Resale App Depop Spotlights Its Black Community For Black History Month – And Beyond

Depop, the resale site with an immense 18 million users worldwide, has listened in the wake of this year’s protests for Black Lives Matter. Engaging with its network, who participated in a focus group with On-Road, the Black-owned research agency, it learned that its Black community felt underrepresented. Now, at the beginning of Black History Month, it is spotlighting the creativity and vision of its Black sellers and buyers with a video that profiles three who live in the UK.

Jordan, a 22 year-old who sells at @joinjordswardrobe and loves the interaction with customers that go beyond a simple transaction, says it was his parents who inspired his fashion sense. ‘Looking through their old photos and seeing clothes like, ‘What? Where’s that? I want that.’’ For Rumbi, a 25 year-old who runs @pattonstudio from Nottingham, it was ‘90s TV. ‘Things like Moesha or The Parkers. Fran from The Nanny was an absolute bombshell. Her outfits were always on-point.’

‘I really love being able to speak to the community and also link with other Black creatives,’ says Feya (or @bratlanice). The 22 year-old stylist from Manchester who founded Black In Fashion, a platform for young creatives in the fashion industry, says she feels powerful appearing in photos on Depop. ‘I have no issue with showing my body on Depop - or my Black skin. I feel powerful when I do show my curves, and I do show my skin. I’m very comfortable in it and I want to be able to represent that side of Blackness - and not hide from it,’ she says.

Rumbi agrees - and says her confidence has grown as the app’s Black and Asian communities have been spotlighted. ‘When I first started, I was kind of umming and ahhing about, ‘Do I want to model my clothes?’ In recent years, there are more Black people, more Asian people being showcased. I now feel more comfortable being in front of the camera.’

‘What makes me feel most proud of being Black is this unity, this kind of shared understanding, it’s a shared struggle, it’s a shared determination to see equality,’ says Jordan, who recently founded a model and talent agency that seeks to discover non-traditional talent called DIVER.

As well as the video, Depop is using the hashtag #blackondepop so that buyers can discover Black-owned shops and sellers can give their listings extra visibility.