- TikTok creators offering personalized "style bundle" shopping experiences are going viral.
- One seller has a waiting list of 200 people and thrifts for hours every day.
- Small businesses follow popular trends such as "strawberry girl," "y2k" and "coquette" fashion.
Kalita Hon, aka Kalitaku, currently has a waiting list of 200 people who want to order her custom thrifted clothing bundles on TikTok.
Currently based in LA and recently turned 22, Hon told Insider that she first used apps like Depop to make money while attending Wesleyan University, where she majored in psychology.
Selling secondhand items together under themes such as "cottagecore" or "coquette," her TikTok posts showcasing these personalized bundles quickly went viral, with her customers mainly being women in their teens to early 20s. One of her recent "style bundle breakdown" videos from August 2, where she talks through a client's style bundle, currently has over 1.2 million views.
Secondhand clothing is a rapidly growing industry, with a 2022 study by Boston Consulting Group and luxury resale app Vestiaire showing that 25% of an average consumer's wardrobe is now secondhand — which is expected to grow to 27% this year.
Hundreds of amateur personal stylists have started selling bundles through social media, targeting popular hashtags and micro-trends such as "tomato girl," "strawberry girl," or "y2k." TikTok videos under the "stylebundle" hashtag currently have over 204 million views, with users promoting their own small businesses or unboxing the packages they've received.
Like many of these small sellers, Hon asks buyers to send her a Pinterest board showcasing the inspiration or specific items they want — or pieces they definitely don't want to receive — alongside filling out a Google form with their measurements.
Hon offers four bundle size options with set pricing and styling fees. The cheapest includes two items and one accessory for $105 ($55 for the items plus a $50 styling fee), with the highest priced option including six items and two accessories for $215 ($130 plus an $85 styling fee).
This doesn't include shipping, she said, which is calculated depending on where the customer lives.
Hon told Insider that the price of style bundles on TikTok helps to make a luxury service more accessible to the general public.
On an average day, Hon will be at the first thrift store by 9 a.m. "I'll be the first one in there, with my cart, with my whole thrifting checklist. And I will search the store until like 3 p.m. and not eat lunch, because sometimes I get so locked into the zone," she said.
"It's very goofy, but I will bring a tape measure to the thrift store," Hon added.
Though she shops for specific orders, often she'll pick up a perfect item for a potential future bundle; she estimates 70 items are currently in her closet waiting for the right customer.
Macy Eleni Harris, known as BlazedAndGlazed on TikTok, where she has over 482,000 followers, is an Ohio-based self-styled "thrift queen" and content creator. She said she has been thrifting "since birth" and noticed style bundles popping up during the pandemic.
Though she doesn't make style bundles herself, she recently unboxed her first one from a longtime follower on TikTok, she said.
To her, they're a more accessible way for people to get higher quality, sustainable clothing rather than buying fast fashion. Harris told Insider she refuses to accept items from brands that aren't moving in more sustainable or size-inclusive directions.
Sustainability is crucial for many amateur TikTok stylists
Hon said she believes mainstream media focuses too much on brands, whereas for her, vintage fashion is often more unique, better quality, and accessible.
Celeste Goyena told Insider she started doing style bundles via her Instagram in June 2021 after upcycling thrifted clothes during the pandemic. She now runs her own small brand, Celestial Vintage, online.
"My grandpa said I should start making full outfits for people, because I had all this cool stuff and it's a little harder to sell it all one-off," she said.
Goyena said she takes on a different amount of requests depending on her schedule, typically from 10 to 20 customers per month. "The most I've ever done in a month was 30. That was insane. I will never do that to myself again," she told Insider.
Customers are typically told in advance that it can take from four to six weeks for their bundle to be shipped, which allows both Goyena and Hon time to find good quality items in the right sizes and work on multiple bundles at once.
However, unlike Hon, this isn't Goyena's primary source of income; she said she works full-time at a management consulting firm, and only has time to thrift during the weekend. She admits that doing style bundles is a "tough business model" to get into; as a consumer, she's cautious about businesses on social media being legitimate.
Don't buy from a viral store without doing your research, Harris says
In a TikTok posted in July, which has 1.9 million views, Gina Consenza said both times she'd ordered a bundle, one of which was $90, she was disappointed to receive items that didn't fit her or match the Pinterest board she'd provided.
Consenza told CNN that as something that's usually only available to celebrities, the idea of having someone pick out pieces for her felt special.
"Don't waste your money on these," she said in the TikTok. "You can't anticipate what someone else is gonna choose for you."
However, she told Insider that six sellers had since offered her free bundles to help change her mind; the two she's received so far were "absolutely stellar" and she'd be willing to pay $90 for a similar quality, she said.
Harris believes buyers should do more research before buying style bundles, rather than immediately ordering from a viral TikTok store.
She told Insider: "We want people to have a positive experience with thrifting, especially if this is their first time getting something secondhand."
