Peer-to-peer dress rental startup Curtsy lets you rent out your wardrobe
Consider yourself stylish? Those with good taste and a wardrobe to match could find themselves getting richer for it with a new peer-to-peer clothing rental platform from Y Combinator’s latest batch.
Called Curtsy, the startup began when one University of Mississippi sorority sister realized she could earn a living by renting out her closet full of dresses to the rest of Greek row.
Curtsy is a bit like Rent-the-Runway, except you’re browsing for dresses from your neighbor’s wardrobe and then heading over to try them on and possibly wear one of them the same day.
The concept soon became very popular across campus, picking up 3,000 mostly female users and spawning a number of side businesses, according to the team behind the platform.
Mary Margaret Tardy, who joined when a sorority sister told her about the idea, was one of those women soon finding herself with a thriving dress rental business.
“I have this one dress that I put up at the beginning of the startup, and it has been rented almost every week since then,” Tardy told me. “I jokingly call it my ‘greatest investment’ because I have made so much more money off of renting the dress than I actually paid for the dress.”
Sara Kiparizoska, Curtsy’s original founder, has since gone on to medical school to become an OB/GYN, but left her startup in the hands of her friends, Eli Allen, William Ault and David Oates — three dudes who never imagined they’d end up in the dress business.
Dresses for your warm-weather wardrobe
The house dress
It's the modern muumuu. This dress you throw on for comfort, especially when the mercury starts to rise to uncomfortable temperatures. It should be light and airy and as comfortable as sweats and a T-shirt. Don't spend a fortune for this dress but do search out a style and color that suits you, just in case you need to run to the grocery store or head to the park with your kiddos.
The bombshell dress
This dress, no matter when you put it on, makes you feel beautiful, strong and empowered. This dress should hug the curves you love and hide the lumps and bumps you don't. It needs to look good not only when you approach but also when you exit, so be sure to check your 360. If you're lucky enough to find this dress on discount, kudos. Otherwise, don't hesitate to spend a little more. The cost will pay off when you can skip the drama of what you're going to wear because your bombshell dress is waiting for you.
The day dress
This is the dress you wear when you're out and about, window-shopping the boutiques, hitting an outdoor concert or having lunch on a rooftop. This dress must be comfortable and functional. You need to be able to sit and move about, but look and feel stylish. It should not be fussy but should still have details that celebrate your personal style.
The sporty dress
I am not a fan of shorts but I am active, especially when the sun is out. Instead of shorts, you'll find me in sporty dresses. You can find stylish options at any athletic apparel boutique. The styles I prefer usually have shorts built in, hidden under the skirt so I can bike with my kids, play tennis with my husband or go for a run without worrying that anything I don't want to be exposed will be.
Christian Louboutin is trying to design it away
For years iconic French luxury footwear designer Christian Louboutin has been trying to flip this script, recognizing that selling nude shoes only in beige or a light tan excludes many of his customers.
In 2013 he released a collection of five shades of nude shoes. In 2015, he expanded the collection to seven shades. And this week, he has expanded his Nudes collection from stilettos and pumps to include comfortable flats:
The "Solasofia" flats are an elegant Parisian-silhouette pointed-toe leather shoe made "to feel like skin." They sell for $595, because inclusivity can only go so far when it comes to Louboutin shoes.
More diverse options for a more diverse fashion industry?
Louboutin's expanded "Nude" collection signals the small changes in a fashion industry that has always been predominantly influenced by white designers and models.
But it's been an uphill battle. And for a market that has been trying for years to address its diversity problem, the mono-color understanding of nude is another clear example of how deeply ingrained white standards are in fashion.
Every fashion week seems to bring with it another diversity blunder, whether it's Valentino's Africa-themed 2016 line that featured mostly white models or Balenciaga featuring only white models at its March show.
Gabriella Campagna and Mario Milana’s Tropical Wedding in Colombia
When Gabriella Campagna got engaged to Mario Milana, she knew immediately where she wanted to have her wedding. “We wanted to get married at my grandparents’ country house in Cali, Colombia,” she shares. “It’s called La Mañanita, which means ‘The Little Morning.’ It was a very special and magical place for us to visit growing up, and I always imagined doing it there.” The logistics proved to be a little tricky, though. After all, the bride is an actress born and raised in New York, while the groom is an Italian furniture designer originally from Milan. “We knew it wouldn’t be easy to get everyone down there,” laments Gabriella. “But thankfully, in the end, those who made it loved discovering Cali.”
The couple, who met through a friend in New York, dated for four years before getting engaged in Milan. “He designed the engagement ring in collaboration with Milanese jeweler Villa,” she shares. “The stone was his mother’s.” Even though they both wanted a small, intimate wedding, Gabriella’s large Colombian extended family meant a big wedding was in order. “We had 250 guests and more than half of them were from my mother’s side of my family,” she says with a laugh. “But I wouldn’t have had it any other way.” Planning from afar was a group family effort between the bride; her mother; and their wedding planner, Diane Eder, a close relative based in Cali.
