Fashion is something that comes within you quoted by Ralph Lauren. With the changing trends and interests fashion sense of people has evolved a lot more than before. Alongside the fashion and apparel industry has gained more demand than ever before. People with fast-changing fashion interests have started selling their old clothes and apparel on many online sites. This could be a good way of making some bucks from your fashion accessories.
The women entrepreneur Donielle Brooke from New Zealand has founded a business Designer Wardrobe, which is an online platform to sell and buy your clothes. In this article let us discuss more about her entrepreneurship from a small Facebook group to building a popular fashion business.
Donielle Brooke: Founder of Dressing Wardrobe
Donielle Brooke is an inspiring and strong woman entrepreneur from New Zealand who established her fashion e-commerce business in the year 2013. Her early life was around fashion as her mother was a model until her 40s and had a passion for fashion, though Donielle was not much into fashion. Later after school, she started the hairdressing professional Stephen Marr which is loved and also suggested by her mother. There she used to do hairdressing for models, designers, photographers, etc. that is the place where she learned more about fashion.
She also had thought of making a market place where people would get all fashion items and tools to make buying smarter. She started it during the times when she was suffering from thyroid cancer which was detected during her mole checkup. She was diagnosed with her thyroid but the cancer cells had even spread to the lymph which made her bedridden. The treatment was not successful and every day was a battle for her.
During that stage, she started selling her old clothes through her Facebook group named Designer Wardrobe where Kiwi girls used to buy and sell their fashionable clothes. She used the same money got from selling clothes for medication. Later the group grew from her friend’s circle to 40,000 other friends.
Later she determined to take her small idea to make a new fashion business, and then with her ex-boyfriend, she started a website. The business now has around 50,000 members and is also been launched in Australia. It started with the concept of buying, selling, and swapping dresses but later she replaced swap with a rental concept but it was not going right on the Facebook platform.
At the next level of her business, she started Designer Wardrobe rentals called ‘The Dressing Room’, which is the place where one can rent other’s clothes. This did not affect the usual old business of buying and selling. His new feature was available on the website and Auckland store. This was majorly focused on renting high-quality designer dresses, including the collection from RUBY, Zimmermann, Bec+Bridge, Sass & Bide, and many more.
How does the business work
The business working model is simple and easy and consists of three steps. List it, this is the step where a user will have to take a picture of the item that they want to sell and mention details of it along with the price. It is free when you list the item but a small amount is taken after the sale. The second stage is selling and shipping, where the buyer will shop it and once being sold pack the item and send it through courier which is also been tracked. Next, the final stage is payment as the customer receives the product you will get the amount which will be stored in DW Wallet, you can either withdraw it or use it for purchasing.
On the buyer side, you can order the product you like through the online app and buy it by making a secure banking payment method. Once the order is confirmed your owner will ship the item to you directly and the updates can be seen regularly in the application.
Donielle Brooke is been an inspiring and determined entrepreneur who has fought the deadly disease with strong willpower and made herself establish a sustainable e-commerce fashion brand. Hence it is been proved by Donielle that anything can be achieved with determination and dedication to work.