Modern Fashion: Anya Cheng and Phoebe Tan of Taelor On The Five Things You Need To Lead a Successful Fashion Brand Today
An Interview With Candice Georgiadice
When thinking about building a company, people tend to think of building solutions, but the most important thing is actually making sure you are solving the right problem — Are you building a pain-killer or a vitamin? Is the pain point you are solving big enough? Finding the right problem to solve is an iterative journey.
Many in the fashion industry have been making huge pivots in their business models. Many have turned away from the fast fashion trend. Many have been focusing on fashion that also makes a social impact. Many have turned to sustainable and ethical sourcing. Many have turned to hi-tech manufacturing. Many have turned to subscription models. What are the other trends that we will see in the fashion industry? What does it take to lead a successful fashion brand today?
In our series called, “5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful Fashion Brand Today” we are talking to successful leaders of fashion brands who can talk about the Future of Fashion and the five things it takes to lead a successful fashion brand in our “new normal.”
As a part of this series I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Anya Cheng and Phoebe Tan, Co-Founders of Taelor, a men’s clothing subscription box for busy men to look good without having to buy clothes.
Anya Cheng is a Taiwanese American technology executive and entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. Before launching her artificial intelligence (AI) startup, Taelor, she helped build Facebook Shop, a social commerce initiative where people can explore and purchase products directly on Meta (formerly Facebook) and Instagram. Before that, she led the go-to-market for Facebook’s Wi-Fi Tech and Innovation team where she improved digital literacy by bringing the Internet to countries without fast connections. As Head of Products, she transformed eBay Classifieds’ emerging business and built Target’s mobile tablet eCommerce app. As McDonald’s Senior Director of eCommerce, she launched their global food delivery apps from scratch.
Cheng is currently Founder & CEO of Taelor, an AI-powered menswear rental subscription platform for busy men to rent styles and for brands/retailers to test products and predict trends. Taelor is an award-winning sustainability startup that has won various competitions hosted by accelerators including Draper University, University of Chicago Polsky Center and SPARK Accel.
Cheng is also an adjunct lecturer at Northwestern University and 500 Global (formerly 500 Startups) where she teaches software product management and marketing. She is the author of a best-selling career book, a TEDx Talk speaker, and a social media influencer.
Cheng was named a Girls in Tech 40 Under 40 recipient in 2018 and nominated as Marketer of the Year by Min Magazine U.S. in 2013. Her work has won 20+ awards, including the Webby Award Best for Shopping App, The Communicator Award and the Rising Star Award of Social Network Category by Mobile Village. She is a volunteer career coach who has inspired thousands of young professionals and currently serves on the volunteer boards for the North America Taiwanese Engineering and Science Association, Taiwan Tech Arena (a non-profit supporting minority founders) and STUF United Fund (a non-profit supporting charitable causes.)
Cheng received her MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a Master of Science degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University. Visit her LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anyacheng/
Phoebe Tan comes from a humble family in Malaysia. Phoebe Tan has achieved all of her American dreams. She has held several leadership positions, including becoming a finance and operations executive in Silicon Valley. Before she launched her artificial intelligence (AI) circular fashion startup, Taelor, she held the VP/Director position in finance, procurement, and operations strategy for one of the largest airline food companies in the world, with more than 80 of the world’s leading airlines as clients. Her clients also included Amazon Go and Starbucks.
Known for her persistence and ability to solve problems, she has led many ambiguous and complex operations optimization and improvement initiatives. As the VP of procurement, she transformed the company’s supply chain technology and operations and also established sustainable sourcing standards.
Phoebe is currently the Founder of Taelor, an AI-powered two-sided circular fashion platform for busy men to rent styles and for brands/retailers to test products. Taelor is an award-winning sustainability startup that has won various competitions organized by accelerators, including Draper University, University of Chicago Polsky Center, and SPARK Accel. Phoebe lives a minimalist life and is passionate about mindful living and saving the environment. She believes the future of fashion is circular, which will benefit consumers, businesses, society, and the environment. Taelor’s mission is to play a part in saving the environment by extending the life of garments and supporting sustainable fashion, as well as simplifying lives by owning less clothing and sharing more styles.
Phoebe is a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) and received her MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood “backstory”?
Anya: Let me set the scene. It was fall, as I remember walking under an array of maple trees at my high school. It was what was known as our “Student Club Exhibition Day,” where students set up booths to attract first year students to their respective clubs. Members of the dance club were showcasing their street dance, but unfortunately for me, I have two left feet, so I visited the reading club booth instead. The members seemed to be all introverts — still not a great fit for me. Neither the science nor the mathematics clubs were in my wheelhouse, as made evident by my mom’s reaction to my earned ‘D’ in math. I was craving something that felt media-centric, yet there was no such thing as a marketing or communications club at the time. I thought to myself, can I create a club? Unfortunately, the director of the office of student affairs rejected the idea immediately.
Keep in mind, growing up in Taiwan is vastly different from the U.S.. Instead of creating something new, people tend to follow an existing setup there. A small thing like creating a club may be common in the U.S., but it sounded crazy in Taiwan 20 years ago.
Unsure if I was simply going through a teenager’s rebellious stage or just being who I am, I read a few hundred pages of the school handbook and found that students could create a club by having 10 percent of the student body sign the petition. So that’s exactly what I set out to do. “Hi, I’m Anya. Please sign this petition.” My voice wavered with nerves while I presented hand-drawn posters in other students’ classrooms. Success. A few weeks later, the Marketing and Communications Club was born.
Phoebe: Growing up I would cut my young brother and sister’s hair and shop for my friends. I would always get compliments about my sense of fashion and beauty and was known as the ‘stylish’ one in class. With my natural talents, I grew up dreaming of being a fashion designer. However, raised in a traditional Asian family, I had to follow a different path — one in finance, thinking I could at least get rich and pursue my dreams then. As I grew older, a bigger passion of mine became wanting to play a part in saving the environment. At a young age, I always had many business ideas. I started making and selling friendship bracelets and necklaces, even snacks, to my classmates at age eight. I never would have imagined I’d start a fashion-tech company that revolutionizes the industry and be able to realize my bigger calling — saving the environment.
However, it did take me a long time to finally start my own company. Before working on Taelor, I worked my way up and became the VP of a leading food company in Chicago that supports operations for Amazon Go, Singapore Airlines, and Starbucks. Through the years of leading complicated airline food operations and finance, I became an expert in offline operations and optimizing margins. I realized these experiences absolutely prepared me to start Taelor.
