This App Is Like an Instagram Clothing Swap and We’re Addicted

Along with wearing more color and being able to pull off PVC, one of our fashion goals is to finally learn how to shop for vintage—between our affinity forall things ’70sand the prospect of scoring a great deal, it sounds like a win-win. In reality, though, our attempts have always come up short, between overstuffed racks of clothing that require outlandish upper-body strength to sift through and the frustrating phenomenon known as vintage sizing (to find your vintage jean size, multiply your regular size by…lol JK good luck with that).

So we were stoked to discoverDepop, a “mobile marketplace” app for buying and selling stuff. Sounds pretty straightforward, but where it stands out from other resale platforms (say, eBay and Etsy) is its interface: It’s basically Instagram for shopping.

Just like the ’Gram, you can follow certain sellers so their posts show up in your feed or head to the “explore” page to browse. (You can also search by keyword and filter by size and price.) We’ve even spotted a few major fashion influencers on there, including Song of Style’s Aimee Song and Courtney Trop of Always Judging (and yes, this means you can literally raid their closets).

Aside from the muscle-memory ease of the interface, the social-media approach actually makes it super fun—it feels more like trading clothes with friends than a faceless transaction. Item descriptions are sometimes hilarious (see above), everyone’s super friendly in their DMs, and when you buy something, you actually feel like you’re talking to the person on the other end (as opposed to those “Order #93007276 confirmation” emails).

Stock-wise, there’s definitely a big market for vintage clothing—like, say, the perfect worn-in Levi’s 501s with the coveted “wallet fade” on the back pocket—and sellers usually include both measurements and modern size equivalents. There’s even a healthy selection of high-end designer wares (oh hey, Gucci belt) along with contemporary brands like Reformation and Madewell.

It’s worth noting that since you’re buying from a person, you usually can’t return things, but you can “repop” them. But even if you’re just window-shopping (er, screen-shopping?), there’s something weirdly fun about seeing what’s in real people’s closets…without having to leave your couch.