For years, resale has been knocking at the door of high fashion. This season, eBay is flinging it wide open. For Spring/Summer 2026, the marketplace’s Endless Runway project returns with an even bolder proposition: pre-loved pieces not as one-offs, but as integral parts of major designer collections.
ERDEM, Altuzarra, Kallmeyer, LUAR and Ahluwalia are all on board, working with fashion councils in New York, London, Milan and Paris to rework anything from archival runway looks to well-worn staples into new-season lineups.
It’s a small but significant shift. Circularity has been a buzzword for years, but seeing an ERDEM gown re-emerge on the runway - not as a museum relic but as part of a living, evolving collection - makes the idea tangible. ‘It’s a continuation of a narrative,’ Erdem Moralıoğlu says of revisiting his own archive. ‘Design and sustainability can move forward together.’
eBay isn’t just relying on the big names. It’s staging its own shoppable runway shows in New York and London, streamed live on its platform, styled by Brie Welch and Amy Bannerman, in an attempt to bridge the gap between high fashion and the click-to-buy immediacy of online shopping. This will take place during New York Fashion Week (11-16 September) and London Fashion Week(18-22 September).
The timing is no accident. The resale market hit $205 billion (£151 billion) in 2024, with ‘vintage’ searched on eBay more than 1,200 times a minute. Nearly 40% of all clothing, shoes and accessories sold on the site last year were pre-loved. And the platform’s recent Met Gala moment with Emma Chamberlain, Jeremy Pope, Law Roach and Chappell Roan in sourced vintage, proved pre-loved can still own a red carpet. Fashion Month is still about the new, but eBay’s is giving pre-loved fashion another life.
Renee Washington, Grazia's digital fashion and beauty writer, lives online. With a penchant for wispy lashes and streetwear, she writes about the worlds of fashion and beauty from the viewpoint of the modern fashion girlie..
Main image: Courtesy of eBay