Being a minimalist, I value everything I have and don’t want to own much stuff. I’m an optimizer by nature and hate wasting resources. As an optimizer, I value my time a lot. I don’t really like to shop anymore, but I’m picky when it comes to fashion and I always want to look great. I have been using Rent The Runway on and off for the last 6 years. Rent the Runway is the pioneer of the clothing rental model in the United States. The idea is you can rent and wear unlimited styles without having to buy anything. It’s a brilliant idea, and fits my lifestyle. So we started looking into the rental and secondhand space. The environmental impact of the clothing rental circular fashion and secondhand models is eye opening. Being an eco-friendly advocate, I want to change the way people think about fashion and also help fashion brands and retailers better predict trends and reduce apparel waste. That is why I started Taelor.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Anya: Back in 2007, I came to the U.S. for the first time to get my master’s degree in marketing at Northwestern University in Chicago. In December of 2008, I graduated in the midst of the Great Recession. There were no jobs anywhere.
Before going to Northwestern, I had been a newspaper reporter in Taiwan. I didn’t have much marketing experience and my English was terrible, so, naturally, I didn’t get any interviews through my school’s on-campus recruiting.
To improve my English, I visited three places a week where volunteers helped me with my writing. To save money and time, I brought two bento boxes with me each day to school. As I walked through snowy Chicago to get to my appointments, the spoon would click against the empty bento box in my backpack, and somehow, the sound made me feel less lonely.
Desperate, I started to do anything I could think of to get hired. I would wait outside the door of another school’s campus recruiting event and give hiring managers my resume as they walked to their cars. I cold-called alumni. I reached out to all of the teachers in my school’s department, teachers in other departments, and talked to everyone they referred me to.
Still no interviews. People told me that networking was the best way to find a job. But my English was so bad, I wasn’t able to really chat with people. To practice English for my networking chats, I volunteered at a senior care center near my school. I did puzzles and chatted with Connie, a 93-year-old woman who had moved to the U.S. from Japan 50 years earlier. I was a poor student at this point so I was always thrilled when she invited me to stay for dinner at the senior care center. And whenever I practiced my interviews with her, no matter how bad my English was, she would always smile at me.
One day, a professor invited me to attend a panel he was hosting. One of the speakers was Peggy, the CEO of Vance Publishing, a small publishing company that produced trade magazines for salon owners and farmers. She said her company wasn’t hiring, but she agreed to introduce me to someone on her team for a networking chat.
I met with the vice president of digital marketing at Vance. I thought I was the perfect candidate for the company. It was a media company with a digital marketing initiative — perfect for my background. When I walked out of the hallway, I thought, “This is it! I am going to work here!”
A few weeks passed, and no one called me. I called the HR representative, and she informed me that she was just let go.
So this led me to my next step. “Bigger cities have more jobs. Maybe I should go to cities that are bigger than Chicago,” I thought. In January of 2009, I went to New York for a month to try to contact larger media companies. I printed out a list of all of the alumni from my school’s department — about 2,000 names — and reached out to anyone who lived in New York.
I met with as many people as I could possibly find. I wore an old-school black suit with high heels in freezing New York, an approach that, looking back, definitely revealed how inexperienced I was at the time.
One day after getting another rejection, I walked into a Chinese restaurant and saw pork over rice, a cheap, basic dish in my hometown in Taiwan. It was much more expensive in New York, but I decided to order it anyway.
As soon as the waitress served the pork over rice, I began to cry. I had been a reporter covering city hall in Taiwan where people respected me. “I was powerful! Why am I here, where I had to think twice before ordering a simple meal, and begging for a job?”
But I didn’t stop. I bought newspapers from the newsstands on the street in New York City. I called the ‘Advertising? Call this number’ phone number and asked for a meeting with their CEOs.
I ended up meeting with a lot of executives — the CEO of the New York Times, vice presidents at CNN, NBC, and more. I met with hundreds of people but they all told me, “Sorry, we are laying people off. Actually, if you hear of someone hiring, please let me know because I’m worried about my job.”
After New York, I spent a month looking for jobs in Los Angeles, still with no luck. I went back to Chicago in March. This time, instead of looking for a job, I decided to make my own.
I thought of Vance Publishing, the small magazine publishing company that I had visited a few months earlier. I put together a business plan for Vance using everything I had learned from the hundreds of informational interviews I had in New York and Los Angeles.
I called Peggy, the CEO of Vance, and pitched her my business plan. After my presentation, she asked if I would be willing to be a contractor. My English was so bad that I didn’t know what contractor meant at the time. I Googled “contractor” and didn’t understand why she wanted me to be a plumber. But I said yes.
I worked my way up at Sears, Target, McDonald’s, eBay, and Facebook. You may think that I became confident after I got my first job. The answer is no. There were many days where I woke up and felt just like I did the day when I walked into the office of the CEO of the farmers’ magazine — scared that I didn’t know what I was doing and that I wasn’t ready for the day’s challenge.
Over the past ten years, I have mentored hundreds of people who are all looking to achieve their own personal goals. Along the way, I’ve realized that I am not the only one who has struggled with feeling confident. Through my mentoring, I’ve learned that feeling confident is essential in being successful. And usually, all people need to feel confident is a little help.
That’s where the idea of Taelor came from — a men’s clothing subscription box created to help people look good and achieve goals.
Can you tell us the story about what led you to this particular career path?
Anya: The principle of “contributing what I know and learning what I don’t know” led me to my career path. I started my career as a reporter in Taiwan. I love to talk to and learn from various types of people. I came to the U.S. to get my master’s degree at Northwestern University. I chose to major in Integrated Marketing Communications because I already knew about “Communication” and wanted to learn more about “Marketing”. After that, I leveraged my marketing degree and reporter background and got a marketing job at a magazine company in the U.S..
