The best advertising campaigns make you want to be the woman on the billboard. In 2013, I wanted to be Daria Werbowy in a pink roll-top bathroom, naked except for a rhinestone-encrusted necklace and bracelets, in Céline's spring campaign.

I've been dreaming about that glittering choker, in particular, for months, even though it was wildly unaffordable – up to £2,000 – on my fashion journalist's salary. Years later, when its creator Phoebe Philo announced she would leave the brand in 2017, I thought about the necklace again. Curious to see if I could track one down, I hit Google. Fifteen minutes later, I had unearthed a German seller on the French resale site Vestiaire Collective, who was willing to part with theirs for £481.37, complete with dustbag and original box. Reader, I bought it. And then I bragged about it. “It's spring/summer 2013,” I told admirers who asked about the necklace's origin at a party. Vogue .

It was a time when last season's signature items were put at the back of the closet or donated to willing recipients after their moment in the spotlight. Now, pre-loved, pre-worn, pre-owned, saved and resale clothes and accessories couldn't be more desirable. “Vintage” is the term that covers all the bases, even if it makes nitpickers cringe: technically, it should only be applied to clothes made between the last 20 and 99 years. In any case, the second-hand market today has clearly evolved from the two categories that “vintage” denoted: an acid-free, fabric-wrapped couture dress purchased at an auction house, on the one hand, or a mothballed-dress scented petticoat unearthed at a flea market stall on the other.

Celine hoop earrings

£480.77

Vestiaire Collective

Baroque Celine bracelet

£745.41

Vestiaire Collective

For one thing, the pre-loved items that today's savvy shoppers are looking for are often not that old. And the hunt takes place not in cavernous warehouses or auction houses, but online. Today's well-dressed fashion fans score gently used Alaïa dresses on TheRealReal , Bottega Veneta Cassette bags worn once on Vestiaire Collective , vintage Chanel bouclé jackets on Hewi and second-hand Hermès Birkins on Collector Square . They scored sold-out BNWT (“bought new with tags,” the Internet speak) Zara leggings on Depop and second-hand Jean Paul Gaultier Cyber ​​Dots mesh T-shirts on eBay. They go from StockX for Dior Air Jordan like new and from Chrono24 for the Cartier Tanks experienced, taking a short detour to Dotte for Mini Rodini's waste for their children.

Vintage Alaïa long dress

£627.55

The real real

Vintage Alaïa mini dress

£672.37

The real real

They sell too. After all, their original Dior Saddle bag from Spring/Summer 2000 is worth a pretty penny since Maria Grazia Chiuri reissued it in 2018, making it too profitable to pass on to a daughter.

Used Trotter Saddle shoulder bag by Christian Dior 2004

£3,664

Farfetch Second Life

Dior Saddle canvas handbag

£1,752.50

Vestiaire Collective

“People's sense of belonging has changed,” says Rachel Reavley, a former employee of Vogue and a board member of Hewi, a family-run UK-based resale site with a particularly affluent clientele. (Hewi is short for Almost Never Worn; more than 30 percent of the inventory on the site has never been worn.) “When you've experienced shopping in a luxury re-commerce space, it really opens up your customers' expectations. Then you start looking at things in your wardrobe, thinking: Will I ever wear those Dior boots again? You go online and as long as you take care of them, they have held their value. It's a win-win: you have the financial reward, the feel-good factor of participating in the circular economy. Then, you could buy something else and you would feel guilt-free.”