Gen Z loves clothing hauls and hates landfills. Enter the style bundle

When Celeste Goyena graduated from college in spring 2020 with a degree in marketing and finance, the pandemic was in full swing and her job prospects had stalled. With time on her hands, Goyena began selling “style bundles” — curated collections of clothing that clients could request via direct message or her personal website. To market herself, the 24-year-old started diving into thrift-store racks and posting her findings on TikTok. These “outfit of the day” videos, which she would adorn with hashtags such as #fitcheck and #outfitinspiration, didn’t get much traction, but that changed when one of her first clients showed her a Pinterest board of colorful Y2K summer staples.

Goyena, who is based in New York City, shipped her a head-to-toe outfit complete with accessories that nailed the look. In July 2021, she posted a #stylebundle video of the process that quickly received more than 30,000 likes and nearly 200,000 views. She’s since amassed tens of thousands of followers on both TikTok and Instagram, and her algorithmically produced TikTok “For You” page was soon filled with other thrifters selling their own Pinterest-inspired style bundles. Among them was Charlotte Chiasson, 24, who began selling her own style bundles around the same time, in early 2021. Living at home during the start of the pandemic, Chiasson said, she started to post outfit videos on TikTok, making use of her closet “exploding with vintage clothes.” She decided to take advantage of the fact that people liked her taste by marketing style bundles, which quickly took off.

More and more social-media-savvy thrift devotees are making a career out of hours spent combing through thrift shop racks. Amid a trend cycle in hyperdrive thanks to TikTok, these online stylists have found a niche selling secondhand clothes that give eco-conscious Gen Z customers the thrill of a shopping spree — without the guilt of a Zara haul. They promise to pluck castoffs with cachet from the bargain bin — and pair them with other pieces to yield an Insta-worthy ensemble. And since they’re shopping at the Salvation Army — not Bergdorf Goodman — you don’t have to be Sofia Richie or Bella Hadid to enlist their relatively affordable services. As such, they’re democratizing a domain once reserved for the rich.

For every bundle, stylists (some call themselves personal shoppers) work directly with their clients — taking inspiration from their mood board, Pinterest page or choice of -core — think mermaidcore, Barbiecore or tomato girl-core, to name just a few examples — to create a set of outfits catered to their aesthetic preferences.

Erin Galioto, a 23-year-old freelance styling assistant in Wisconsin, has so far purchased three style bundles. When working with Goyena for a feminine and utility-inspired mix, she received a white satin slip with an empire waist and lace detailing, which Galioto has put to use during summer wine nights on her balcony. She estimates that about 80 percent of her existing wardrobe is made up of secondhand items, something she attributes to her “individuality complex.” But she still turns to style bundles to avoid what she calls “thrift store delusion,” when one purchases an item that’s too big or stained only to come home and realize: “This is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Galioto said she discovered style bundles after finding herself immersed in the ecosystem of “what she wanted” vs. “what she got” videos on TikTok and Instagram. These videos compare a client’s wish-list mood board with the thrifted items their stylists bundled for them, often with startling accuracy. “Sometimes it’s too good to be true,” Galioto said of the videos. “I can’t believe they’re just giving away all these pieces for a flat rate. Like, Depop sellers would sell any one of these for a hundred dollars.”

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Most people who order thrifted style bundles find their stylists via their Instagram and TikTok pages. Sara Fedz, 23, a Miami- and L.A.-based secondhand store owner and stylist, said people usually follow the stylists for their fashion content, and then decide to buy a bundle after they realize it’s a possibility. Her clients, she said, “want cool looks, and it’s my job to figure out what exactly you want because you might not even know.” And so they turn to these stylists precisely because of their standing as internet tastemakers.

“That’s why I really like style bundles, because not only does it take [away] all of the work of finding the pieces, it also serves as validation,” Galioto said. “Someone else thinks this is cute. You should wear it because this cool person who has a cool Instagram put it together for you.”

Online style bundle prices vary widely. To buy from Goyena, for example, clients can choose between a range of sizes. The standard bundle, which includes one to two accessories and one to two full outfits, sells for $130. Fedz, on the other hand, requires her clients to have a minimum clothing budget of $1,000, in addition to the rate she charges for her work, which varies based on how quickly the client wants their bundle sent to them and how specific their requests are.

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Stylists often have to dedicate hours hunting through racks and sifting through piles for their bundles. “Where I live, there’s seven thrift stores and I’ll go to each one, so it’s a full-day experience,” said Chiasson, who totes along a giant binder filled with her clients’ mood boards, sizes and preferences, as well as a measuring tape. She charges anywhere from $90 for a single outfit (two tops, one bottom, one accessory) to $455 for 10 outfits, what she calls a “wardrobe revamp.”

The popularity of thrifting in recent years, as well as the increasing popularity of micro trends and cheap fast fashion brands such as Shein, has made certain items more difficult to find. Fedz, for example, said it’s hard to nab certain brand-name items that were once common in most thrift stores, such as a Juicy Couture purse, which exploded in popularity during the y2k craze. Though Fedz said that she tries not to get too attached to a specific piece when sourcing, there are clients who are set on what they want. “If you want all Juicy Couture, that would take a lot of time to source,” Fedz said.

There is also an avalanche of low-quality clothing to contend with. “When I go into the thrift store, I’ll just see Shein clothing and it’s all disheveled. Those pieces aren’t really sustainable,” said Chiasson, noting she avoids these items. Hunting for a high-quality tank can sometimes feel like looking for a needle in a haystack, but style bundlers can help clients sort through the bins.

They can also help their Gen Z customers marry contradictory fashion goals. As a recent newsletter from McKinsey & Company put it: “Gen Z’s relationship with fashion is complicated. On one hand, Gen Zers express a desire for sustainably produced items and love thrifting. On the other hand, clothing ‘hauls’ (or what previous generations called a shopping spree) make up some of the most watched and most produced content on social media.” Thrifted style bundles offer a neat solution to the dilemma.

“I’m very into fashion so there’s always new trends I want to try,” Galioto said. Buying a bundle once per season so as to limit overconsumption allows her to try these different trends without turning to fast fashion. “I don’t want any more clothes in the landfill. … So, I’m totally aware and trying to have that presence of mind when I’m shopping as well,” she said.

And, at the end of the day, nothing is quite like the rush of receiving a fashion treasure chest in the mail, say fans. “The anticipation of it keeps me going and makes me excited for the next day,” Galioto said. “Once you get it, it’s like Christmas morning.”

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