The RealReal may have risen to popularity for its big-name designer finds, but emerging designers are quickly rising through its ranks, according to the luxury resale platform’s 2026 Resale Report released on Tuesday.
“Resale is a really interesting discovery engine for emerging designers,” Noelle Sciacca, The RealReal’s associate director of fashion merchandising and content strategy, tells Fashionista over email. “Because we can look at search volume, our ‘obsessions’ and supply together, we can see when interest in a brand is beginning to accelerate.”
Zankov — New York-based designer Henry Zankov’s namesake knitwear label — is one of the buzziest emerging brands on The RealReal, as the resale platform logged more than 11,000 “obsessions” (a.k.a. user-favorited items) for Zankov’s stock at the time — about 64 pieces. (That’s about 175 obsessions per item.) This spike in Zankov’s popularity on The RealReal coincides with this year’s announcement that the designer will be taking the reins at Diane von Furstenberg, in addition to helming his eponymous label.
Photo: Courtesy of The RealReal
Following in Zankov’s footsteps, Heirlome had 7,000 obsessions for its 65 units (a 165% year-over-year rise) and Rùadh had more than 2,300 obsessions for its 85-piece supply (a 432% year-over-year spike). With a 43.5% uptick in obsessions, Sandy Liang is also one of The RealReal’s rising independent brands, followed by Toteme (up 37%), Rodarte (up 24.2%) and Eckhaus Latta (up 19%).
“We’re also seeing search growth dramatically outpace supply for brands like Ssstein, Colleen Allen, Aflalo and A. Presse,” Sciacca adds. “That imbalance is really interesting because it tells us there’s an audience actively looking for these designers before there’s enough product in the secondary market to meet that demand.”
Photo: Courtesy of The RealReal
Despite this rising interest in emerging brands, heritage luxury houses remain the secondhand market’s major players. This year, Chanel dethroned Louis Vuitton as the most-searched brand on The RealReal. It’s an unsurprising coup since Matthieu Blazy’s explosive debut for the French fashion house sent sales skyrocketing. On The RealReal, searches also soared: The platform recorded a 10,967% rise in searches for Chanel’s new artistic director.
Louis Vuitton, which held the top position for two consecutive years, took the silver. Prada maintained its bronze medal for the third year in a row, while Gucci and Miu Miu came in fourth and fifth place, respectively. The Row, Hermès, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga rounded out The RealReal’s top 10.
Photo: Courtesy of The RealReal
The RealReal is also keeping tabs on the brands that are accelerating on the platform: Alaïa saw the highest spike in saved searches at 136%, with Miu Miu (96%) and Loewe (88%) trailing close behind. The RealReal’s also seen an increase in supply for brands like Phoebe Philo (up 247%), Jamie Haller (up 235%) and Kallmeyer (up 184%), perhaps signaling that these labels are starting to attract more buzz on the resale market.
As retail prices continue to surge on the primary market, “resale is becoming a first-choice way to shop luxury for a lot of people, particularly Gen Z,” Sciacca notes. According to The RealReal’s data, the secondary luxury market is growing two-to-three times faster than the primary market and 58% of shoppers say they prefer resale outright. Vintage (read: pieces that are 15-plus years old and significant to fashion history) is a key driver for resale’s surge, as The RealReal reported a 432% spike in demand for vintage listings from 2020 to 2026. The reason? Nostalgia is the obvious answer, Sciacca says, but “there’s also this desire for discovery and individuality.”
“When so much of fashion and social media can start to look the same, vintage on The RealReal offers the opposite: items with history that you’re unlikely to see on anyone else, along with the product depth to discover what feels most like you,” she continues.
Photo: Courtesy of The RealReal
The 1990s and 2000s reign supreme on the vintage market, boosted by searches for “Phoebe Philo Celine” (up 650%), “Nicolas Ghesquière Balenciaga” (up 400%) and “Marc Jacobs Louis Vuitton” (up 375%). Similarly, consumer interest in early 20th-century antique references (think drop-waist silhouettes and contrasting textures) is surging, as seen in rising searches for Fortuny, John Galliano’s Dior and art deco.
“What’s really interesting is how much more knowledgeable and intentional shoppers have become,” Sciacca says. “They’re now thinking about the history of an item, quality, provenance, scarcity and resale value, but they’re also using resale to foster a personal-style point of view that feels authentic to them.”
Read The RealReal’s full report here.
* This article was originally published here