Vestiaire Collective, a secondhand luxury retailer, recently launched an initiative to transform its relationship with fashion influencers who promote fast-fashion brands. 

The company, which banned the sale of items from fast-fashion retailers like Shein and H&M on its platform last year, now aims to educate influencers about the industry’s environmental impact.

The company began a six-month educational program in November with five influencers across the U.S., the UK, France, Italy, and Germany. The program includes participants Amy Jackson, Audrey Afonso, and Yewande Biala, who have previously collaborated with or continue to work with banned brands such as Asos, Zara, and Mango.

“We wanted influencers that would talk to their community and for their community to not be that educated on secondhand and the damage of fast fashion,” Dounia Wone, Vestiaire Collective’s Chief Impact Officer, told Marketing Brew.

The program includes masterclasses, discussions with sustainability experts and communication professionals, and meetings with influencers who have already moved away from fast-fashion partnerships. Participants will also visit a clothing landfill to observe firsthand the industry’s supply chain impacts.

While the contract requires participants to create at least three posts during the program, Wone pointed out that content creation isn’t the primary goal. “We don’t want to push them to advertise the program,” she stated. “We want them to land somewhere where they will be the change, so our focus is really to impact the long term for them.”

The initiative follows Vestiaire Collective’s major campaign last year, which used CGI to flood Times Square with clothing waste virtually. Wone acknowledged that changing consumer behavior takes time but is essential for the industry’s future. “We all know that what we are going through today in the fashion industry is not sustainable forever,” she added.

The company anticipates some resistance from audiences accustomed to fast-fashion content, particularly regarding affordability concerns. Responding to Marketing Brew’s question about this, Wone quoted her father: “I’m too poor to buy shitty stuff.”

Vestiaire Collective plans to continue the program with new influencer groups if they succeed in changing the perspective of even one participant from the current cohort.