Day: November 30, 2025

• As the secondhand luxury market continues to grow, shoppers are increasingly buying with resale in mind.
• When it comes to handbags, certain styles, designers, and colors tend to hold their value more than others.
• Fashionphile founder Sarah Davis broke down what to look for when buying and selling luxury bags.

The first handbag Sarah Davis ever sold was a Louis Vuitton red Epi bucket bag. As a law student looking to make money, she’d bought it at a DC thrift store in 1999 for $250 and flipped it on eBay. She used the proceeds to buy two more and do the same.

While she ditched eBay and outsourced procurement, she’s essentially doing the same thing 25 years later as the founder of Fashionphile, a secondhand luxury platform. Over the past 25 years, the company said it has sold 2 million accessories — including several Louis Vuitton red Epi bucket bags.

The company expects to sell more than $500 million worth of products this year and is profitable, it said.

Fashionphile’s rise has coincided with a surge in the luxury resale market.

The secondhand fashion and luxury market is expected to grow two to three times as fast as the firsthand luxury market over the next two years and reach $317 billion globally by 2027, according to a November report from McKinsey.

Affordability and accessibility are driving the growth.

“There was a day that there were two real, in my opinion, entry points to luxury,” Davis said: Coach and counterfeits. “Now they don’t have to do either. They can come straight to us.”

As secondhand becomes second nature, consumers are shopping with resale in mind.

Luxury watches, jewelry, and bags — all of which Fashionphile sells — are popular investment pieces, the McKinsey report said. They tend to hold their value and can sell for more on the secondhand market than they do on the primary one.

Davis buys into the model. One of her favorite bags is a mini Chanel flap bag that she’s had for more than a decade. She bought it used, of course, and plans to resell it soon, only because her new phone can’t fit.

“I could sell it for thousands more, even in the shape it’s in,” Davis said.

As the ultimate handbag reseller, Davis shared three tips for shopping and selling handbags on the secondhand luxury market.

1. Classics are classics for a reason.

If you’re looking for resale value, stick to signature styles.

Fashionphile’s No. 1 selling bag this year is the Louis Vuitton Speedy. The Chanel Double Flap and Hermès Evelyne are also hits.

“We sell, every day, dozens of the classics,” Davis said. “They get on the site; they move very quickly.”

These bags are never on sale, and their prices increase every year. That means if you wait it out long enough — and treat your bag well enough — there will be a payday.

“You take that Louis Vuitton bag, keep it for a few years, you will be able to sell it for more than you bought it for,” she said. “It’s kind of like buying a house; you sell that, get more money, build your way up to your Birkin.”

2. Black and brown can equal green.

Like classic styles, classic colors hold their value the best.

“Black is always a go,” Davis said.

Brown — ranging from taupe to caramel to chocolate — is Fashionphile’s second most popular color.

Unlike other colors, which can trend in and out, these neutral tones are timeless, which means you can resell an item in one of these hues next year or in 10 years.

3. Don’t be afraid to dig.

Getting the best deal, whether or not you’re planning to resell, takes work, Davis said.

“There are so many bargains to be had — 70%, 80% off retail — if you’re willing to do the search,” she said.

Fashionphile has tens of thousands of items available at any given moment. Most users, she said, won’t go through them all, focusing instead on new arrivals or the most popular styles.

Some of the best deals are on items that are a slight variation of the classic. A navy Chanel bag will sell for less than a black one, for example, and a more obscure shape Louis Vuitton will sell for less than a Speedy.

“There are some funky little styles, and you take a little bit of color, you’re going to get an incredible deal,” she said.

• Audrey Serna, 33, left college after two semesters.
• It was challenging to find a job while pregnant and without a college degree.
• Serna now makes six figures, and she doesn’t regret her decision to forgo college.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Audrey Serna, 33, who dropped out of college after two semesters. It has been edited for length and clarity.

It was a horrible feeling to drop out of college when all of my peers chose that route. But I wouldn’t have done anything differently.

After graduating from high school in 2010, I enrolled at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta. I grew up in an environment where I was told that college was the only path to success, so I didn’t even consider taking a different route. I quickly realized, though, that college was not the right fit for me: I struggled to balance school and my social life while working part-time jobs, and it was weighing on my mental health.

I withdrew from college after two semesters and started on an emotionally and financially draining career journey that I’m now grateful for.

Job searching without a college degree

I felt like a total failure leaving school at 20 years old. I was working just to pay the bills — I held two jobs as a restaurant server and in retail, and in the back of my mind, I always had motivation to push myself to find a more stable career. I just didn’t know how.

Many companies rejected me right off the bat because I didn’t have a college degree, which wasn’t a good feeling. I had moments where I felt like I wouldn’t make it anywhere because I didn’t have a degree, but I persevered. All it took was meeting just one person who was willing to take a chance on me.

Job searching while pregnant was frustrating. When hiring managers saw that I was pregnant, that was usually the end of the road for me, but knowing that I had a child to support was a big motivator to keep pushing and find a salaried role.

