Forget tatty cast-offs – the secondhand marketplace is now the first port of call for the savvy shopper

The rise of secondhand fashion is an enormously cheering thing, and in a world not currently over-blessed with hugely cheering things, it is worth taking a moment to celebrate.

In a short space of time, the pre-loved fashion economy has gone from being niche – vintage stores full of antique silk dresses at the top end, jumble sale tat at the other, not much in the middle – to a viable way to source every part of your wardrobe. The marketplace of new-to-you clothes, rather than new-to-the-world clothes, is now an aspirational, respectable, efficient, affordable place to shop. Not just for the pieces that have always been associated with secondhand (tea dresses for retro dressers, rare jeans for denim nerds) but for straight-down-the-middle mainstream wardrobe stuff. Your cousin’s North Face puffer jacket? £45 from Vinted. Your line manager’s Zara blazer? £18 courtesy of Depop. The Prada handbag your bestie dreams about her friends clubbing together for on her big birthday? £250 on eBay.

Michele uses models in their 50s and 60s, saying ‘time provides grace’, while Giorgio Armani celebrates 20 years of Armani Privé

There was never much doubt that Alessandro Michele – one of fashion’s biggest personalities and a man with a passion for capes, hats, pearls, pleats, bows, ruffs, lace and embroidery – would take to the world of haute couture like a duck to water.

Michele became a star designer during his time at Gucci, but a new job at the house of Valentino has given him a shot at haute couture, the Champions League elite of fashion, where each dress is made to order with hundreds of hours of work, all done by hand.