You can imagine my alarm this morning when I scrolled through my inbox and saw this horrifying, misleading, confusing subject line:

In case you need a magnifying glass, that’s a screenshot from Girlboss Daily, a newsletter I receive each morning. The subject line reads: “Thrifting is dead.”

WHAT?!

My ire shifted from being aimed at Girlboss to The New York Times, where I quickly learned there was a piece published on July 6 2022 called “The Golden Age of Thrifting Is Over,” written by Isabella Grullón Paz. Ohhhh Isabella. Isabella, Isabella, Isabella — no!

Read the piece. Or don’t. But the general thesis is that as the rise of fast fashion (think: Zara, Shein, Boohoo, etc.) has taken over the globe, thrifting is no longer an opportunity to find quality pieces at reasonable prices. Instead, thrift stores are filled with “garbage on the racks” and tons of cheap, poorly items strewn from synthetic materials.

Hear me out: fast fashion is a real problem. No doubt. The Shein and Amazon hauls on TikTok are disgusting on so many levels. But to say that “thrifting is dead” and "over” is completely missing the point. Thrifting is hardly dead — thrifting is thriving. But the way it’s thriving is evolving — and that’s OK.

Resale apps like Poshmark, thredUP, The RealReal, Tradesy, Vestiare Collective, and Depop are continuing to grow and become increasingly mainstream. Between inflation, a desire to live more sustainably, and evolving workwear trends, I’d say there are several behavioral and economical drivers impacting our shifting behavior to shop resale first — and not just for clothes. Peer-to-peer platforms like Poshmark and Depop — and even “old school” platforms like eBay or Facebook Marketplace — are destinations for everything from home goods to makeup to kids’ apparel to pets’ items.

You can find cheap, poorly made crap anywhere — but resale and consignment platforms actually give consumers more control of discovering quality items on the secondhand market, not less. You can easily search by keywords or phrases that matter to you, like “100% cotton" or “cashmere.” If there are particular brands or designers you know and love, these platforms make it simple to drill down on them specifically, rather than combing through a consignment store hoping you’ll stumble upon a quality item. You can even apply a price range so you’re looking at only cashmere items under $50, for example.

I don’t question that there’s more fast fashion being sold on resale apps and in consignment stores than ever before. But that doesn’t mean the quality pieces have disappeared. Au contraire, they’re easier to find than ever before. To say that ‘the golden age of thrifting is over’ is myopic. The golden age is upon us.