How did the idea for GreenGlamour come about?
Like most women, I love fashion and looking good makes me feel good. Fashion is part of my identity: it’s how I show up and present myself to the world. I’ll admit I was a consumer of fast fashion and everyday wear as well as high-end designer dresses – my wardrobe was always kept full and to the brim! In fact, up until a couple of years ago, I hadn’t given renting a second thought. If I am going to be totally honest, I was the opposite of what sustainability stood for.
Then one day, my daughter asked me to help her in her ‘GreenGirl’ presentation and in researching climate change and the stark reality of the future, it hit me: I needed to do better. As a mother-of-three, I felt guilty about the way I was contributing to my own ever-growing carbon footprint and I thought a lot about what I could do to change my own behaviour. The mission of sustainability stuck but the challenge for me was how to make the shift while not compromising my own fashion tastes.
I wondered how I could still indulge in the fashion I loved but still be green. And then that’s when the idea came – why not rent high-end pieces instead of buy? I thought I’d give it a try when the time came for my sister in law’s wedding and searched London stores high and wide at what was on offer. I was so disappointed. I couldn’t find anything that stood out. No-one was offering affordable and rental access to a curated selection of high-end fashion…and so then my business GreenGlamour was born!
Ok, so mission born. But why GreenGlamour?
I always wanted to celebrate fashion and the sense of confidence it gives people – and I knew I wanted to offer women and men a beautiful wardrobe to choose from for those special occasions. We all grew up borrowing dresses from sisters or friends but I knew that the concept of rental fashion, whilst growing, still had strides to take. At its core this business is about fashion but it’s also about educating people about the environmental cost of fashion and revolutionising the way we all consume it.
We’ve all got stunning dresses we bought and wore just once or twice; those pieces are hanging in our wardrobes, they’ve had their moment – with us. But what if we could expand our thinking? What if we could give these dresses a new lease of life? What if there was a curated collection of designer dresses we could access whenever we needed to – for a wedding, a gala event or a last-minute special night out?
With GreenGlamour, I wanted to build a community of ‘green fashionistas’ who could dazzle without literally costing the earth. Goals set, the hard work came. I spent months juggling family life with my first foray as an entrepreneur. Curating the collection meant hundreds of hours scouring websites and clothes rails for designer dresses but sustainability was a key driver, so I also took a deep dive into the costs of fashion and the potential partners who would help support my vision to cut the carbon footprint of fashion down. I realised how much easier (and profitable!) it was to sell the garments I procured. But I came to respect that attaining our ESG mark in our first year of business came for a reason: carbon footprint savings come with renting and not buying.
What’s your vision for GreenGlamour?
In a world of excess, my vision is to disrupt fashion consumption in a big way and help support a circular fashion economy. I want to make renting the new norm and champion positive change.
We want women to feel confident and adventurous. GreenGlamour offers a meticulously curated collection (our team rejects roughly nine in ten dresses they look at) that allows each renter to create a new story that will have a lasting memory. I often liken our business to an art gallery where we scour the world curating great pieces through local designers and rare-to-find garments, providing our customers the opportunity to feel unique and special without the added hassle of cost and storage. We’ve also worked hard to make sure that we take the planet into consideration in the way we operate – making every stage of the rental experience as sustainable and as eco-friendly as we possibly can.
As we expand to partnerships with fashion houses and the up-and-coming talented designers, we’d love to expand our collection to include accessories and menswear eventually. But, for now, it’s important to us to be part of the conversation and the larger collective who are working not only to inspire but impact a greener future for everyone including my own daughter.
