For six years running, Rebag’s annual Clair Report has crowned Hermès and Goyard as the untouchable royalty of handbag resale — labels so good at holding value that flipping a used one can sometimes net more than the original receipt. This December, the report’s sixth edition welcomed an unexpected name into that short list. The Row, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s stripped-down, logo-free label, posted 97% average value retention across its resale catalog in 2025 — a 24% jump from the year before, and enough to cross the retention line that defines resale’s so-called “unicorn” tier for the first time ever.

The Threshold That Just Got Crossed

Rebag defines “unicorn” status as any brand holding onto 85% or more of its original retail price on the resale market — a bar only a handful of houses clear in a given year. Fashionista’s breakdown of the sixth annual Clair Report confirms The Row’s 97% mark put it there for the first time. It still isn’t playing in the same numeric weight class as the two reigning titans: Hermès posted 138% retention this year, up 38% year over year, while Goyard logged 132%, up 28%, according to Rebag’s own release announcing the report. Both houses are, in effect, appreciating assets — a used Birkin can outsell its own original price tag. The Row’s bags aren’t doing that. But by the report’s own definition of the club, 97% is membership.

Which Bags Are Actually Carrying the Brand

Three styles account for most of The Row’s resale strength. The N/S Park Tote led the pack at 146% value retention, meaning resale buyers are, on average, paying more for a used one than the bag’s original retail price. The Margaux Tote followed at 107%, and the Half Moon Shoulder Bag at 106%, per Fashionista’s reporting on the report’s brand-level breakdown. All three are among The Row’s most recognizable silhouettes — structured, unbranded, and built from leather the label has spent over a decade positioning as its entire selling point.

A minimalist leather tote in the same understated register that’s driven The Row’s resale strength. Photo: Cat Han / Unsplash.

Why a No-Logo Label Is Suddenly a Safer Bet Than It Looks

Rebag’s chief marketing officer, Elizabeth Layne, pointed to something simpler than trend-chasing to explain the jump: durability. The brand’s “focus on craftsmanship and the integrity of the material” is what keeps its bags holding value through multiple owners, she told Fashionista, adding that the products “are made so well” that resale buyers trust them the way they’d trust a heritage house. Rebag CEO Charles Gorra framed the broader shift in blunter economic terms in the company’s own release, saying “higher primary prices pushed more consumers to the secondary market, reaffirming its stability,” and that the report was built to show “the brands demonstrating lasting long-term value.” Retail prices climbing faster than paychecks is pushing shoppers who’d normally buy new toward resale platforms instead — and toward labels whose reputation for quality gives them confidence a used bag won’t fall apart.

There’s a nostalgia thread running through the same data set. FashionNetwork’s coverage of the report notes renewed resale demand for early-2000s designs like Balenciaga’s Le City, Céline’s Phantom, and Chloé’s Paddington — bags a millennial audience remembers from the first time around and is now willing to pay resale premiums to own again.

What This Means If You’re Shopping Secondhand

For anyone browsing consignment racks or resale apps rather than a boutique waitlist, the practical takeaway is simple: The Row pieces that show up secondhand aren’t the bargain bin they might have been a few years ago. A gently used N/S Park Tote is now, by the report’s own math, likely to fetch close to or above what it originally cost — a very different proposition from most designer handbags, which lose a third or more of their value the moment they leave the store. That makes The Row an increasingly rare category on resale platforms: pieces worth grabbing not because they’re marked down, but because the discount barely exists anymore. Shoppers hunting specifically for value retention, rather than logos, now have a genuine third name to search alongside the two they already knew.

A Different Kind of Investment Piece

The Row’s number still trails the giants on paper. Hermès and Goyard buyers are, by Rebag’s math, effectively watching their bags gain value the way a piece of art might appreciate. The Row’s owners are watching theirs barely lose any — which, for a bag bought at retail rather than waitlisted for years, is its own kind of remarkable. What the Clair Report actually measures isn’t hype. It’s whether a bag holds up, physically and financially, long after the newness wears off. The Row just proved, on paper, that minimalism can be as durable an investment as a monogram.