Then Sears approached me and wanted me to apply my magazine company’s “media-selling” experience to lead “media-buying.” I leveraged what I knew, which was media, to learn about retailers. At Sears, I led advertising projects. Quickly I found that the most effective advertising is data-driven and personalized advertising. I then drew from what I knew about advertising to learn about big data. I found that personalized ads were effective but customers still didn’t buy because when they landed on our website, they saw the same thing instead of a personalized homepage. Building on my personalized ad experience, I started to learn how to be a Product Manager and build personalized websites. I realized that I needed more knowledge in leadership, finance, accounting, and operations, so I got my second master’s degree — an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Leveraging Sears’ product management experience, I joined Target and became leader of product managers and started learning how to lead a large team. I then joined McDonald’s and brought the experience of building apps for Target in the U.S. to learn how to build McDonald’s global food delivery app globally. eBay approached me after and wanted me to mobilize my global experience to help them launch websites and apps in emerging markets such as Latin America, Africa and Asia. I again built on my “leading global tech” experience in retail with a tech company. As someone who doesn’t come from a technical background, I felt pressure from leading tech teams in a leading tech company. I decided to register for some coding courses at U.C. Berkeley. After that, I utilized my experience of leading tech teams in a tech company and my past marketing experience and joined Facebook to lead its tech and marketing teams. Later on, I helped Facebook launch its shopping platform by drawing on my past retailer background.
Today, I use my retailer experience, marketing knowledge, product management expertise, AI learning in tech companies, connections from big companies and my MBA as I launch my startup Taelor, a menswear rental subscription service. I never thought of becoming a founder but inadvertently realized I had been preparing my entire life for this job.
Use the stone in a river as an analogy: most people, including myself, want to be a stone. I want to be thrown up high and far and reach my goal in one shot. However, I think most of the time, overcoming a challenge is more like rolling a stone. It rolls slowly, one side at a time, and most of the time, you are leveraging what you are good at and learning something new in order to roll ahead. When you look back, you will realize that you have achieved a lot.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Anya: Three of my strongest character traits are my abilities to think logically, plan strategically and problem-solve.
One thing I learned from working for Meta is “logical thinking.” At Meta, almost all employees are ivy league school graduates who are smart overachievers. They have their strong points of view, and it is almost impossible to convince others without logic. Most of the time, they don’t trust your “idea” but you can convince them to understand and support your “logic.” I call it “logical thinking.”
When talking about “ability to think”, most people feel that’s very abstract. In fact, it’s not hard.
Let me give you an example. You are an owner of a small fruit stand. You asked your worker to make more money by putting heavy fruits such as watermelon outside of the store and put light-weight fruits, such as strawberries, inside of the store. Now, you gave your worker a few pieces of information: Our objective is to increase sales; Our strategy is to reduce the theft rate; Our principle is to put heavy fruits outside of the store and put light-weight fruit inside the store; Our tactic is to put watermelon outside of the store and put strawberry inside of the store. Now, imagine your worker disagreed with you. She said, “I think we should put watermelon inside of the store and next to the freezer where we sell watermelon juice because the margin of juice is higher.” The worker agreed with your objective, but she didn’t agree with your strategy. Instead, she came up with another strategy — increase margin. The principle she proposed was, “put juice-related fruit next to the juice section,” and the tactic she proposed was to put watermelon next to the freezer. We all have experienced having conflicted points of views with others. I think this logical-thinking ability helps me analyze which part of the situation we are discussing and get to a resolution quicker and easier.
The second character trait that’s been instrumental to my success is strategic planning. We all have too many things that we want to do and having a strategy helps to prioritize. For example, when I joined Target in 2013, my responsibility was to hit one million dollars of revenue per day from users shopping on Target via their tablets. Moreover, this marketing objective needed to be accomplished within 10 months, right before the next holiday season began.
At the time, I found out there was an iPad app that was outdated. There were a few decisions I had to make: Should I spend time reducing the crash rate, updating existing functions, or adding new functions? If so, what kind of functions should I design? I decided to begin with business strategy. Target’s brand position is “Expect More, Pay Less.” In this business context, I started to search for the right product strategy.
A well-rounded product strategy lands in the perfect spot between three basic criteria — what your consumers want, what your competitors don’t/can’t do, and what your company is good at. I conducted three analyses to find the right strategy — consumer analysis, competitor analysis, and company analysis — and they all start with the principle of listening to your customers.
After tons of analysis, I found that Target’s differentiator was “Inspiration,” and our key customer segment were young moms. The intersection was clear. Young moms love looking for inspiration online and on social media, an area where our competitors were neither interesting nor strong.
The strategy came naturally — bringing the in-store inspiring experiences to the lean-back moments on the living room couch through the app. I focused on three key elements: 1) “browsing” to deliver inspiration through the app; 2) easy-to-shop “account, cart, and check-out” functions to achieve eCommerce sales; and 3) updating all basic flows and fixing crash issues to ensure a seamless online shopping experience. My team launched “shoppable Instagram”, which made us one of the first big companies to connect social media to eCommerce. Our product was launched right before the holiday season. The revenue tripled and users wrote four star reviews. Meanwhile, we received satisfying media coverage as well. As a result, we won 11 awards and were featured on the Apple store and Facebook’s annual conference, “F8.” Making hard decisions via strategic planning– prioritizing things that only make 100 percent sense for your persona and company strength — was instrumental to my success.
The third character trait that was instrumental to my success is the ability to problem-solve. Many people do well with solving problems, but I think what was instrumental to my success is 1) identifying the right problem to solve and 2) solving problems starting with validating hypotheses.
As a Mentor at 500 Global, a top accelerator in the world, as well as an MBA faculty member at Northwestern University, I see many entrepreneurs focus their energy on “finding a solution.” However, I noticed success starts by “solving the right problem.”
For example, Google, “organizes the world’s information,” Facebook, “brings the world closer together,” YouTube, “allows everyone to share videos and find audiences,” Amazon, “helps people get good products with reasonable prices fast,” and Coursera, “provides access to world-class learning by partnering with world-class universities and companies.” They all solve a clear and big problem.
But if you solve the wrong problem, then the solution won’t be useful for the customers no matter how awesome it is. For example, when I was working for Target, one of my coworkers heard the insight, “People realized that they forgot to buy something on their way out of a store,” so Target decided to build a feature for “in-store GPS.” The feature allows Target customers, who are mostly moms, to create a wishlist before going to the store, and when moms are in the store, their Target app becomes a GPS to guide them to “turn right, turn left.” The Target team spent six months building the feature. When they finally launched, the usage rate was very low. Why? Because moms are mostly going to the store as a “get-away” from their busy day and kids — they want to wander and enjoy being “lost”, and they don’t want an app to navigate for them. Yes, they do forget one thing when they shop, but that wasn’t a big enough pain-point for them to solve. In addition, they certainly don’t want to give up the “value proposition,” which is the “inspiration of finding interesting products” to solve the pain point of “forgetting one item I want to buy.” In fact, forgetting one thing gives them the excuse to go back to the store again the next day!
