Yes, You Can Get That 2025 Trend Secondhand
Been there, done that, already in existence for you to buy again
Welcome to anyone who’s getting this newsletter for the first time and thanks to everyone who’s been reading. One last callout to the incredible
of and the fashion Substack dream team , , , , and for giving my wardrobe a fresh perspective. I highly recommend ’s social styling feature if you haven’t tried it yet!
I’ve spent the majority of my career in fashion buying, which meant I was in constant search mode for the next trend to bring to my target customer. I’ve created a lot of mood boards and have years of competitor and social media style analysis under my belt. No matter how responsible I try to make my wardrobe, I cannot resist a trend1. The biggest change from my merchant days is that I now look for the trends I want to wear secondhand at my beloved
and ThredUp instead of immediately heading to Zara.The Trends
There are two key aesthetics that I can’t shake in 2025: sheer and lace. I’ve been holding off on this post for a few months as I’ve been searching for justttt the right things at resale while actively fighting not to buy anything firsthand2.
Before we dive into preloved options, setting the stage with older saves and newer inspo driving my obsession with all things sheer and lace.
Sheer Inspo: Old
My outfit inspiration folder is chock full of Eliza Grace Huber outfits. She put the idea of everyday sheer in my head in 2023.
Sheer Inspo: New
Karen Blanchard in this dream of a sheer Chloe dress and the throwback boots that you could not escape in the 2010s (remember these?).
The layering possibilities are endless with Jen Azoulay’s sheer dress. I also need a moment for her pendant and bag.
Caroline Lin's expert use of crossover color can take your sheer skirt from summer to fall (click through since the color combo in the second image is not to be missed).
One more because sheer is my most obsessed trend, this is my 2025 HG outfit, and Div Ravindran is a top style inspiration.
Lace Inspo: Old
One of my first saves as lace skirts started surfacing more frequently in my feeds in 2023. If you’re into creative minimalism, Lauren Caruso is your follow.
Lace Inspo: New
I’ve yet to find the right version of this skirt at resale, so I’m looking longingly at Judith Jones-Huntington’s in the meantime.
This sporty styling on Millie Holmes in this flowy number.
And right back to Div Ravindran. This is actually a dress, but throw a blazer, sweater, or oversized tee on top and you have a bonus skirt.
Ending with
in this white lace dress that will haunt me until I track down something similar at resale (I’m getting closer, I feel it).
Sheer
What I Bought Secondhand
Now that we’ve established sheer as my main obsession, I’ve recently bought a dress and vintage slip skirt from ThredUp in addition to my sheer linen skirt via TRR. If you’ve bought from ThredUp you know that their shipping times are not fast and this was a lesson in patience, but these pieces did not disappoint.
The Dress: I live in San Francisco, which means it’s still sweater weather in June, which means here’s early inspo for wearing sheer this fall. My oversized sweater was just long enough for coverage without having to revert to bike shorts underneath, always a plus. It was slightly warmer last weekend and I restyled my dress with bike shorts, a bralette, and a cropped jacket (not pictured since the lighting in my hallway made my outfit look like a blob).
The Skirt: It’s tough to tell from the photos, but this slip skirt is quite sheer. Instead of the typical oversized t-shirt styling, I went with a polished vibe with an oversized button down shirt3 and a preloved cropped leather jacket to mix up the proportions and textures. I also restyled this with a sweater vest and blazer that played with oversized silhouettes in a more monochrome look.
What You Can Buy Secondhand
has a great assortment of sheer skirts and dresses, and I may grab one more piece if my version of gambling, aka waiting for a price drop, pans out. While sheer might fade out as a trend next year, I have plans to style these as layering pieces that will serve me for the next decade. 
Lace
What I Bought Secondhand
I found this skirt on ThredUp for the bargain price of $11.98. I knew before I clicked add to cart that I was going to remove or cut down the longer lining. I settled on cutting off some length myself4 and it already feels more modern.
What You Can Buy Secondhand
The good news with lace is there’s a plethora of resale options since lace pulses in and out of style. This means more inventory, which drives more accessible price points like this $18 Jason Wu black lace skirt. A lower price can create a little more freedom to make adjustments if pieces don’t match your vision, whether professionally with a tailor or if you’re overly confident with a pair of scissors like me.
Bonus Trend: Lacy Shorts
Since I’m a never-warm and live in a city where it’s never warm, lacy shorts are out for me. But I love this look on everyone else, especially the phenomenally chic
who put these on my radar last year.
ThredUp is a treasure trove of shorts finds, with so many preloved options under $30. To be transparent, these options will not be as stunning or high quality as the DÔEN Arbre or Iona styles on everyone’s wishlist, but they’ll give you the look for a casual $130 - $200 less and double as a skirt underlayer if you also live in a wind tunnel.
Lace hem options: Assorted Brands and Flora Nikrooz (size S), Zara (size M), Assorted Brands (size 1X)
White lace and crochet options: Ann Taylor Loft (size 0), Broadway & Broome and Kensie (size 2), Aerie (size M), Dolce Vita (size 6), Zaful (size M), Sweet Baby Jamie and Xhilaration (size L), Unbranded (size XL)
Black lace options: Express (size 0), Topshop (size 4), Pins and Needles (size S), Belle Tweed (size M), Kimchi Blue (size 10), Moda Mia (size XL), Torrid (size 2XL)
If you’re new to ThredUp, my referral link gives you 45% off your first order + free shipping. This isn’t a partnership, just the regular referral code given to all account holders. Sharing since it’s a great deal on top of already great deals, their annual resale report gives me life, and ThredUp is my go-to site for preloved activewear.
Even More Sheer & Lace
A must-read by
if you want to dip into sheer without it feeling too sheer: with allll of the lace trimmed inspo: ’s masterpiece on summer textures:
Fashion Notes
Reader, I returned it:
If there’s any day/week/month/year/decade to treat yourself, this is it:
What a thrill to be included in this secondhand tops sequel where I could talk about
to my heart’s content:Shoutout to my friend
who dropped everything (like literally her groceries) to send me this perfect shot:Nosy merchant poll of the week:
That’s it for this week, thanks for reading! I’d love to hear about your best secondhand 2025 trend score, bonus points for sheer or lace.
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This post includes affiliate links that help support my newsletter at no cost to you. This includes links to The RealReal of items I don’t own with a payout of under 1%. ThredUp is pure website links since they don’t participate in ShopMy. The remaining links? These are things that I own, love, and wear on repeat.
Although I’m thrilled the microtrend era has wound down.
All bets are off if this The Frankie Shop skirt ever comes back in stock. If you’re also into this, signing up for restock notifications might convince them to bring it back (TFS I’m begging you). Or if you want to give me a casual heads up if you’re selling yours at a reasonable secondhand price, tysm in advance.
Remember the guy in Happy Gilmore who would randomly pop up shaking his head? He would absolutely shake his head at my alteration “work”, as in the underskirt now resembles something that Betty Rubble would wear.
I think the black skirt is my fav. I find some of my favorite skirt options at the thrift store. I don’t wear them as much as I should though.
I was wondering what you decided about the lace dress!! It wasn’t meant to be and that’s ok, you made space for that black skirt, swoon!