Introducing: Aotearoa’s Best Dressed Rats

Words by Bridget Scott (she/her)

Second hand shopping is only for the brave. Trudging through Newtown to another St Vinnies, rifling through Savemart’s musty menswear, and fighting the aggressive fashion girlies of Depop are battles only for our strongest soldiers. The risk of eroding your precious hours, dollars, and self-esteem is dangerously high. 

Unless you’re a rat. 

On a corner of a dying social media platform exists the unicorn of buy and sell groups. A  rare community that’s well moderated, trusted, and packed to the brim with steezy threads. It’s known as Wet Rat and it has over 8,000 members. 

Launched in September 2020, this Facebook group has transformed into Aotearoa’s best reselling community. Members mostly sell clothes, but posts extend to everything from art to homewares. Local businesses are prioritised. Bans on junk posts, scams, and bad vibes are strictly enforced. 

At the heart of this operation are an anonymous administrator (referred to as Head Rat) and three accompanying moderators. When talking to  the Head Rat, it became clear that Wet Rat is a product of hard work and intentionality. The group was launched when Head Rat “​​knew there was a need for a more inclusive buy and sell that doesn’t curate the posts. It gained momentum really fast and people just understood the vibe we had from the very start.” Ever since Wet Rat was created, the moderation team each spend up to four hours a week ensuring the operation runs smoothly. 

This hasn’t always been easy. Inclusivity is at the core of Wet Rat’s community, but this requires everyone to operate under the same expectations. Moderators work carefully to check members before they join, ensuring rules are understood and the vibe is set for others to follow. This is generally effective, but when needed, administrative action is taken. The sale of clothing from renowned fast fashion brands like Shein is banned, as well as the sale of culturally significant or potentially appropriative garments. Such posts are automatically deleted. 

Wet Rat is fundamentally a community and moderators act as facilitators. They love creating a safe space for young people to discuss issues and “try [their]  best to provide a space for members that may feel like they are ignored in other parts of the fashion industry.”  Community is becoming increasingly valuable as dressing well without causing harm becomes harder. The Rats are well intentioned, but balancing fast fashion’s environmental harms, the need for affordable clothing, the ethics of reselling and plus size representation, creates a headache. 

When debates are launched, moderators​​ “try to help with educational articles” and continue monitoring discussions “to ensure no members are getting targeted [by] aggressive conversations amongst the comments.”

 The most contentious of discussions in the comments  concerned whether resellers who purchase the quality clothing out of op shops for cheap and resell them for much higher online should be allowed to use and potentially profit from Wet Rat’s platform. 

The resulting discussion was  polite, productive, and exposed  perspectives that otherwise wouldn’t have been shared. One reseller lives in an “isolated community with health conditions” and breaks down the costs and risk involved in buying goods for potential profit – allowing her to contribute to her family's financial stability. Another person volunteers at an op shop and notes that people who are financially strained need quality clothing, especially for job interviews and events. Someone else suggested that op shops have plenty of stock, so the mix of quality and fast fashion will continue into the future. Threads on gentrification, wealth disparity, and the value of upcycling have all emerged. 

In an internet miracle, everyone remained civil throughout such discussions on Wet Rat. One user suggested these discussions were not worth having and believed they were an excuse for “superiority complexes” to be flexed. The Head Rat responded by pointing them towards other selling platforms without vocal client bases. 

The matter was collectively settled and resellers are now banned from the platform. 

Head Rat retains discretion over access to the group. Entry is invite only and moderators apply discretion to deny entry as they see fit.  If someone posts too often, in too great a range of sizes, red flags are raised. The moderators scan Depop and Instagram, blocking anyone they find prominently active on other platforms. 

This transparency and co-operation between platform users and owners is radical. Head Rat sees it as part of their responsiblity: “It’s extremely important that we continue to provide this space online as there often [aren’t]  safe spaces in real life.” But it also forms a key reason why users return to and prioritise Wet Rat over other reselling platforms. 

That’s true for Wet Rat user Islay May Aitchison. She says  that because “the clothes are all being bought and sold by people with similar values” the group feels like “a big wardrobe exchange with friends and friends-of-friends.” As a result, “I don't worry so much about being misled or scammed.” 

Fellow rat Bianca Nagaiya has had similar experiences. She finds the platform uniquely easy to buy off because clothes are being sold by real people rather than corporations. Seeing “pre-loved clothes on people other than models [means] you can see how the clothes fit on other body types, and in posts the true sizes […] are often shared in recommendations.” 

This doesn’t happen on platforms like Depop. Wet Rats have noted the photography, language, and modelling used on the platform is  “objectifying” and echoes “thinspo” styling, a phenomenon commonly seen  in online communities that promote disordered eating. Rat Michaela Mckendry adds that, “some of the other platforms have become oversaturated with fast fashion brands”. Others have reported Depop and Instagram brands selling op-shopped clothes for ten times more than they were originally worth. 

The secret to Wet Rat’s success is a combination of better prices and higher quality clothes that can’t be found elsewhere.

Head Rat celebrates the fact that “ so many subcultures of fashion reside within this group…we can just share our pieces to fellow members knowing they’ll get the love [they] deserve.” Others rats, like Ali Marshall “just love being able to find dope pieces and give them a new life.” The likelihood of finding clothes that are cool and fun skyrockets in a creative community. As another rat, Caitlin Byrne, writes, “everyone on here has similar values around sustainability and supporting small business and local artists… I’m way more likely to find something I like there versus anywhere else. ”

Posts on the group are wide ranging, and there are usually more than thirty a day. Whether you’re after homemade crochet vest, a new yo-pro wardrobe, platform Crocs, local art, a warm jacket, a sultry town top, or a fresh pair of Docs (of course), all it takes is a scroll to discover the Facebook group dressing half the students roaming Kelburn’s hallowed halls. 

Head Rat isn’t ambitious for the future of the group and says the moderation team “understand this could all be over before we know it.” The focus is on extending Wet Rat’s unique and innovative approach to fashion. Long term, the aspiration is to “continue to be a space where any young Kiwi can share their love for fashion and make a few quick bucks.”