All entrepreneurs spend a lot of time building a product, but I notice successful entrepreneurs build “minimum viable product (MVP)” to validate key hypotheses before building a real product. For example, when Zappos started their business, their key hypothesis was, “people buy shoes online.” Therefore, instead of buying shoes beforehand, they set up a website and purchased shoes from other stores after people placed orders. They validated the hypothesis, “people buy shoes online,” because if people won’t buy shoes online, then there was no point in launching the business in the first place!
A similar story is when Rent The Runway started their business, their key hypothesis was, “people rent party dresses.” Therefore, instead of buying dresses, building apps, or renting warehouses, they sent an email to a group of students going to a party with dress photos from a department store’s website. By having students respond to the email, they validated the “people rent party dresses” hypothesis.
There are five common ways to build MVP. First, the landing page. For example, when we started our menswear rental subscription service, Taelor, we built a landing page on Shopify with the, “join the waitlist” feature, and we signed up 400 people in a weekend. This gave us the confidence that busy men want a service to help them look good without having to buy clothes. The second way to build MVP is to use product demo videos, which are commonly used by more complicated technology such as Dropbox. Third is the Concierge Test, which is to deliver a service manually to the customer, but with the same steps and value as the full product. For example, when Groupon started, they manually found coupons for customers. Fourth is the Wizard of Oz Test, which is building something that looks real on the front, but manual on the back. For example, when Taelor first started, we didn’t have enough data for our artificial intelligence, so we used human stylists. Amazon Echo also had real humans behind the machine to answer questions. The last very important step is to use crowdfunding to validate people’s willingness to pay.
Phoebe: Work ethic and integrity –
- I take my responsibilities very seriously and make sure to bring the best results in every task I’m responsible for.
- Obsessed about customers — I read and personally respond to almost all customer emails and texts. Lead by example. Set as an example a customer-obsessed culture. Team members are inspired.
- Self-aware and motivated –
- Know your passion and create meaning in what you do. Starting a new business is exciting and can be rewarding but challenging at the same time. To me, it’s at least a decade long commitment full of perseverance. I know I can’t just resign when things get tough. Finding what speaks to my heart everyday is what keeps me motivated. At Taelor, it’s about our mission of disrupting the fashion industry with our circular fashion model and algorithms. It’s about changing how people think about fashion, inspiring them to embrace sustainable practices such as rental and resale clothing and partner with sustainable brands. Together, we can reduce the environmental impact of the fashion industry and create a better world for all. While the mission is my driving force, I also find meaning in the progress we make and the new things I learn daily. And we celebrate even the small wins! Ask yourself, WHY you started the journey–what impact do you want to see in yourself and others? What are you trying to change?
- Resourceful and think outside the box –
- Hiring is tough for all companies but in particular for startups. When we first started, I ran the operations in my townhouse and it was difficult to hire people to work at my home. I did most of the packing, laundry and order processing myself early on because we were not ready for a warehouse. I needed to offload my work and find someone to handle fulfillments, merchandising and order processing. And I needed someone I felt comfortable with working in my home. It was very difficult to find the right person who was flexible and able to perform all functions quickly. (I can’t really outsource these tasks online;). I posted a flexible part-time position for an operations helper and went through a few people, but it didn’t work out. Meanwhile, I was hiring part-time stylists. Two candidates I interviewed are still in school getting their fashion and merchandising degrees. The program is online and they are looking for part-time fashion related roles. I was impressed by their passion in changing the fashion industry and why they were interested in joining Taelor. Although they are not qualified nor ready to be stylists yet, I convinced them to join the team and learn other aspects of the operations first while learning styling and merchandising on the side. They now are responsible for all operation tasks and are motivated to learn styling and merchandising aspects. As we scale and grow the team, my plan is to train them into the role that they are passionate about and hire others to fill the gaps. At the early phase of any startup, I don’t think we should simply look for candidates who meet the requirements of the job description. Rather, we should focus on finding talent who are motivated and align with our vision. The roles can be fluid and developed overtime as we continue to grow, pivot at times and find a product market fit. There are many freelance platforms where we can find experienced talent to help us get things done and make progress.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Anya: When we think of fashion, we tend to think about people who really care about fashion, but we don’t think enough about men who value saving time and mental energy when they are busy achieving goals. That’s where Taelor comes in — unlike most fashion companies which intend to make people stylish, Taelor’s mission is to help people to look good to achieve their goals. Taelor helps people look good, but as female immigrants who achieved our American dreams, our mission doesn’t stop at just looking good — we want to help people look good to achieve goals, such as getting a date, closing a deal, or getting their dream jobs. Helping people to live better and reach their full potential is our end goal.
Taelor was started because of inspiration from a friend, Guan. Guan is one of the nicest people I know. He is an honest, nice and successful engineer. A true gentleman. He has been single for years. He is looking for true love and he deserves it.
My friends and I knew that Guan’s problem wasn’t his personality. It was his clothes. He dressed like a nerd — and not in a good way. One time, a group of us took him to stores and did a makeover for him. He looked totally different and confident. However, that wasn’t sustainable — after a few months, he went back to his old style. I realized that a service like Taelor could really help tons of great people like Guan reach their full potential.
I teamed up with Phoebe, a classmate of mine from University of Chicago’s business school, and we got a group of Silicon Valley executives to join us.
We named the company Taelor. We believe Taelor is just like you and me — normal, everyday people who have a dream. Taelor is a service to help people achieve their goals. A company born because of friendship. A story of American dreams.
Phoebe: We address the underserved customer population — aspirational, busy men who want to look good but don’t know how and hate to shop. They want a seamless experience to look good without the commitment of buying clothes, while also playing a part in saving the environment. With a fixed monthly subscription fee, our AI and stylists pick the perfect outfits for them. They can wear the clothes for weeks. When they are ready, they can simply return the dirty clothes and get new ones. One of our earlier pilot customers was interested in learning more about our startup and had a potential interest in investing in us. He mentioned he would never want to “rent” clothing. “Can’t imagine guys would want to do so,” he said. He usually wore custom-fit clothing. To test out our service, he decided to sign up. Today, he is still a happy customer. In a recent customer feedback session, he shared that he is actually surprised that the service helps him expand his styles and allows him to try clothing he would have never tried before.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story of how that was relevant to you in your life?
