The KURB report is a quarterly overview of the state of the designer archival market. Like fashion as a whole, the archival market is in continuous motion; there are trends and flavors of the months here too. And like retail fashion, there are niches and niches within niches. The deeper one digs, the more one realizes how complex it can be. But nonetheless we’re making the monumental attempt to chart its constantly shifting lands, both because it’s interesting and the fact that nobody else does it. The Q3 report will come with some updates that will allow you to grasp the market even better, including the Archival Subcultures, which groups the various brands that KURB covers into different categories, based on data from all the different types of independent stores. Like always, the report will start with an overview of this quarter’s hottest brands, based on the percentage in price and volume change. Last quarter we had Hermès, Ganni and Toteme topping the charts, but this quarter their reign has been toppled by Dior, Agnes b. and Christian Louboutin.

The plot illustrates the cultural proximity of brands based on how often they are curated together. So if Brand X and Brand Y sit closely to each other, they are typically found in the same category of archival store. With the blobs, we aim to categorize the different brands into different fashion sub-cultures. The plot might be particularly useful for those running an archival store and who want to know more about which additional brands they could adopt based on the brands they already stock, while simultaneously increasing their potential customer base, without losing the early adopters. The plot is interactive: click a blob to see its brands, pick a brand to see its closest relatives, or search for one you already stock.

This map showcases the volume and median price for each brand and its categories around the world, seeking to provide a more intuitive overview of the designer archival market. It can be particularly useful if you want to know where to look if you are into certain designers, and how to adjust your filters accordingly.

This tool is made for the store. It highlights the widest gaps in the market, where one can buy a certain designer the cheapest, and sell for the most. At the same time, it can be equally valuable for those not interested in reselling, but purely want to know more about the archival market and where someone can buy their favorite designers for the best price.

Archival fashion is still in its formative years, proven by the fact that it sees a continuous influx of new actors, be it marketplaces, platforms and independent stores. Though it, similarly to retail fashion, has trends, it remains harder to analyze for precisely the same irregularity that comes with immaturity. But if you stare at the noise long enough, like we do, you're bound to see some patterns. The new Archival Subcultures can be seen as macro-analysis of the archival ecosystem that is less likely to change over the course of a quarter. Hottest Brands, in contrast, gives a more granular view of the shifts in the ecosystem and demonstrates how sensitive the space still is to price changes, even over a quarter.

We are the first to not just analyze the archival market with this kind of depth, but also to regard it as an entity that can be analyzed to begin with. A side effect of this is a lot of experimentation and internal brainstorming to find out what might be interesting for the reader. We sit on an immense amount of data, but making it interesting is a challenge in itself.

If you are running an archival business or are interested in reselling. Don’t hesitate to contact us for a tailored solution to your challenges.