The RealReal might have risen to reputation for its big-name designer finds, however rising designers are shortly rising via its ranks, in accordance with the luxurious resale platform’s 2026 Resale Report launched on Tuesday.
“Resale is a very fascinating discovery engine for rising designers,” Noelle Sciacca, The RealReal’s affiliate director of style merchandising and content material technique, tells Fashionista over electronic mail. “As a result of we will take a look at search quantity, our ‘obsessions’ and provide collectively, we will see when curiosity in a model is starting to speed up.”
Zankov — New York-based designer Henry Zankov’s namesake knitwear label — is without doubt one of the buzziest rising manufacturers on The RealReal, because the resale platform logged greater than 11,000 “obsessions” (a.okay.a. user-favorited gadgets) for Zankov’s inventory on the time — about 64 items. (That’s about 175 obsessions per merchandise.) This spike in Zankov’s reputation on The RealReal coincides with this yr’s announcement that the designer might be taking the reins at Diane von Furstenberg, along with helming his eponymous label.
Picture: Courtesy of The RealReal
Following in Zankov’s footsteps, Heirlome had 7,000 obsessions for its 65 items (a 165% year-over-year rise) and Rùadh had greater than 2,300 obsessions for its 85-piece provide (a 432% year-over-year spike). With a 43.5% uptick in obsessions, Sandy Liang can also be one in every of The RealReal’s rising impartial manufacturers, adopted by Toteme (up 37%), Rodarte (up 24.2%) and Eckhaus Latta (up 19%).
“We’re additionally seeing search progress dramatically outpace provide for manufacturers like Ssstein, Colleen Allen, Aflalo and A. Presse,” Sciacca provides. “That imbalance is admittedly fascinating as a result of it tells us there’s an viewers actively on the lookout for these designers earlier than there’s sufficient product within the secondary market to fulfill that demand.”
Picture: Courtesy of The RealReal
Regardless of this rising curiosity in rising manufacturers, heritage luxurious homes stay the secondhand market’s main gamers. This yr, Chanel dethroned Louis Vuitton because the most-searched model on The RealReal. It’s an unsurprising coup since Matthieu Blazy’s explosive debut for the French style home despatched sales skyrocketing. On The RealReal, searches additionally soared: The platform recorded a ten,967% rise in searches for Chanel’s new inventive director.
Louis Vuitton, which held the highest place for 2 consecutive years, took the silver. Prada maintained its bronze medal for the third yr in a row, whereas Gucci and Miu Miu got here in fourth and fifth place, respectively. The Row, Hermès, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga rounded out The RealReal’s high 10.
Picture: Courtesy of The RealReal
The RealReal can also be holding tabs on the manufacturers which can be accelerating on the platform: Alaïa noticed the best spike in saved searches at 136%, with Miu Miu (96%) and Loewe (88%) trailing shut behind. The RealReal’s additionally seen a rise in provide for manufacturers like Phoebe Philo (up 247%), Jamie Haller (up 235%) and Kallmeyer (up 184%), maybe signaling that these labels are beginning to appeal to extra buzz on the resale market.
As retail costs proceed to surge on the first market, “resale is turning into a first-choice technique to store luxurious for lots of people, notably Gen Z,” Sciacca notes. Based on The RealReal’s information, the secondary luxurious market is rising two-to-three occasions sooner than the first market and 58% of buyers say they like resale outright. Classic (learn: items which can be 15-plus years previous and important to style historical past) is a key driver for resale’s surge, as The RealReal reported a 432% spike in demand for classic listings from 2020 to 2026. The rationale? Nostalgia is the apparent reply, Sciacca says, however “there’s additionally this want for discovery and individuality.”
“When a lot of style and social media can begin to look the identical, classic on The RealReal gives the other: gadgets with historical past that you just’re unlikely to see on anybody else, together with the product depth to find what feels most such as you,” she continues.
Picture: Courtesy of The RealReal
The Nineteen Nineties and 2000s reign supreme on the classic market, boosted by searches for “Phoebe Philo Celine” (up 650%), “Nicolas Ghesquière Balenciaga” (up 400%) and “Marc Jacobs Louis Vuitton” (up 375%). Equally, shopper curiosity in early Twentieth-century vintage references (assume drop-waist silhouettes and contrasting textures) is surging, as seen in rising searches for Fortuny, John Galliano’s Dior and artwork deco.
“What’s actually fascinating is how far more educated and intentional buyers have grow to be,” Sciacca says. “They’re now excited about the historical past of an merchandise, high quality, provenance, shortage and resale worth, however they’re additionally utilizing resale to foster a personal-style viewpoint that feels genuine to them.”
Learn The RealReal’s full report here.
