#15: What the Future Reference community bought in June
Gap shorts, wedge sandals, and strappy heels secondhand. Plus for all you voyeurs, you can now discover what everyone is shopping in the app...
Summer kicked into high gear, and the gloves came off and the toes came out when it comes to shopping. 22.6% of June shopping was secondhand but the summer sales did their work
Secondhand purchasing had a small decline from May, but it’s hard to beat the current onslaught of brand direct sales. Direct from brand accounted for 53% of purchases, while secondhand made up ~23% of purchases and multi-brand merchants like Net-a-Porter and Saks made up 24%.
Summer sales beloved by Future Reference users that are still going on:
Khaite - seasonal sale up to 50% off
Leset - final sale styles
Tibi - Truly some F|R favs at 40-60% off
Tory Burch - The viral studded flats were on sale for a hot moment, let’s see if they come back
Staud - New styles added
Christopher Esber - Some beautiful white styles great for weddings are on steep discount
Gianvito Rossi - how fun are these
Dries Van Noten - incredible printed pants and dresses for your European vacation or coffee stroll
Nili Lotan - lots of Shon jeans in fun colors still available
Gap - 40% off tons of styles, Doen x Gap is excluded but their getting lots of inventory back in stock
Mango - up to 70% off summer styles
Resale risers: Brands to watch
Etro: Sogole Kane called that ‘tacky Italian brands’ were going to be big on resale this summer. While we haven’t seem as much Pucci in F|R wardrobe as Claire would have liked, there has been a ton of Etro - both first and secondhand.
Akris: The Swiss luxury house is having a quiet moment. The brand appeared across categories—skirts, tops, belts, coats, blouses, pants — and is a rising resale staple for building a workwear wardrobe full of vintage pieces at the highest quality at an insane price (averaging $139 per piece).
Summer's Essential Five
Beyond dresses (which, predictably, led the charge with an impressive 42.1% of June purchases), these summer essentials categories revealed how we're really building our warm-weather wardrobes:
Sandals ($220.33 spent on avg):
Where F|R shoppers put their money, recognizing good footwear as foundational—More on why its a summer for toes in our deep dive below.
Shorts ($59.15 spent on avg):
It’s all about linen, or it’s all about Gap. Whether you want linen, gauze, a more adventurous cargo, or an eyelet option, we’ve seen basically every style land in closets.
When it comes to denim, there’s been a move to longer styles. Gone are the days of short shorts, unless you want them in a cute crochet. AGolde’s Ayla bermuda style is a continuation of their beloved jean (I have 2 pairs and am really considering taking a risk on the new style). On the high street we saw the Levi’s high rise baggy (a longer length than the short shorts of past seasons) and Abercrombie high rise dad short gain traction, both available in tons of colors.
If you’re wanting more colorful options, I’m personally obsessed with this bandana-print pair from Sandro that I saw land in our networked wardrobe, or the striped options from Reformation. And lastly, for those that missed out on the viral Doen’s Isha Short (we’ll be sending you resale offers) the J.Crew silk and lace version is a close second in several sherbet colors.
This is an extra good roundup from Hannah Baxter.
Tops ($105.52 spent on avg):
The workhorses of summer dressing, spanning draped silk blouses to tanks that withstand the heat. Tibi fans pulled in poplin tops and waffle polos, proving elevated basics never go out of style. We saw lots of linen in ginghams and plaids from Doen. This Kallmeyer plaid top is on a personal wishlist.
T-shirts ($47.58 spent on avg):
Proof that elevated basics still have their place in a thoughtful wardrobe. LESET and Flore Flore showed up repeatedly (and frequently on sale!!) as well as striped options from Alex Mill and Kule. Angela Galvez mentioned how much she loves Flore Flore in our recent Closet Confessional and we were instantly a fan. We also noticed an uptick in graphic tees from Abercrombie, though we all know the best ones are vintage and found on eBay.
#14: Closet Confessional with Angela Galvez
Angela Galvez has lived through fashion's digital transformation from the inside out. Starting as stylist #12 at a little-known startup called Stitch Fix (found via Craigslist, naturally), she helped scale their stylist organization from 15 to over 5,000 people before moving to Amazon to build their first physical fashion store. Now based in San Francisco, she chann…
Emilia Petrarca called it in the New York Times: summer 2025 is for the toes, and our data backs it up in a big way.
Sandal shopping surged 36.4% from May to June—far exceeding the previous month-to-month growth of just 6.9%. The growth happened across all channels, with both new and secondhand sandals seeing equal gains. Price ranges expanded across the board: the biggest growth came in under $100 and $100-200 segments in secondhand, while new purchases over $400 also increased.
Zara led volume with their viral suede toe sandals (now a similar style available in red) landing in multiple wardrobes. For the more basic, everyday styles, Tibi fans grabbed the Dwayne in both Plum and Tan, and we saw the A.Emery Jalen in multiple colors as well.
90’s thong wedges are back. This brown Etro pair caught our eye, as well as this Reformation option. Chloe jelly thong sandals showed up in pastel pinks, blues and browns. Someone grabbed a Phoebe Philo pair before they sold out - let us know when you’re selling.
Embellishment is a growing trend. We love the Gianvito Rossi Shanti for more causal these shining Jimmy Choo for a night out.
Gianvito Rossi also dominated the secondhand luxury end - there are tons of affordable strappy styles available on TRR and VC. Strappy options from Manolo Blahnik, Staud, Brother Vellies and Ferragamo all showed up as secondhand finds. Shorter, more manageable heels seem to be what everyone is gravitating toward.
One trend we’re not entirely sure about - multiple-carat diamond toe rings as modeled by Leandra Medine Cohen for Aflalo. That sounds like a subway disaster waiting to happen…
Discover what the community is shopping
We teased it above, but we’re launching a new page in the app called Discover where you can see what other Future Reference community members are shopping (anonymously for now)! Filter by category or brand, and soon you’ll be able to also track items and get notified when they are listed for resale - like your TRR graveyard came to life….
This comes after much feedback from users and honestly Substack. Our ‘what our community is shopping’ posts’ are consistently some with the highest engagement.
Voyeurism can be a tricky push to shop more, not less, but we hope we hope Discover can be a place of secondhand inspiration. Maybe that Etro dress isn’t the right price right now, but maybe it will be down the line when it’s ready to go to a second home ;)
We’d love to hear from you - how has your closet evolved or your mindset around shopping changed this summer? What are you ISO secondhand? Let us know in the comments.
Saving to come back to later, but love this stat: 22.6% of June shopping was secondhand.
Not ashamed to say that this is some of my favorite content in the world; show me what everyone is shopping for! Tell me what the cool girls are adding to their closet! I *gasped* when I saw it’s a section on FR now.