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Isabel Marant Launches Vintage Site, Endowment Fund

PARIS — Isabel Marant is launching a secondhand site that will take donations of used clothing from the label in exchange for vouchers, offering a new model for an industry under pressure to get involved in the post sale life cycle of their products.

Dubbed Isabel Marant Vintage, the label will select donated items that can be restored and resold, with proceeds used to fund an endowment.

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The Isabel Marant Endowment Fund will support women’s education and artisan craftsmanship in indigenous communities.

“Based upon the notions of sustainability and heritage, this initiative provides an effective solution toward making fashion more circular,” said the label in a statement.

Vouchers can be used for purchasing clothing at the label in stores or online, including on the vintage site, which will also sell deadstock garments, shoes and accessories from past collections.

To promote the launch of the program in France, the label will sell a bundle of five surprise pieces on Friday, priced at 145 euros.

In other examples of labels that are offering platforms to resell used clothing, Ba&sh launched a resale platform last year.

The pledge to donate proceeds to supporting artisan craftsmanship comes amid debates over the issue of cultural appreciation versus appropriation and the industry’s role. Marant was ensnared in the issue last year when Mexico’s culture secretary Alejandra Frausto Guerrero accused the designer of borrowing patterns and designs originating from indigenous Mexican communities for a cape from her fall 2020 Étoile collection. The designer, who said she had sought to promote a craft and pay tribute to it, responded with an apology and pledge to pay tribute to sources of inspiration by “expressing our gratitude to the owners of traditional cultural expressions.”

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