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Fashion shopping in Hong Kong
LifestyleFashion & Beauty

Hong Kong’s second-hand luxury goods market gets boost from start-up Collector Square

The city’s recycled high-end clothing business continues to flourish, with a new website entering the fray

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Collector Square launched last November.
Divia Harilela
While most luxury brands in Hong Kong have been experiencing a slowdown in sales, the second-hand market is thriving. This year alone, old favourites such as Milan Station have experienced some friendly competition in the form of local websites such as Luxify and Guiltless, which offer previously used designer clothing and accessories. The latest addition is Collector Square, which launched in November.
New resell kid on the block Collector Square.
New resell kid on the block Collector Square.

Collector Square started in Europe in 2013. Its chairman Nicholas Orlowski is also the founder of leading French auction house Artcurial, which gave him an obvious advantage.

SEE ALSO: Hong Kong second-hand fashion websites change shopping habits

“The second-hand market is huge in Asia and Hong Kong already has an established business. On the other hand digital maturity is all in the US not Asia. We want to be one of the pioneers here from a digital perspective so we’ve copied and pasted what was done with Artcurial – the expertise, contacts, connections with the brand – and applied it to this new segment of the market,” explains managing director and co-founder Loic Bocher.
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Collector Square stands apart from local competitors for several reasons. For a start it has one of the largest offerings, with 5,000 items available for sale (all items are available on both the European and local site). These are divided into three categories – watches, jewellery and handbags.

While the list of brands available are not dissimilar to other websites and include the likes of Hermès, Dior and Louis Vuitton, each item has been carefully selected by a team of experts who have extensive experience working for international auction houses.

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“We share the same experts as Artcurial. Also a big part of our marketing is sourcing. Our purpose is to propose pieces that have a history – they are bought with a style and classicism in mind. These are pieces you cannot find anymore. We also opened a vintage corner featuring pieces that are not branded but that have history,” says Bocher.

Collector Square managing director and co-founder Loic Bocher.
Collector Square managing director and co-founder Loic Bocher.
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