Anya: “Failure is part of the process of success.”
When we started Taelor, no one had heard of us. We were interested in getting some media coverage, but no reporter was interested in interviewing an unknown startup. A few months later, we got on ABC news. How?
After starting Taelor, I volunteered at the North America Taiwanese Engineering Association, a non-profit organization, to get to know more people. One day, the organization hosted a startup pitch event. At that time, Taelor was just a very rough idea, and we didn’t even have the name yet. But in order to prepare for the event, I put together a business plan and a detailed pitch. A month later, TechCrunch Disrupt, the largest startup convention in Silicon Valley was live. We didn’t have money to join the conference, so I used the previous month’s pitch event to apply for a free TechCrunch Disrupt ticket through a non-for-profit organization. I got a ticket. At the conference, I interviewed 500 people and met a reporter from WWD, the largest apparel trade media in the world. I pitched Taelor’s story and the reporter emailed back, “Not interested.” A month later, he emailed me saying his coworker was interested. After days of preparing for the interview, including finding volunteers to model for our photoshoots, we got the interview. However, a month went by, and the story still wasn’t published.
Later, we joined a startup competition and we won the west coast championship. I thought that was a great opportunity for a press release but again, no reporter was interested. As an immigrant from Taiwan, I pitched a media company in Taiwan. They wanted to publish the story! After that story was published, I wrote another pitch to a Chinese newspaper in the U.S., and they published it too. Then, so did an English newspaper for Chinese people in the U.S.. I took that publication and pitched it to ABC7 News in Chicago, and they said yes!
After the ABC news segment, I pitched back to WWD and they covered it. The next day, a Canadian clothing brand [REESEDELUCA] emailed us and became our first clothing partner in North America.
Phoebe: The power of now. It is actually a book I read, authored by Eckhart Tolle. This book started my “awakening” journey and changed the way I think and live my life. Some of my old friends would say I’ve changed and am 100x happier and more confident thanI was in my twenties and early thirties. Understanding my personal blueprint, becoming aware of my emotions and thoughts and the past and the future and the now are all important tools to live a conscious life.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Do you see any fascinating developments emerging over the next few years in the fashion industry that you are excited about? Can you tell us about that?
Anya: There has been a huge shift in the fashion industry as younger generations favor and practice minimalism and sustainability when it comes to their clothing.
Millennials and Gen Z, in particular, have exhibited behavior that has shifted our culture in so many ways, whether due to the influence or dependence on technology, or life experiences — i.e. COVID-19 — that have altered perception and priorities. We are seeing a huge demand within every industry to observe sustainability by implementing environmentally-friendly practices. Today, the fashion industry is the second largest polluter in the world, second only to the oil industry. Even worse, the damage is only increasing as the industry grows. It takes approximately 15,000 liters of water to grow the cotton required for just one pair of jeans.
Young adults are taking a vested interest in practicing sustainability when it comes to fashion, but the trend expands far beyond what they wear. We are witnessing an evolution in lifestyle, one that values accessibility over ownership. DVD and VHS collections are being traded in for Netflix and Hulu subscriptions, homes are being listed for rent as families refurbish large vans or buses and embark on mobile adventures in a ‘tiny home.’ All of these changes seem to be driven by this new sharing economy and minimalistic trends.
Brands like the aforementioned ThredUp have already collected enough data to document a positive impact on the environment. Over a ten year span, renting or purchasing used clothes, or circular fashion, has displaced over one hundred pounds of carbon emissions. This alone is a huge selling point for younger generations, as they are actively looking to play a part in mitigating climate change.
It would also be naive to ignore the impact of the global pandemic on the fashion industry. Several brands weren’t able to survive, and as we are witnessing, many that did are rethinking their distribution channel or business model. It seems all are catching on to the circular fashion trend. The pandemic has accelerated this adoption and we now see the circular fashion models as part of a brand’s emerging growth strategy.
While more traditional individuals anxiously awaited the opportunity to return to the office, younger generations embraced a new remote work culture that offered more flexibility — not only in dress code but autonomy in general. The concept of ‘back to normal’ seems less likely as the days go by and companies and individuals alike continue to champion these changes. And the fashion industry is taking the initiative to follow suit. Patagonia, Lululemon and GAP, among others, have already launched resale programs of their own in an effort to play a role in sustainability. It’s hard to imagine they aren’t also innovating to keep up with the growth of fashion rental brands.
Companies are now able to acquire new and younger customers as consumers, as these generations are more likely to shop with a brand that offers second hand clothing. Reportedly 65% of Gen Z individuals are considering the resale value of an article of clothing before purchasing it for themselves. Based on these trends, it’s estimated that if apparel brands or retailers sold one million recycled or second-hand items instead of manufacturing new ones, it would displace over four hundred pounds of carbon dioxide. For context, that’s the equivalent of 380 billion miles of driving.To state the obvious, the impact is major!
There is an abundance of arguments and research that back the importance of a circular, sustainable fashion industry for the benefit of both the planet and people. But to put it simply? The up and coming generations are putting their money where their morals lead, and the result is a powerful demand from the environment and young adults to move towards a minimalist lifestyle. One that values accessibility over ownership, sustainability over abundance, and experience over assets. So now, the responsibility shifts to the industry, to make the proper changes as consumers continue to hold them accountable in the pursuit of a cleaner, more simplistic and ethical world.
Phoebe: According to global data, consumers will spend a lot more in the resale, rental channels and a lot less in fast fashion and traditional department stores. Resale and rental combined is the fastest growing segment and the secondhand market is booming. It is expected to reach $77B with a 23 percent growth rate by 2025. That’s 11 times faster than the retail clothing sector. No wonder a lot of investment funding is pouring into the space from big names like Softbank and Kering. A lot of studies have revealed that the new generations are embracing these sustainable practices and care more about the planet.
The sharing economy and minimalism trends are another driving force of this change. The next generation of shoppers want to own less. They want to simplify their lives. They have more circular fashion habits. They want to save money — and make money. The younger generations are more likely to consider the resale value of clothing before buying and would even consider reselling their clothes. They also want to save the planet. They support sustainable practices and would buy second-hand clothes. The millennial and Gen Z populations want a better way to look good effortlessly and play a part in saving the environment.
