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Confessions of a Swapaholic
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Image: ThredUP.com
My typical morning routine: I stand before my tightly packed closet with glazed eyes, staring at it until I am good and late to wherever I need to be. I suffer a small anxiety attack and mutter a couple of four-letter words. Finally, I just grab a pair of jeans and some kind of fitted black top and call it an outfit.
Little did I know, three guys in Cambridge were experiencing the same dilemma - a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear - and decided to do something about it. Combining entreprenurial spirit with some serious tech and business school chops, they founded ThredUP, a peer-to-peer clothing exchange service.
I recently got the chance to chat with one of the co-founders, James Reinhart, about the ThredUP concept, the pitfalls of "disposable" fashion, and his thoughts on Boston's sense of personal style.
"[Fast-fashion retailer] Zara designs their clothing to be worn about ten times," James tells me. I find this disappointing, yet unsurprising. He adds, "ThredUp is about consuming differently." But how? In a nutshell, you swap your clothing for someone else's. It's a virtual clothing swap with a dash of consignment and a hint of Netflix. ThredUP acts as the middle-man, allowing users to purchase mailing envelopes and review and rate their swaps. Each user is given "stylie points" based on the stylishness of their offerings, meaning you'll never have to experience the horror of tapered-leg mom jeans arriving in your mailbox, as long as you offer high quality clothing that's current and cool (and sure, "cool" can be subjective, but I think we can all agree that some things are universally uncool). "It's meant to be fun," James says, noting that ThredUp is a different take on "shopping your closet," because, well, you're shopping someone else's closet.
Having been interested in personal style from an early age, James admits that he's the guy his friends go to for fashion advice (and giving me even more confidence that ThredUP won't be chock full of guys trying to cast off their old Abercrombie slogan tees). I ask James what he thinks is the biggest fashion crime in our fair city, and he replies, "Too much skin. Classy and modest are so much more attractive." To the Boston college students in your teeny-tiny skirts and Uggs, please take note. I think he's talking to you.
For more info: visit www.thredup.com.
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