Last fall, Emmali Osterhoudt was at a Goodwill store in Birmingham, Ala., when she stumbled across a Galia Lahav wedding dress. Although she wasn’t yet engaged, Ms. Osterhoudt, 21, couldn’t pass up the chance to buy the find: The dress was priced at $25.
Modest success went to her viral on TikTok, and brides opened up with stories about how they created their own wedding looks. Now preparing to marry her fiance Nicolas Gould, 23, who proposed in December, Ms Osterhoudt, a nursing student, plans to wear the dress and understated decor for her wedding.
Ms Osterhoudt’s shopping decisions reflect the growing movement towards circular fashion, the idea of recycling and reusing clothes. The economy is well on its way to becoming a 700 billion dollar market by 2030, making up 23% of the fashion industry, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a British nonprofit that promotes a circular economy.
In the Awake Vintage in Brooklyn, New York, “We noticed an increase about five years ago in people coming in and asking for wedding dresses, especially in the spring and summer,” said Rachel Despeaux, the store’s owner. “People are more interested in defining their big day by wearing vintage,” she said.
Awoke Vintage, which is known for its denim, usually leans toward casual wear at its three Brooklyn stores, but Ms. Despeaux says she now also carries white and ivory dresses and suits to meet customer demand. She looks for clothes from the 60s, 70s and 80s and keeps an eye out for bridesmaid and maid of honor dresses.
While white can be a difficult color to vintage — it yellows over time — Ms. Despeaux explained that growing consumer interest in upcycled fashion has led her wholesalers, who specialize in vintage and affordable items sourced globally, to curate wedding collections for clients like her. .
Also in Brooklyn, the Cha Cha Linda Vintage The store leans more and more towards wedding looks, and Los Angeles Happy Isleswhich specializes in wedding dresses, opened a salon last September in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood.
Katherine Geisel, 32, of Brooklyn, switched to a mostly vintage and thrift wardrobe a few years ago, citing a stack of fast fashion in her closet. “I almost never reached for pieces for more than one season,” he said.
Ms. Geisel, creative producer at skincare company La Mer, says she regularly has “about 50 tabs open at my favorite vintage stores.” She began sourcing pieces for her September 23, 2023 wedding ahead of her engagement to Andrew Geisel, 31, founder of coffee group Citizens. She found items like a cream dress from the 1930s at Desert Vintage in Manhattan for her housewarming party and a silver French comb from the late 1800s, purchased at 1stDibs, to wear to her ceremony. Buy a polka dot sequin dress from Etéreo Vintage for prom.
Prices can certainly be cheaper at thrift and vintage shops: wedding dresses retail from $65 to $185 at Awoke Vintage, for example, versus the average $2,000 for new ones. But brides like Ms. Geisel said the motivation was more the hunt for a one-of-a-kind piece than the cost. She spent $4,000 on all her used pieces.
Betsy Banchik, 37, a freelance attorney who splits her time between New York and Charleston, SC, counts a pair of Prada heels she bought at Michael’s, a consignment store on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, among her most prized accessories. . “It didn’t surprise anyone that I bought slightly used dresses,” she said of her June 2022 wedding to Mitch Banchik, a 62-year-old restaurateur. “I love the thrill of unexpectedly finding an amazing item.”
For the rehearsal dinner, Ms. Banchik wore a Sue Wong cocktail dress purchased on eBay and for the ceremony, a Romona Keveza gown sampled in the showroom at Magnolia Bride in Charleston, SC
Samantha Ruiz, 33, explained that the economy has helped her focus on her personal style, rather than following trends. Ms. Ruiz, a bridal stylist from Santa Monica, California, usually spends her weekends at flea markets and estate sales, but she took a bigger leap for her wedding wardrobe. She traveled to Paris to visit thrift stores, finding pearl earrings for $5, a wedding dress for $70 and $5 cufflinks for her fiance, Daniel Williams, 36, who works in private equity. The two plan to tie the knot in July in Puglia, Italy.
“With second-hand shopping, you’re driven by what catches your eye and makes you happy to wear,” Ms. Ruiz said. “A big part of the excitement of wearing my wedding dress is showing off a truly unique garment that I’ve worked so hard to create.”
And these clothes may have another life after marriage. While most wedding dresses end up being kept in a box in storage, many savers see their wedding dress as a continuous piece in their wardrobe.
Francesca Wallace, 29, Vogue Australia’s digital director, wore a second-hand Prada mini dress to her November 2022 wedding reception, which also included inexpensive vases for the floral centerpieces and a recycled gold wedding ring. Her husband wore a pocket square they found while thrifting in Tokyo.
“I felt completely myself wearing the dress, and I loved that it wasn’t something anyone had seen before,” Ms. Wallace said of the used Prada dress, for which she paid $460. “Since then, I’ve worn it to cocktail events and you’d never know it doubled as a wedding dress!”