On the other hand, the current business model for apparel brand retailers is broken. It is difficult for them to predict trends and know what’s going to sell. This problem created the fast-fashion model that leads to massive overproduction and waste. In order to meet consumer demands, fast-fashion brands must manufacture new trends quickly and get rid of old items quickly to make room for incoming trends. That’s why fast-fashion items are made cheaply and have low quality. This model is not sustainable. In fact, around 85 percent of textiles in the U.S. go directly from factories to landfills. 92 million tonnes of textiles waste is created each year globally and 95 percent of these textiles could be reused and recycled, but is discouraged because of the fast fashion model. 20 percent of global untreated wastewater is from fabric dyeing and treatment alone. It is responsible for 10 percent of the global carbon emissions. 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon is released due to fast fashion alone! This massive waste is polluting our environment and poisoning our ecosystem. It’s causing global warming at an alarming rate!
Those numbers sound depressing. However, some positive trends are evolving in the fashion industry where fast-fashion is offensive and slow fashion and circular fashion become the new buzzwords. The pandemic changed the clothing retail world. Some couldn’t survive and many are forced to rethink their distribution channels. Clothing brands and retailers know circular fashion is the future and they want to get into the secondhand and rental channels. Brands like Patagonia that are focused on sustainability took an early interest. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption and they see the circular fashion models as part of their emerging growth strategy. They understand that they can acquire new and younger customers as consumers are more likely to shop with a brand that offers second hand clothing and they will drive more revenue. They can be more sustainable and make an impact on the environment. It is estimated that if apparel brands or retailers sold 1M items used instead of new, it would displace over 400b lbs of CO2. That’s equivalent to 380B miles of driving! However, the circular fashion model is quite complex. Many are not set up to handle the resale/rental logistics. This creates a new opportunity for resale and rental companies such as ThredUp.
Taelor is Good For The World
Can you share how your brand is helping to bring goodness to the world?
Anya: Rental subscription and recommerce, both central to Taelor’s mission, play important roles in sustainability because it significantly extends the garment’s lifetime.
According to the The Future of Circular Fashion Report by Fashion for Good (here), circular fashion, which includes rental, rental subscription, and recommerce, have a high impact in sustainability, while a typical subscription box potentially leads to higher waste.
According to Le Tote, people only wear 20% of what they buy; the remaining 80% is worn less than 3 times and according to Ellen MacArthur Foundation, just 1% of clothing is recycled back into clothing; 73% goes to landfill.
According to the British Fashion Council, there is up to a 10% reduction in a garment’s carbon, water, and waste footprint by extending its lifetime by just three months.
According to Farfetch, QSA, ICARO and the London Waste and Recycling Board, compared to buying new, one pre-owned purchase is said to save, on average, 1kg of waste, 3,040 liters of water, and 22kg of CO2.
Can you share with our readers about the ethical standards you use when you choose where to source materials?
Anya: At Taelor, we offer over 200 brands. When we partner with brands, we evaluate if their mission is in line with Taelor’s — help people look good to achieve goals while saving the environment. We also evaluate if their production process is ethical and how sustainable the materials and processes are. We also don’t accept items that require dry cleaning because dry cleaning is much less eco-friendly than laundry. We have a lot of partners who are pioneers in this sustainability space.
For example, we partner with Koup, an innovator in performance-wear brand that is made by recycled plastic bottles and infused with cinnamon extract. Koup’s initial idea for the cinnamon-infused athletic shirts came to the founder after he started storing textiles in a warehouse that housed cinnamon owned by a Chinese herb company. After the herb company moved out, he realized that the textiles had an anti-odor function because of the impact of the cinnamon. Koup t-shirts are designed to be recyclable because they are made from 100% recycled polyester without any spandex or blends such as polyester cotton, which make recycling difficult.
Koup chose recycled plastic bottles as their core material so they could help reduce the impact of single-use plastic. It’s estimated that over 35 billion plastic bottles are thrown away in the U.S. each year. However, only about 25% of this is recycled. By using 100% recycled plastic instead of virgin plastic, we are keeping plastic waste from going into landfills or becoming ocean plastic. Moreover, recycled polyester can save up to 58 percent in energy costs and 45 percent in greenhouse gas emissions.
Another example among the many sustainable brands Taelor’s platform offers is TRANZEND. The brand’s Ultra Suit is made from recycled plastic bottles and recycled coffee grounds. The material is stretchable, waterproof, machine washable and wrinkle free. This sleek-looking, comfortable shirt is not only motion-adaptive, but it also has thermal regulation and is designed with magnetic cuffs, laser cut vents, ultrasonic sewing and many advanced technologies.
Another sustainable brand on Taelor is Shixi, which is known for its “Bu-Yie,” clothes hand-made with lined and cotton coloring with natural dye, which gives each item their unique color and also helps with sustainability.
Besides sustainability, Taelor also partners with brands that focus on doing good for the world. For example, the Founder of Shixi, Hui-Chun Cheng, is an advocate of art. He sponsors many theatrical events. Celebrities like the late Kobe Bryant took notice and wore Cheng’s apparel.
Another one of Taelor suppliers, Landway, was awarded by the Ukraine government for its contribution to Ukraine refugees. Landway works with the World Taiwan Foundation to fundraise from the public to donate ambulances, money, and living supplies. Every donor gets a jacket donated from Landway. They were previously known for their donation of jackets helping Syria referees and building sewing factories in Africa to help homeless women.
Phoebe: We also understand that everything we source has an impact on the planet. We source clothes that are designed to last and sustain rigorous wash cycles. We avoid clothes that are cheaply-made altogether. All of our clothes are machine washable. We limit clothes that require dry clean operations that use toxic chemicals and contaminate water supplies, making them dangerous to our ecosystem. We ensure the brand partners we work with embrace ethical sourcing and sustainable practices. Our latest partner, Wise River, is an eco-friendly outdoor clothing brand. Wise River is committed to the exclusive use of organic cotton and recycled polyester. There are almost too many good things to say about hemp. One of the strongest, most durable fibers around, hemp is also exclusively grown without the use of any pesticides. In addition, it requires very little water and can grow in a wide variety of soils. Furthermore, hemp can produce more than twice the amount of usable fiber in the same plot of land when compared to cotton. While an incredibly durable fabric, hemp is also naturally temperature regulating, anti-bacterial and odor controlling. With its light hand feel and ability to manage moisture, you’ll feel cool and comfortable, no matter the occasion. A unique texture that becomes softer with each wash, our hemp blends are not only sustainable in an eco-friendly sense, but will also be a staple of your wardrobe for years to come. Recycled nylon is often derived from commercial fishing nets and other industrial scraps that would normally end up in a landfill. While not an easy process, we have partnered with some of the most advanced fabric mills on the planet to produce this eco-friendly performance material. While the process of creating recycled nylon requires less petroleum and lower emissions than virgin nylon, reclaiming waste from our waterways also helps to produce healthier, more sustainable ecosystems. For us, well that’s something we can get behind.
