Second-Hand and Repair Fashion in Europe: The 2026 Intel

Vinted is the clearest measure of the shift, because it publishes numbers. The platform's revenue grew 38 per cent in 2025, and gross merchandise value — the value of goods actually changing hands — rose 47 per cent year on year. That growth is uneven in a telling way: Portugal grew fastest, followed by the UK and the Netherlands, while a saturated German market slowed noticeably. The company has expanded into Croatia, Greece and Ireland, and moved beyond clothing into electronics and homeware. The behavioural statistic is the one that matters, though: a large majority of buyers now check the platform before buying something new. Among European consumers under 35, the stigma that used to attach to second-hand clothing has effectively disappeared, and buying used has become an ordinary shopping decision rather than a statement.

The revised EU Waste Framework Directive entered into force on 16 October 2025, and it creates the first EU-wide legal framework for textile extended producer responsibility. Member states have 20 months to transpose it into national law and 30 months to have EPR schemes running for textiles and footwear. Under those schemes, producers pay a fee for every product they place on the market, and that money funds collection, sorting, reuse, recycling and disposal. Separate collection of textile waste has already been required across member states since January 2025. The scope is broad — clothing, footwear, accessories, bed and kitchen linen, curtains and blankets — which means almost everything soft in a household eventually falls under it. This is the regulatory engine behind everything else in this article.

The clever mechanism inside the directive is eco-modulation. EPR fees are not flat — they are adjusted according to criteria including durability and recyclability, so a garment designed to last and to be recycled costs its producer less than a disposable one. That is a direct financial incentive aimed at the design stage rather than at consumer behaviour, and it is the reason to expect changes in what appears on European rails over the next two years: fewer blended fabrics that cannot be separated, more mono-material construction, better seams and zips. It also means the brands that already publish material composition in detail are ahead of the curve rather than virtue-signalling. Veja, for instance, lists the exact percentages in every component of the Veja Condor Royale, down to how much of the midsole EVA is sugarcane-derived.

One provision deserves more attention than it gets. Social economy enterprises engaged in second-hand textile collection and management are exempt from EPR obligations, allowed to run their own collection systems, and entitled to have their textile waste managed at no cost by producer responsibility organisations. In plain terms, charity shops and community reuse operations are protected rather than burdened by the new regime, and the cost of dealing with what they cannot sell shifts to producers. That is a deliberate structural choice, and it should strengthen the physical second-hand sector across Europe at the same time as the digital one grows. If you have wondered why charity shops in some European cities suddenly look better organised, this is part of the answer.

The repair side is less visible but more useful day to day. European consumers already hold a legal warranty of at least two years covering goods that do not conform to the contract, which is separate from anything a brand offers voluntarily, and it is the right to invoke when a zip fails or a seam gives out in year one. Some brands stack their own cover on top: Rains, for example, offers a two-year warranty across its jackets, including the Rains Suva Hardshell Long Jacket. Others compete on repairability instead, which is where technical outerwear has an advantage — a synthetic-insulated shell like the Fjällräven Nuuk Parka can be patched and re-taped in a way that a fused, bonded fast-fashion coat cannot. Buy things that can be fixed.

Three practical rules follow from all of the above. First, check resale before buying new, and check it for the specific model rather than the category — platform search works far better on a named product than on a description. Second, favour mono-material or clearly disclosed construction, because those are the garments that will survive the coming decade of recycling infrastructure and, incidentally, the ones that last. Third, buy for repair: ask whether the brand sells spares, whether the seams are stitched rather than bonded, and whether the fabric can be patched. None of this requires paying more. A well-made coat bought second-hand beats a new one made from a blend that no European sorting facility will ever be able to separate.

The idea that sustainability is a premium category is cooling fast. Resale growth is now driven by price and convenience as much as by conscience, which is a far more durable engine than moral pressure. What is heating up is disclosure: as eco-modulated fees arrive, expect composition and durability information to move from optional marketing copy to something closer to a spec sheet, because producers will be paying against those attributes. Watch two things over the next 18 months. First, how member states transpose the directive, since national schemes will differ and some will bite sooner. Second, whether large fast-fashion sellers respond by improving construction or by absorbing the fees, because that choice will shape what European high streets look like by 2028.