An influencer may wear an outfit in just one post before banishing it to the depths of the closet. It may stay there, unworn and unused, until it’s time for the occasional wardrobe cleanout. At best, the garment will be resold or donated. At worst, it’ll end up in a landfill.
Detoure, an online consignment shop, wants to change that.
The company, which describes itself as an “influencer thrift store,” is trying to lessen the burden on overflowing landfills by tackling influencers’ overflowing closets.
Accelerating trend cycles are only adding to the fast fashion industry’s nearly insurmountable toll on the environment. Detoure sells influencers’ trendy clothing — most of which is either new with tags or has been worn only once — for a small fraction of the cost of buying the garments new.
“The way social media’s going, influencers wear the clothes once for a photo and then they never really wear it again,” said Detoure’s founder, Meghan Russell. “And so what happens to the clothes then at that point?”
In the year since Russell launched Detoure, the store has partnered with about 50 influencers, and Russell plans to expand the roster in the coming months. Primarily an online store, Detoure has gone viral on TikTok for its Los Angeles pop-up events, which it started hosting this year.
The way social media’s going, influencers wear the clothes once for a photo and then they never really wear it again. And so what happens to the clothes then at that point?
Meghan Russell, DETOURE FOUNDER
The line for Detoure’s July pop-up — which took place in a borrowed streetwear store — stretched down Melrose Avenue. Drawn in with promises of being able to buy affordable clothing without having to dig for it, as at a traditional thrift store, hundreds