I had my first child in 2014, and that’s when my career actually started to take off. I landed an entry-level payroll job — my first 9-to-5 job — and I went into it with the attitude of trying to be the best employee at the company, which meant being responsive and working quickly. Upper management liked my work ethic and decided to take a chance on me, and they offered me a managerial position that I held at the company for about six years.

It wasn’t easy, though. Before I had my child, I was paying the bills as best I could, but I was struggling for a while. At one point, I went six or seven months without power in my apartment because my minimum-wage jobs weren’t enough to cover my expenses.

I don’t regret leaving college

I’m now a mom of two kids living in the DC area, and their fathers are not in the picture, so I support myself and my children financially. During the pandemic, I was struggling with my salary at the company where I had started, so I sought a better opportunity. I connected with a recruiter on LinkedIn who helped me land my first job, which was close to six figures. I was later recruited for my current role as a payroll operations manager, where I earn a six-figure salary. I can pay my bills, and I’m working on improving my credit.

Saving money is an ongoing process, and I’m doing what I can to budget for my long-term goals, like owning a home and traveling. I try my best to eat at home and throw excess money into a savings account that accrues interest. There are always months that are tighter than others, but as someone who has had many bad years financially, I try to give myself grace and know that things will get better.

It makes me emotional to see where I am now, compared to how I was when I was 19 years old, unsure of what to do with my life without a college degree.

I don’t have any regrets because I took the path that life wanted me to take. Education is obviously important, and while college does not define your worth, it can definitely make things easier. It’s an amazing accomplishment that jobs like to see. But I also think that with the right motivation, you can be equally successful without a degree. It’s just a little more difficult.

I still haven’t ruled out returning to college later in life. The costs are a barrier, though, and it’s not my top priority while I’m raising my kids.

Still, I want my kids — and anyone else struggling with a college decision — to know that a college degree does not define your value. Never feel like, because you didn’t go to college, that you’re less worthy or less than anybody else in the world. What’s right for you is not what’s right for somebody else, and you’re going to get to your end goal some way or another.

• Sitting at a computer all day can lead to poor posture and back pain.
• Dr. Jason Snibbe, an orthopedic surgeon, shared tips for staying upright while you work.
• Find a chair with lower back support and armrests.

It’s tricky to maintain good posture while sitting at a desk for hours each day, but a few simple adjustments to your work setup could make a big difference, a top orthopedic surgeon said.

It’s thought that around 66% of Americans have what’s known as tech neck or forward head posture, where the head and chin protrude and put pressure on the neck.

It’s common in office workers who crane their necks to look at screens (big and small) all day. This can cause neck and back pain, headaches, and lead to more serious musculoskeletal problems, like kyphosis (curvature of the spine).

“When you’re sitting at a desk, your body gets stiff, your body gets tight,” Dr. Jason Snibbe, the official orthopedic surgeon of the LA Clippers, who also counts Kris Jenner as a patient, said.

But getting up from your desk and stretching or going on a short walk can help your muscles stay strong and flexible, he said.

Snibbe shared four tips for supporting good posture and preventing back pain if you work at a desk.

Try a standing desk

Using a standing desk can be a great way to take pressure off your spine and reduce the number of hours you spend seated each day, Snibbe said.

“Your body can shift and move,” he said.

A small 2024 study published in Healthcare found that people with forward head posture scored better in a postural assessment and muscle tiredness test after working at a standing desk for 30 minutes than those who used a regular desk. The standing desk group also scored higher in a self-reported comfort questionnaire.

AirPods are your friends

Snibbe tells his patients with sedentary jobs to set an alarm for every 30 minutes or so to remind them to get up from their desks and move around a little.

But he knows this isn’t always possible, so recommends using wireless headphones to integrate more movement into your working day.

“The beauty of that is people can now take calls. They can go on a walk and take a call, they can have a conversation, they can have a business meeting while they’re exercising, which I think is a wonderful, wonderful thing,” he said.

Use a chair with lower back support and armrests

It’s important to sit on a chair that has cushioning or some kind of support for the lower back, Snibbe said. It helps to keep the spine in correct alignment, which prevents slouching and back pain.

He said you should also choose a chair that has armrests, particularly if you’re working on computers and typing a lot, because they take stress off the neck and shoulders.

Getting a laptop stand, or simply placing some books under your computer to bring it to eye level, will also help you sit with the correct posture, he said.

Put resistance bands all over your office

When your work requires you to sit uninterrupted for hours, it means you’re not using and strengthening your muscles, but strong muscles play a big role in maintaining healthy posture.

To combat this, try tying resistance bands to handles, doors, or hooks around your office, and use them to do some strength training while you work. You can use them to internally and externally rotate your shoulders, for example, he said.

He suggested tying a band to the legs of your desk and pushing against it, mimicking a leg press. “So you’re activating your muscles, you’re moving, you’re getting the blood flowing,” Snibbe said.