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Uniting the Sustainable Community
Interviews Phadria Prendergast, Uyi Ilenbs, Jennifer Engmann, and David Boyo.
Photographer Lewis Darling
Make up Huda Okuonghae, Emily Foley, Shemaiah Gold
Hair Emily Foley, Ozzy Cuts
In celebration of one of the most exciting and important months in every fashion lover’s calendar; September also known as Fashion Month - or so we’re calling it, WOTC is pushing the topic of sustainability and the women leading it. Wanting to amplify a conversation that every woman should be having, we brought together eight pioneering, disruptive and trailblazing women in the area of sustainability.
Sabinna Rachimova is the founder of her eponymous conscious brand, SABINNA. The Austrian-Russian designer is an advocate for inclusivity and places its customers and the environment at the centre of their business decisions. Tina Lake is the co-founder of MY WARDROBE HQ, the UK’s first fashion rental marketplace; a leading destination for renting and buying contemporary and luxury womenswear fashion. Ceanne Fernandes-Wong is the CEO and co-founder of luxury handbag subscription service, COCOON. Mother and daughter duo Dina Ibrahimova and Hanushka Toni, are the founders behind Sellier Knightsbridge, providing access to pre-loved luxury pieces and brands from around the world and reigning as the UK's most trusted reseller of authentic Hermes bags. Finally, Vanessa Jacobs, Emily Rea and Thais Cipolletta are the founding women behind leading aftercare solution for luxury fashion The Restory, providing direct services to Farfetch, Harrods, Browns, Selfridges and most recently Manolo Blahnik.
Keeping in line with the topic of sustainability, WOTC shot each woman in some of their favourite pieces from their own wardrobes that made up timeless classics they planned to keep and wear for a long time.
THE RESTORY
Vanessa Jacobs, Emily Rea and Thais Cipolletta
The Restory is the globe’s first aftercare platform for the luxury fashion sector. Founded by trio Vanessa Jacobs, Thais Cipolletta and Emily Rea, The Restory’s client list was what dreams were made of. Manolo Blahnik, Farfetch and Harrods were just some of the names which received the company’s repair, revive and restore services.
Its Genesis began with an unfortunate, albeit eye-opening experience upon Vanessa’s arrival in London. “I had my power suit and I had my power boots. I had taken the boots to the cobbler very quickly before my interview and I asked him to do a re-heel. Long story short, he destroyed them,” she recalls laughing. “He then told me he wasn't going to clean them either because it wasn't profitable for him. My jaw absolutely hit the floor.” It was an experience she hadn’t quite been able to forget, and one of many in which subsequently propelled Vanessa to take action almost a decade later.
Prior they had all lived very different lives. Emily recounted her decade-long job in artist management, which she began after taking an unusual path after school. She travelled the world and landed her first role aged 19-years-old, providing her with a foundation in building brands.
Vanessa went to university and earned an MBA in finance in New York. She went on to work as a financial analyst and management consultant, where she gained knowledge in the service sector.
The Restory’s inception saw Vanessa in partnership with a cobbler who initially completed all of the repair work. Unfortunately, as clients demanded additional services that he couldn't supply, she had to locate someone with the ability to meet their needs. “I went all over Europe, I went to every manufacturing centre. I just couldn't find anyone with the skills. Following a few trials and errors, I eventually found my way to Thais.”
Thais and Vanessa worked tirelessly from a spare bedroom in Vanessa's home for the first eight-months. Two soon became three after a mutual acquaintance introduced them to Emily.
Although their expertise varied, neither woman considered herself exempt from carrying the burden of co-founding the startup. Emily details how she did all the content, the website, the socials, the blogging, the PR and ran all in-house client services as needed. “You had to be ready to get stuck in wherever.”
The Restory is removing the barriers for all to be inspired to use aftercare, making it more of a part of their everyday life.
In a fast fashion society the pressing question was just how does a luxury aftercare service maintain its relevance? Their social media presence is nothing shy of captivating, sharing oddly satisfying videos with their unique approach to celebrating innovation, design, and the layered story each item has. Their strategy of showcasing the beauty and craftsmanship is a fish and hook strategy, leading their clients to their deeper message around sustainability. “I think we feel more relevant now than ever. Greater fast fashion really highlights how critical increasing the lifespan of products is. It just completely underpins circularity. So for us, it's about inspiring customers,” Vanessa states.
COCOON
Ceanne Fernandes-Wong
Ceanne Fernandes-Wong is the CEO and co-founder of COCOON, a monthly subscription service that offers its members access to rent from its extensive collection of luxury handbags with designers including Prada, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and Chloé. Fernandes-Wong has cemented COCOON’s position in the UK’s circular fashion space, with investors including global luxury group Kering and Depop Founder, Simon Beckerman.
She met her business partner Matt Heiman as he was conceptualising the idea of COCOON in early 2019. She later joined in August 2019, just a few months before the global pandemic. The business was a natural next step for Fernandes-Wong, having added global names like NET-A-PORTER and Vestiaire Collective to her resume.
Offering handbag rental services was a no-brainer for Fernandes-Wong. They were universal, durable and meant longevity. “Whatever size you are, there isn’t that same restriction you would have with clothing,” she comments.
Through its membership model, COCOON looks to build long-standing relationships with its customers. “Regardless of your budget, there’s an option for you and if I could convince just ten people to not go to a fast fashion retailer and buy a throwaway handbag, to me, that’s making a positive impact.”
