Old Clothes, New Life: Inside Europe’s Vintage and Second-Hand Revolution

New EU textile rules and a continent-wide taste for resale are transforming flea markets into fashion’s most exciting runway.

In Vienna’s pewter-colored dawn, tram bells still pulse along the Gürtel. The Hernals Mistplatz, one of eighteen municipal recycling depots, erupts in an avalanche of denim and brocade.

Some of the garments dropped at these depots migrate five kilometers south to the Flohmarkt am Naschmarkt, Vienna’s Saturday-only bazaar that commandeers the asphalt behi…