Detoure, which opened in April 2024, bills itself as an \u201cinfluencer sourced thrift store.\u201d Many of the store\u2019s visitors are Gen Zers like Garcia, who said she was captivated by the concept after seeing it on TikTok.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew it would be stuff that was geared towards my style and my interest,\u201d said Garcia, a 26-year-old digital marketing manager. <\/p>\n
Detoure\u2019s name combines the words \u201cdetour\u201d and \u201ccouture,\u201d and reflects the business\u2019 goal of providing a \u201cdetour\u201d around buying new fast fashion, said founder Meghan Russell, 28. <\/p>\n
The store tries to solve two problems at once. People who can\u2019t afford to buy trendy clothes at full price turn to cheaper \u201cdupes\u201d that contribute to fast fashion waste<\/a>, she said. Meanwhile, influencers, who rapidly cycle through clothes, receive so many brand-name gifts that they don\u2019t have room to keep it all.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are taking clothes from the fashion inspo,\u201d Russell said. <\/p>\n Influencers who want to become Detoure clients should have about 10,000 Instagram followers, Russell said.<\/p>\n Detoure\u2019s name combines the words \u201cdetour\u201d and \u201ccouture,\u201d and reflects the goal of providing a \u201cdetour\u201d around buying new fast fashion.<\/p>\n (Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s really interesting about this concept is that it\u2019s so rooted in influencers,\u201d said Arizona State University fashion merchandising professor Nicole Craig. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen anything like this in a physical store.\u201d<\/p>\n Influencer resale predates Detoure, according to Craig. But it looked slightly different.<\/p>\n The Kardashian-Jenners in 2019 launched Kardashian Kloset, an online resale platform<\/a> selling designer clothes culled from the family\u2019s extravagant closets. Websites like Poshmark and Ebay have also worked with influencers and celebrities, Craig said.<\/p>\n Some influencers go to Dresscue<\/a>, an Atwater Village consignment store, because they can rent empty racks to sell their clothes, Craig said, though the store was not specifically designed for them.<\/p>\n For influencers, the store takes a \u2018headache away\u2019<\/p>\n Detoure has more than 250 influencer clients who can drop off their items or, if they live in Los Angeles or Orange County, have them picked up.<\/p>\n Given how many clothes influencers receive \u2014 one said she receives five packages per day \u2014 traditional resale options are not always a feasible solution, influencers said. <\/p>\n Detoure takes the \u201cheadache away,\u201d said content creator Nicole Kramer.<\/p>\n Kramer said she used to spend hours waiting in line at local resale shops for a worker to sort through her clothes. She also tried selling garments on Poshmark and Mercari but found it time-consuming.<\/p>\n Content creator Hannah Dytrych mostly sends Detoure clothes gifted to her by brands. She said she hasn\u2019t faced any pushback.<\/p>\n \u201cThey know that we receive a lot of items and there\u2019s just not enough space to keep everything,\u201d Dytrych said.<\/p>\n Russell estimates that the company has \u201csaved\u201d 100,000 items from landfills since she began selling online in 2021. <\/p>\n The company generated nearly $600,000 in sales in 2025 and became profitable last summer, according to Russell. The store employs six people, including Russell, and its main expenses are labor and monthly rent, which costs about $6,500.<\/p>\n Clothing prices are set at about 40% to 60% off retail, depending on condition, Russell said. Beauty products receive bigger markdowns; for instance, Rare Beauty\u2019s liquid blush normally costs $25 but sold for $7. The store says it only accepts unopened products.<\/p>\n Influencers receive a cut of the sales usually ranging from 25% for lower-priced goods to 70% for luxury items, Russell said.<\/p>\n Items that don\u2019t sell after several months are donated, returned to influencers by request, or marked for clearance. <\/p>\n Shoppers can occasionally pay $5 for two minutes to fill a bag with anything they want from a large mound of clearance items collected on the floor. These quarterly \u201cpile sales<\/a>\u201d are a customer favorite, Russell said. The next sale is planned for Jan. 31.<\/p>\n Longtime Detoure client Elizabeth Weber estimates that she earns between $600 and $1,500 in commissions per month from the store. <\/p>\n The money was especially helpful when content creation was her main job, as that income \u201cebbs and flows,\u201d said Weber, a past winner of the reality show \u201cLove Island USA.\u201d (She now works for a beauty mirror startup<\/a>.)<\/p>\n From an apartment to Melrose Avenue<\/p>\n Raised near Modesto, Russell went to Cornell University and graduated in 2018 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in global and public health. <\/p>\n Halfway through college, Russell spent two months in Tanzania assisting a nonprofit that taught female genital mutilation survivors how to make clothes to support themselves. The experience shaped her interest in ethical fashion.<\/p>\n \u201cI was like, \u2018If I\u2019m going to work in fashion, I want to make a difference, instead of just adding more and more,\u2019\u201d Russell said. <\/p>\n Russell moved to Southern California after college and eventually became a marketing intern for a green jean brand<\/a>. It was while attending an event through her job that Russell found herself listening to influencers vent about their \u201cexploding\u201d closets.<\/p>\n A thought occurred to her: Would their online followers, many of whom follow them to dress like them, be interested in buying items from their wardrobes? <\/p>\n At Detoure, clothing prices are set at about 40% to 60% off retail, depending on condition. Beauty products receive bigger markdowns.<\/p>\n (Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a light-bulb moment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n After surveying friends about what they didn\u2019t enjoy about the thrifting experience, Russell cold-emailed 100 influencers she found on Instagram. Two replied, so she took their unwanted clothes home and built a website to sell them.<\/p>\n![\"Exterior](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768998251_278_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"clothes](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768998252_935_.jpeg\")
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