Fernandes-Wong hopes that sustainability will no longer be seen as a niche and that the fashion industry will begin to take responsibility for what they are producing, thinking through their e-commerce and circular practices.
SABINNA
Sabinna Rachimova
Austrian-Russian designer Sabinna Rachimova is a long-time advocate for inclusivity and sustainability. Her conscious female-led, namesake brand SABINNA, established in 2015, places its customers and the environment at the centre of their business decisions. Since 2018, she is also a lecturer at the University of Arts London, teaching a masters in Fashion Entrepreneurship & Innovation.
Rachimova who covered WOTC’s December 2020 #IPledge issue, pledged to continue her entrepreneurial journey, whilst using her knowledge and experience to help women find their voice. She has since expanded SABINNA’s experiences offering, supported a number of students by sharing her knowledge with them and contributed to several industry research projects to help shape the field of sustainable fashion.
As part of Selfridges’ Project Earth; their attempt to change the way customers shop and put sustainability at the heart of its practices, customers could shop signature exclusives from the SABINNA collection as part of the RETURE pop-up during a bank-holiday weekend in August, last month.
MY WARDROBE HQ
Tina Lake
MY WARDROBE HQ is the UK's original fashion rental marketplace, celebrating circular fashion with over 120 brands across womenswear, menswear and kidswear. Customers are able to try before they rent in the iconic Harrods, Knightsbridge department store or may rent directly from the company’s easy-to-navigate e-commerce.
Tina Lake, one of its co-founders, made her start in fashion with her own store on Chilton Street, before “crossing over to enemy lines,” as she jokingly called it and working on the high-street. She has held countless positions in buying, one of which included being a buyer for the Arcadia Group. With little to zero knowledge of sustainability at the time, she recalls purchasing acrylic jumpers for the brand, not realising that almost half would end up in landfill and that there would be many issues with factories. “We were so naive. I mean this was nearly 15 years ago,” she admits. In short, the awareness around the area of sustainability was at best lacklustre, but for the most part quite non-existent. Working for the high-street for some time, she became head of buying at Monsoon and Accessorize, which was where she really gained an understanding of the world of sustainability and ethics. Peter Simons, it’s founder, was an advocate for both.
Lake also began to see how the world of e-commerce was gradually growing. Each week, alongside her colleague, she would receive the reporting from various different stores and e-commerce. We could see footfall was gradually falling and e-commerce was growing. “I remember a few people saying to me that stores would become the showroom of tomorrow and it was so hard to believe then.
Lake, upon noting how much spending power that e-commerce had in comparison to brick and mortar stores, came up with the idea for a company by the moniker of Londonboutiques.com; an online platform for all of the various boutiques and brands in London. “A Farfetch before its time,” she comments. The company grew rapidly under her leadership and she eventually sold it to Graziashop.com in 2014. It was during this time that she discovered how well her soon-to-be business partner Sacha and herself both worked together. “We always said we'd do something together in future.”
In 2017, Sasha gave Lake a call stating she had been working for Depop and in the car sharing economy, commenting that there was a gap in the market for rental and fashion. After seeking the advice of the Vivienne Westwood and Stella McCartney teams who were fans of the idea, the duo set up the company.
The pandemic saw a huge shift in the industry. “For the last two years, the industry has been completely turned on its head and to see a change in attitude, the awareness and everyone’s genuine desire to actually behave better in an ethical and sustainable manner, it's a really exciting time to be in the industry. For the first time in my career, that feeling of doing something that's great for the industry, great for my career and most importantly, the right thing to do.. When those things coincide, it’s definitely the most exciting time,” Tina admits.
Sellier Knightsbridge
Dina Ibrahimova and Hanushka Toni
Mother and daughter duo Hanushka Toni and Dina Ibrahimova are the faces behind Sellier Knightsbridge, making available pre-loved luxury pieces and brands from around the world, including Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton and Hermès of which, Sellier Knightsbridge is the UK's most trusted reseller of authentic Hermès bags.
Sellier Knightsbridge, found its beginning in 2019 when Ibrahimova bought a consignment store in Knightsbridge, which was originally founded in the 1970, however it was no longer an operating business and the pair started again from scratch. The global pandemic helped Sellier to pivot and scale, as they launched their e-commerce. “We no longer think of ourselves as a shop. It’s a platform [..] I think closing the store was pretty scary because at that moment we didn't have a website. People coming through our doors was how we made our margin, so it was scary but also, it was what we needed.”
To protect the brand’s value, Sellier Knightsbridge typically accepts just 20% of the items which are offered to them, only wanting to list pieces which are the best of the best for their customers.
“Our sellers are actually incredible because they have these amazing collections of bags and clothes; they’re the real connoisseurs of luxury, so they always buy the best of the best each season. And what's interesting is many of our sellers, when they come to us, they’re amazed by the speed at which we've got their item sold. We try to have fewer, amazing sellers rather than many sellers who will only sell one item,” Hanushka reveals.
It’s no surprise that the most sought after luxury pieces at Sellier Knightsbridge are Chanel and Hermès bags and as such, WOTC were interested to know what the duo’s first luxury handbag purchases were. Dina’s first was the Lady Dior in white. Hanushka’s was a Chanel Beige Flap Bag, with gold hardware.