Fast fashion has an advantage, that it is affordable for most people, but it also has the drawback that it does not last very long and is therefore not very sustainable. What are your thoughts about this? How does your company address this question?
Anya: The reason that retailers and clothing brands consider fast fashion is not because they want to create production — it’s because they want to have quick feedback from the market so that they know what to produce. At Taelor, rental enables us to have unique and rich data, which can help retailers and clothing brands better predict what’s going to sell.
Our business model makes our AI unique and powerful. First, we know people’s true preferences, which are not impacted by the purchase price of the items (with a flat monthly fee, people can rent 8 clothing items per month), much like how you decide what to watch on Netflix.) In addition, the consumer feedback cycle is much more efficient than fast fashion: two weeks instead of months. It’s faster than fast fashion while being a lot more sustainable.
I worked for Target, Sears, Kmart, eBay and built Facebook Shopping by working with all major retailers and brands. I know the importance of predicting inventory. Here at Taelor, we are not only devoted ourselves to circular fashion, which extends the garment’s lifetime, but also believe that we need to fundamentally stop retailers and clothing brands from producing items that people don’t want by offering them unique and rich data to make better predictions for the future.
Phoebe: The current business model for apparel brand retailers is broken. It is difficult for them to predict trends and know what’s going to sell. This problem created the fast-fashion model that led to massive overproduction and waste. In order to meet consumer demands, fast fashion brands must manufacture new trends quickly and get rid of items quickly to make room for incoming trends. That’s why fast-fashion items are made with cheap materials and have low quality. This model is not sustainable. Around 85 percent of textiles in the U.S. go directly from factories to landfills. 92 million tonnes of textiles waste is created each year globally. 95% of these textiles could be reused and recycled but it’s discouraged because of the fast-fashion model. Fast fashion is responsible for 10 percent of the global carbon emissions. 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon is released due to fast-fashion alone! This massive waste is polluting our environment and poisoning our ecosystem. It’s causing global warming at an alarming rate. Those numbers sound depressing. However, some positive trends are evolving in the fashion industry where fast fashion is offensive and slow fashion and circular fashion become the new buzzwords. What is Circular Fashion? It is simply a circular fashion model that’s designed to eliminate waste and pollution in all stages from design to material selection to ensure clothes last longer and can be reused and recycled. From production to consumption, manufacturers follow ethical practices that are not harmful to the ecosystem so that consumers can use an item as long as possible and adapt sustainable practices like renting and buying secondhand clothing. Taelor’s mission is to play a part in saving the environment through our circular model that accelerates clothing brands and retailers to adopt sustainable practices, predict demands, find new customers and then customers can discover new brands and styles without having to buy much.
Thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful Fashion Brand”. Please share a story or example for each.
Anya: I think five things you need to lead a successful fashion brand are having a strong mission, solving the right problem, delivering value to customers, embracing technology, and building a diverse team with one common goal.
I think no matter what kind of brand you are building, the first thing for a successful brand to have is a mission. Mission is not a slogan in the HR handbook — it illustrates WHY we do what we do and impacts how we do things. Take Google and Facebook for example. Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and Facebook’s mission is to bring the world closer together. Both of them built a “shopping” business, but Google Shopping is mostly listing items by organizing them based on search result and price, while Facebook Shopping is using influencers and Facebook Groups for community to sell items to each other. Both of them are building the “shopping” business but because of different missions, they grow the business very differently.
Here at Taelor, the idea started a few years ago, when I was leading large tech teams at eBay. As a female tech leader who came from a non-technical background, I had imposter syndrome — sometimes I didn’t feel ready for my day. “No matter how nervous I am, at least I need to look like I am ready for my day,” I thought. I wanted to look good, but didn’t want to chase after clothes. Therefore, I considered Stitch Fix’s styling service, but you have to buy something from every shipment and I didn’t want to own that much stuff. I tried Rent The Runway, but without a styling service, I had to spend lots of time browsing through thousands of items. I realized all of those services are for people who are into fashion. They are not for people like me — I just want to get ready for the day and be successful. Therefore, part of Taelor’s mission is to help people achieve their goals by bringing out the best of themselves.
On the other hand, I used to be a head of products at Target and Sears, and I know for clothing brands and retailers, it’s difficult to predict what’s going to sell. I know guys buy the same brands again and again, so it’s hard to acquire new customers. As a result, 30% of clothes go directly from the factory to the landfill. Brands know circular fashion is the future but are not sure where to start. As a SAAS data company, Taelor helps them test products, find new customers, and discover consumers’ true preferences. That’s why another part of Taelor’s mission is to help save the environment.
The second thing needed to lead a successful brand is to solve the right problem. When thinking about building a company, people tend to think of building solutions, but the most important thing is actually making sure you are solving the right problem — Are you building a pain-killer or a vitamin? Is the pain point you are solving big enough? Finding the right problem to solve is an iterative journey. For example, when Taelor started, we thought that the reason that clothing partners partnered with us was to monetize their unsold inventories by renting them out. It turns out that clothing partners would send us their latest collections because, compared to making money from past inventories, they care even more about getting real customer feedback on their latest collections. The pain point of not knowing what customers want in the future is bigger than making money from past collections.
The 3rd thing needed to lead a successful brand is to provide a solution that delivers value. When we started Taelor, we told people that we are a “menswear rental subscription service,” but then quickly realized that what people care about is not WHAT WE DO; instead, it is the VALUE WE DELIVER. Therefore, we changed our introduction to “We help people look good to achieve goals without buying clothes.” Oftentimes, we focus on the output that we generate, not the outcome — the “so what” behind those output. At Taelor, our customers love our styling service, and they also love the fact that there is no commitment to buy our items. The real value we provide behind those two things is that customers don’t need to think about what to wear anymore. We save them mental space and give them a peace of mind as they get ready for their day.
