Brands with skin in the secondhand game are tapping into this mood of turning away from overconsumption. WWD highlighted Vinted’s tongue-in-cheek “Too Many” campaign, which encourages people to sell their excess fashion via the secondhand marketplace. The ad shows a series of people wearing multiple versions of an item of clothing, from a man with numerous ties around his neck to a woman dragging a long line of handbags. Vinted creative director Emma Sullivan told WWD
that the ad considered the scenario of “what if you actually had to wear all the things that you have? It’s such a silly question, but visually it was inspiring and creative.” According to WWD, the campaign was inspired by the UN’s citing of 2016 figures from McKinsey, which stated that the number of garments purchased per capita between 2000 and 2014 increased by about 60%.
Alongside these sustainability concerns, some experts see the underconsumption movement as a natural correction in challenging economic times, given how the past few years’ rise in inflation and cost-of-living crisis have put a strain on disposable incomes. Commenting in the New York Times, Brett House, an economics professor at Columbia University’s business school, characterized #underconsumptioncore as a predictable response to the fact that “after a major economic downturn, usually about every decade or so, a similar back-to-basics trend follows.”
The Take, however, considers whether the underconsumption trend is simply another performative social media movement and an example of “cosplaying poverty.”
Promoting buying less does dovetail with a rise in a more mindful attitude to consumption and finances trending on social media. Its criticism of overconsumption comes alongside a clutch of influencers promoting financial literacy and using money to create future stability—and sound mental health—rather than wasting it on throwaway consumer goods. As British writer, financial influencer, and financial coach Clare Seal writes on Instagram: “The truth is that life is often a bit grubby, a bit frayed. You don’t have to replace everything the moment it shows some sign of wear or use. Everything doesn’t have to be perfectly seasonal and coordinated.”
Yet counter to these exhortations to buy less, 2024 research from TikTok and Retail Economics forecasts that the social commerce industry in the UK is predicted to more than double in the next four years, rising from $9.7 billion to almost $21 billion by 2028, with 44% of TikTok’s users having made a purchase directly on the platform.
Against this backdrop, the underconsumption trend demonstrates one way in which consumers are trying to take back control of how they’re influenced by social platforms’ powerful algorithms, aiming to subvert the algorithms with content that showcases a messy—and frugal— normality.
