Americans are buying more used clothes, but the real story is who’s buying what: Luxury resale is booming and so is discount

Americans are spending more on secondhand clothes again after years of dealing with price increases, but the way they’re spending is indicative of America’s K-shaped economy.

Clothes spending overall rose 5.1% in March compared to last year, ending nearly three years of declines, according to a report published by the Bank of America Institute this week. Yet the clothes-buying bonanza wasn’t equal across the board. 

Secondhand fashion transactions were up 22% year over year in March. Growth was fueled by increases in both “discount apparel,” which was up more than 4% between the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of this year, as well as secondhand luxury fashion spending, which jumped fivefold during that span, according to the report.

Driving this trend is the increasingly K-shaped economy, said Taylor Bowley, an economist with the Bank of America Institute and a contributor to the report. As top earners’ wages grow and they benefit from stock market highs, they are spending more. Meanwhile, lower-income........

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