In late January, guests from all over the world traveled to the small city in Colombia for the big occasion, and the family hosted several events throughout the weekend. Thursday night, there was a welcome party with a live Cuban band, followed by salsa dancing. On Friday, guests were transported an hour into the mountains for an afternoon lunch that turned into another party lasting well into the night. And then Saturday afternoon the bride and groom tied the knot at her beloved Mañanita. “It was honestly the happiest day of my life,” she says. “I was overwhelmed by the love of friends and family that surrounded us.”
The first daughter of fashion!
Tiffany Trump looks to be following the fashionable footsteps of both her step-sister Ivanka and her step-mother Melania, after making her runway debut at New York Fashion Week.
On a long weekend away from the University of Pennsylvania, where she is currently a senior, the 22-year-old visited the city that never sleeps to strut her stuff on the catwalk, modeling a friend's fashion designs alongside her fellow socialite Kyra Kennedy.
The leggy blonde blended right in with the other models at the Just Drew show, looking totally calm and confident on the catwalk at the Valentine's Day event.
Tiffany made just one appearance on the runway, wearing her blonde hair pulled back to show off a shiny blue tuxedo dress, under which she wore black tights and chunky black booties.
Her natural abilities on the catwalk will come as no surprise to anyone who knows her family history well; both Tiffany's step-sister Ivanka, and her step-mother Melania, have modeled in the past, with Ivanka strutting her stuff in a number of catwalk shows when she was between the ages of 17 and 18.
Ivanka walked in shows during Sydney and New York Fashion Weeks in 1999, strutting her stuff for the likes of Maurice Malone and Wayne Cooper.
Unsurprisingly, Tiffany couldn't wait to share the excitement of walking her first show, and she proudly posted a video of her big moment on Instagram, while her mom, 52-year-old Marla Maples, shared a selfie with Lance Bass as the pair sat in the front row.
While Tiffany's mom was there to show her support, though, the rest of the family was out of town: Big sister Ivanka was in New Jersey enjoying cookies and go-karts with her husband Jared Kushner and their kids, Arabella and Joseph, and her dad Donald was out on the campaign trail in South Carolina.
From fashion PR to fashion pro
WHEN she was 20, Scots fashion graduate Emma Greenhill put on her brightest red lipstick and set off to hawk her wares round the fashion houses of Paris.
She had no idea that one day she would be designing scarves for celebrities including Tilda Swinton, Alexa Chung, Erin O’Connor, Fran Cutler, Laura Bailey and Jade Parfitt.
Emma, now 47, made her name in as a PR specialist and creative director for top brands including Chalayan, Gibo, Hockley, John Galliano, Luella, Julien Macdonald and Karl Lagerfeld.
But with the encouragement of her designer friends Julie Verhoeven and Hussein Chalayan, who she met while working for John Galliano, Emma has gone back to her roots and has just created her own accessories collection.
She said: “I was interested in fashion from really early on, since I was about seven. I was always dressing up and drawing and just loved it.
She added: “I loved the art room at school and I wasn’t the brightest spark, so I was encouraged to go and do an arts degree. I graduated from uni in 1992 after studying fashion and textiles at Brighton University.”
After being left £500 by her uncle, Emma told her mum and dad she was going to Paris to work for a design house. This was before the days of the internet and mobile phones and Emma’s family thought she was crazy.
She explained: “It was bonkers because I had no connections there. I took the plane from Glasgow to Paris and stayed in a dodgy hotel before finding somewhere to live that was cheap and cheerful.
Maria Aristidou Talks Fashion
I had the opportunity to sit down with Maria Aristidou, the Greek fashion designer. Her answers to my questions about her 'inspiration' were most interesting. Essentially, her inspiration is drawn from living life and especially from new experiences. She translates these experiences into mental images, a kind of 'learning process.' This learning process forms the basis of her inspiration. She then translates this inspiration into palpable designs.
How did you get into fashion design?
When I was 16-17 years old, I had an uncle that owned a clothing production plant. He happened to see my sketches one day and he mentioned that I should pursue fashion design. It was the first confirmation from someone that I might have talent and that I should endeavor to develop it. Unfortunately, since in high-school I was an economics major, I did not have the prerequisites to enter a fashion design school, thus, I followed studies in Business Commerce. However, that did not stop me. Throughout my University years I kept sketching non-stop, making small costumes for a dancer friend in Toronto.
Did you want to become a fashion designer when you were young?
I was playing with Barbies till I was 12-13 years old, choosing and making outfits for them. Back then we did not have access to technology like children have nowadays. Things were more simple back then. But I have to say that one person that influenced me just because he had his personal tailor, shoe designer and always dressed to the T, was my grandfather as well as my grandmother's sister who was a seamstress. For a short period of time I wanted to be a journalist. That faded out, and I just started sketching women's clothes. So I guess fashion designing one way or another was trying to get out.
