar shops or online.
A similar phenomenon was observed in Russia, where Olga Gurova, senior fellow at the University of Helsinki and author of Fashion and the Consumer Revolu- tion in Contemporary Russia, talks of a growing interest in vintage among young people within Russia’s urban hipster culture starting back in 2008-09. It’s
no coincidence that this was also the time fast fashion chains were actively expanding in the region; “As malls and fast fashion stores started to proliferate, people decided they wanted to be more individualised,” she says.
This also led to the creation of new micro-businesses based on social media. “Students would find nice pieces of vin- tage clothing at the Odelny flea market in St Petersburg and other markets, then sell them on social media,” Gurova explains, describing the process as a “curation of choice”.
Even more recently, consciousness of the huge environmental impact of the fashion industry is causing some consumers – first in the west but to some extent also in
“Within the former eastern bloc countries, the biggest clothes importers in 2017 were Ukraine and Russia”
storage of around 10,000 garments at any one time, and they have taken on two full-time and two part-time mem- bers of staff to help with responding to customer orders and dispatching clothes to buyers.
It’s labour intensive work. “The specif- ics of selling secondhand clothes is that each article is unique. Whether it costs 3 lei or 300 lei [€0.65 or €65] we need to iron it, shoot it, describe it, and put it in the warehouse and hope someone will buy it,” explains Stoican. When someone does place an order, the MyDressing team contact them to arrange deliv-
it sells are from Nordic counties where “the people are rich and they have good quality clothes”. Romanians are increas- ingly seeking quality materials – “they will buy merino wool at any price,” says Stoican – and as more people spend time abroad they become familiar with international brands. A number of her customers are diaspora Romanians in Scandinavia buying clothes for their relatives back home.
It’s a very different business from some of the secondhand outlets in Bucha- rest, among them the local branches of Bulgarian chain Monda, sell clothes and
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