In little over a month’s time MFN will be hosting an evening with my-wardrobe.com founder and CEO, Sarah Curran, in Manchester after the recent success of our London event.

The online designer retailer is just over four years old, and in that time has established itself as one of the go-to web stores for fabulous designer finds. Sarah has been listed as number 3 in the Online Fashion 100 and made the list of Management Today’s 35 women under 35. Such startling success in the fashion industry makes Sarah the perfect candidate to be quizzed by MFN, and you can also put your questions to her if you attend the evening on August 19th.

Anyone with even a passing interest in fashion can’t fail to have noticed the rise of the e-tailer. Online fashion boutiques and internet department stores have been popping up all over the virtual high street since about 1994 when online shopping started to take off. Sidestepping that pesky millennium bug, the noughties signalled a new era in quick and easy fashion, a shopping hit so instant you didn’t even have to leave your own home. Recognising this emerging trend, Sarah Curran decided to take her boutique fashion business, ‘Powder’, from a shop in London’s Crouch End to a much more global market place. ‘Powder’ was the realisation of Sarah’s dream to open her own business. The shop opened in 2003 and stocked labels like Cacherel and Marc by Marc Jacobs. Upon deciding to elevate the business to an online platform, Sarah spotted the gap in the market for accessible designer fashion. The inception of both ASOS and net-a-porter.com in 2000, meant the inexpensive, fast fashion and the high-end luxury markets were both covered, leaving room in the middle for a website that sold designer wares at attainable prices, and so, in April 2006, mywardrobe.com was born.
 

Maximising the opportunity to offer more than just racks of clothes and strip lighting, the website is designed to provide an experience that, according to Sarah, is ‘like shopping with a friend… we’re all about having fun and not taking fashion too seriously.’ MY-TV and MY-BLOG give fun, frivolous insights into how to wear the season’s new trends or suggest helpful hints on topics like summer fashion faux pas and how to avoid them, such as ‘Don’t sport denim shorts which hover dangerously close to the curve of your buttocks!’ Sarah sees this friend-to-friend approach as the website’s unique selling point, something all budding e-commerce entrepreneurs need to consider in a jam packed market, and a concept that earned my-wardrobe.com a Drapers Etail award for Best Customer Experience.

It’s not a stretch to admit that sometimes the word ‘designer’ has me clutching my credit card in fear, unwilling to torture myself with the unaffordable price tag. I’m not going to suggest my-wardrobe barrels out designer goodies for a fraction of the price, but they do offer a much more affordable alternative to the uber-luxury big boys. With a number of designer diffusion lines, like McQ by Alexander McQueen and D&G by Dolce & Gabbana, the prices aren’t eye-watering. In fact, the opportunity to own a timeless piece that will last for seasons to come and that will still leave you enough money to go out and show it off, is, actually, rather mouth-watering. The clothing and accessories on offer are investments, solid wardrobe staples that you can mix up and dress down, and that will last longer than their disposable high street counterparts. And if, like at the moment, there’s a sale on, you really can find some seriously stylish bargains. The asymmetric See by Chloe dress I have my eye on is a wondrous £145, compared to the original £208, and if I happen to pop the Vivienne Westwood heart design slingbacks in my basket while I’m there, well who can blame me?
 

Creating a successful business in any market can be tough, but bustling in on the tricky fash pack and staying strong while the recession rumbles on, make my-wardrobe.com’s success even more of an achievement for Sarah Curran. This is precisely why we’ll be picking her brains on 19th August, and why you should be as well. Tickets can be purchased from this very website and are £15; come armed with any and all questions, except, of course, ‘Can I get any extra discount?’ because that’s mine!  

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit our website.

Words by Emma Grainger. Images courtesy of My Wardrobe.

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