The Display Copy marketplace collective, launched in June of 2024, features West Coast experts Blossom Vintage, Carny Couture, DENIMCRATIC, Hall of Wonders, Kimberly Corday, and Ludlow Shop, Midwest taste-makers Coup De Grâce and Hermine, along with East Coast icons 258pm Salon, Amarcord, B Sides Jeans, Berriez, The Moonstoned, NMB New York, Sorbara’s, and Tyranny + Mutation.

“It was honestly very selfish,” Brynn Heminway, the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Display Copy said when asked what her inspiration was for creating the collective. “I wanted to foster a supportive community space for the small businesses who are truly elevating the vintage world… and I wanted to shop all of my favorite curators in one place.” 

Since the magazine’s inception, Display Copy has championed cutting-edge fashion and top-tier design without featuring a single “new” item of clothing. In the same vein, the newly launched marketplace functions as a natural progression in Display Copy’s ethos; disrupting how fashion is both perceived and consumed. Each curator that Heminway has hand-selected ranges in aesthetic, price, and niche, resulting in a myriad of unique pieces that showcase the limitless potential of second-hand and upcycled retail.

According to the 2024 ThredUp Resale Report, the global secondhand apparel market is expected to reach $350 Billion by 2028, growing three times faster than the overall global apparel market. Everywhere we look—vintage, thrift, and upcycled fashion is trending—from last year’s Met Gala “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” red carpet looks to #thrifthaul trending on social media platforms. Celebrities, stylists, and influencers are increasingly turning to vintage archives and upcycling designers to find one-of-a-kind pieces that resonate with their personal style and stand out amidst mass-produced collections.

We can all celebrate the fact that vintage shopping has officially been destigmatized and as a result there are exponentially more resellers on the scene. It’s also no longer a secret that shopping vintage is one of the most economical ways to acquire pieces crafted with exceptional skill and materials. But, knowing where to start looking for that perfect piece can be daunting. Often, the process requires research, endless scrolling, reverse image searches, an array of browser tabs, and bidding wars. Display Copy takes ‘the hunt out of the thrill’ of vintage shopping by allowing industry experts to be found in a single place.

Each curator in the collective is a professional in their respective field; having fine-tuned their craft by building an established brand and a loyal customer following. “Now that I’ve created a name for myself,” said Jamie Lee, the founder of Blossom Vintage [who specializes in curating a premium selection of antique bridal], “I get emails from people who are ready to pass down their family heirlooms. It’s a very sacred process.” 

Emma Zack, the founder of Berriez—Brooklyn’s hottest body-inclusive vintage and upcycled design showroom—is a true trail-blazer who elevated plus-size fashion with thoughtful merchandising and collaborations with designers across the globe. When it comes down to the core of her brand and the business that she’s built, Zack remarked, “I’m really proud of the community that I’ve built. Once you know about Berriez, you can't forget it. You love it.”

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As a rejection of planned obsolescence and fleeting trends, Display Copy advocates for timeless investments that feel authentic to one’s self-expression. “This concept of super cheap clothing is relatively new,” Lilly Alexander, the founder of Hermine said. “To me, it feels very human to act on the level of circular fashion [...] clothing gets passed down, re-worked, un-done, and re-made.” 

It’s evident that the fashion industry has entered a new era of sustainability politics. Even the term, “sustainable fashion”, is no longer synonymous with a commitment to humane labor practices, garment waste-reduction policies, or carbon-footprint consideration. Instead, fast-fashion corporations have managed to turn “sustainability” into a buzz-word, greenwashing their brands in order to remain relevant amidst an increasingly climate-conscious consumer market.

But, what does it actually mean for fashion to be sustainable? 

“I have some ego around that conversation,” Elizabeth Potts, founder of The Moonstoned says, “as a retailer it’s so easy to jump on the “sustainability” bandwagon. But it’s just not reality […] and if consumers understand that, then they can say, ‘Okay, I want to buy responsibly.’” 

Responsible Fashion, a term expertly defined by The New York Times Fashion Director and Chief Fashion Critic, Vanessa Friedman, indicates “a world in which all players, from the consumer to the C.E.O. [...] take responsibility for their part in the supply chain.” So, in order for consumers to purchase responsibly—understanding the production cycle of a garment to then consider one’s purchasing power—there needs to be transparent top-down education from the supplier.

Shopping vintage, upcycled, and thrifted fashion is the obvious alternative to boycotting the fast-fashion phenomenon. “I think what the customer really needs right now is full-transparency,” Gabriella Meyers, the designer and C.E.O. of DENIMCRATIC offered. Each year alone, the fashion industry overproduces 82 billion kilos of garment waste that is either burned or sent to landfills. Upcycling and resale programs can provide an alternative narrative to this story. “It’s first and foremost a way to minimize my footprint,” upcycling couture designer Kimberly Corday said. “But, it’s also an antidote to the anxiety I get when staring at bolts of new fabric [...] it’s almost like oldfangled fabrics speak to me and show me what they want to be this time around.”

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There is no clean-cut instruction manual to follow when it comes to the intersection of our earth’s climate-crisis and the fashion industry. However, as individuals we do have the power to shop more responsibly. “Overall, I would like to see people buy fewer and better things,” Brooke Bailey, the co-founder of Santa Monica’s Carny Couture declared. By nurturing a relationship to the clothing we wear and investing in the longevity of our beloved garments, more sustainable ways of dressing may not be as far off as we think.

The Display Copy collective features a growing list of collaborators whose curatorial expertise seeks to imagine a brighter future for the fashion industry. “My hope is that vintage and upcycled garments become the new luxury, thrift becomes the new streetwear and garments made from recycled fibers become the new fast fashion,” Heminway said. Shop Display Copy's expert curators here.