Author: Madison Huskey Major: Finance 

I am performing research concerning second-hand luxury fashion under my advisor, Dr. Eunjoo Cho. There has been a swift increase in the consumption of second-hand luxury fashion but not much research has been done over the subject. In the spring semester, I was working on finding out more about the innovative business models second-hand luxury retailers use to operate a sustainable business. Unfortunately, the majority of the businesses I reached out to did not respond back, meaning Dr. Cho and I had to scrap the original idea. Because we were unable to look into the business side, we turned our focus to the consumer perspective.  

I am currently unsure what my next semester of research will entail, but I am working over the summer to compensate for the time lost on the paper about business models. Dr. Cho and I are still in the process of narrowing down the exact topic, but I have learned so much. For example, while the majority of people believe that shopping sustainably is important, they do not act on it, which is a major problem, as the fashion industry is the second largest producer of waste. And with luxury fashion being an incredibly wasteful sector, second-hand consumption has become an integral way to extend a piece’s lifetime.  

Through this process, I have learned the importance of resilience. When problems due to the lack of response and COVID-19 arose, Dr. Cho and I wasted little time and quickly went back to the drawing board to figure out how to address the topic of second-hand luxury fashion from a different angle. I have also discovered that research can be incredibly frustrating and oftentimes seems like one step forward, two steps back. I wanted more than anything to conduct research over sustainable business models, so we could present the information in a way that businesses could implement, but that was just not feasible. 

During each step, Dr. Cho has been immensely helpful. She has consistently guided me in the right direction and provided me with resources that made my work easier. She has been instrumental in securing funding for the project and a consistently positive presence.  

Thanks to the Honors College Research Grant, I have the ability to continue cultivating my interests and researching second-hand luxury consumption. I hope my Fall 2020 report will be more fruitful and exciting than this one, but until then, I will continue working steadily!