The 4th thing needed to lead a successful brand is to embrace technology. At Taelor, we consider ourselves a fashion tech company, not just a fashion company. Nowadays, every company is partially a tech company. Technology increases the efficiency of operations and enables a better user experience. From my background as a Head of Product at Meta and eBay, I know the importance of technology. We think artificial intelligence won’t replace humans but it can help us work more efficiently. For example, at Taelor, rental enables us to have unique and rich data. We know people’s true preferences, which are not impacted by the purchase price of the items, just like how you decide what to watch on Netflix. We believe that sustainability should be implemented both from the supply and the demand — yes, each clothing item should be worn as many times as possible, but also we should leverage those unique data points to help clothing brands predict what’s going to sell and only produce items that customers truly want.
The 5th thing needed is a diverse team with a common goal. Earlier in my leadership career, I wanted to hire all the best talents. Soon I realized that the job of a leader is like a NBA coach — our job isn’t to build an all star team, instead, it is to build a championship team. On the all star team, everyone is a super star but each player doesn’t complement or collaborate with one another. As a result, usually the all star team doesn’t perform well as a team. On the other hand, not everyone on a championship team is a rockstar, but some people assist, some people score, and some people defend. As a whole, the team works together like one team and wins the game. When I was at eBay, we had a Product Manager who had strong product management experience. However, I noticed that the sales goal was the key factor for the team’s operation — if the team hit the sales goal, they had a large budget and freedom to do things; if they didn’t, all projects would be put on hold to focus on driving sales. I also noticed that Mexico was one of the fastest-growing markets we had. Therefore, I hired a Product Manager with Mexico market experience and another Product Manager who had a finance background and was passionate about advertising products. Although neither of them had strong product management experience, by having three of them work together, they could put their product management, market knowledge and sales expertise to use and build a great product. In the end, we doubled sales in Mexico in six months. Building a team is like assembling puzzles. You don’t need everyone to be the swiss army knife; instead, you want people who have different expertise and work together as one team.
Every industry constantly evolves and seeks improvement. How do you think the fashion industry can improve itself? Can you give an example?
Anya: I think the fashion industry can start trying circular fashion by partnering with rental and recommerce companies such as Taelor. We believe that the future of menswear is access, not ownership. The sharing economy and minimalism trends continue to grow and guys hate shopping and laundry. My time working for Instagram taught me that the younger generations are a lot more fashion-conscious because of social media. Gen Z also supports sustainability and buying second-hand clothing. Especially after COVID, 70% of the U.S. population gained or lost weight and needed new clothes.
Big brands are building out their own rental and resale businesses, but it’s a big investment. Mid and small brands know circular fashion is the future — high 23% growth rate and $66 billion dollar market — but are not sure where to start. I encourage them to start participating in circular fashion by partnering with circular fashion platforms. Partnerships are usually easy — start by renting out a few SKU of items with a small proof of concept with almost no cost. They can use those platforms to test products, acquire new customers, monetize unsold inventory and get rich data to predict fashion trends for the future.
For brands and retailers, testing products is costly and time-consuming. They test with employees, which isn’t always accurate. Research is expensive. Fast fashion is wasteful, and they don’t have much data to predict future trends. For user acquisition, retailers are dying and direct-to-consumer eCommerce isn’t easy to build. Therefore, a new circular business model is needed — brands and retailers get feedback and find new customers, and customers discover new brands and styles.
Phoebe: Some positive trends are evolving in the fashion industry where fast-fashion is offensive and slow fashion and circular fashion become the new buzzwords. There’s a shift: less is more in sustainable fashion. What is Circular Fashion? It is simply a circular fashion model that’s designed to eliminate waste and pollution in all stages from design to material selection to ensure clothes last longer and can be reused and recycled. From production to consumption, circular fashion ensures manufacturers follow ethical practices that are not harmful to the ecosystem and that consumers use an item as long as possible and adapt sustainable practices like renting and buying second clothes.
Taelor’s mission is to play a part in saving the environment through our circular model that accelerates clothing brands and retailers ability to adopt sustainable practices, predict demands, find new customers and the customers can then discover new brands and styles without having to buy much. We believe a viable circular fashion business model requires a collective effort from both the supply and demand side of the industry — clothing brands and retailers adopt sustainable practices, predict demands, find new customers, and customers discover new brands and styles without having to buy much. Together, they extend the life of garments and save the environment.
Clothing brands and retailers know circular fashion is the future and they want to get into the secondhand and rental channels. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption and they see the circular fashion models as part of their emerging growth strategy. They understand that they can acquire new and younger customers as consumers are more likely to shop with a brand that offers second hand clothes. They can be more sustainable and make an impact in the environment. It is estimated that if apparel brands or retailers sold 1M items used instead of new, it would displace over 400 lbs of CO2. That’s equivalent to 380B miles of driving! However, the circular fashion model is quite complex. Many are not set up to handle the resale / rental logistics. Some famous brands are already in the resale market. Some launched their own resale program and many have partnered with a third party platform such as ThredUp. At Taelor, we offer both rental and resale channels to our brand partners.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Anya: #weardirty. For some people, the thought of using secondhand items is uncomfortable, but actually, “circular economy” is everywhere — the silverware you use in a restaurant and the towel you use in a hotel. Look at your closet, you probably realize that you only regularly use 20% of what you bought — you wear the same thing again and again and most of the items in your closet are just collecting dust. Instead of holding on to what you own, focus on “access” and start renting clothes!
Phoebe: #usedisgood. Imagine a new hotel that practices replacing towels and bedding with brand new items every time. And a new restaurant that uses only plastic disposable cutlery or replaces them with new silverware after each use. Most people would agree that that’s wasteful and unethical. We don’t expect these things to be brand new and we know that these things are used and commercially cleaned even in the 5 stars hotels and 3 star michelin restaurants. These are objects that we put in our mouths and sleep on! I often challenge people, including my boyfriend, who are against renting clothes with this analogy. How about the wedding party that rents fancy clothes for one use? Similarly, buying new clothes and letting them sit in the closet collecting dust is wasteful and unethical.
#fashionlifeexpectancy #fashionutilitization: What’s your fashion utilization rate? I have a pair of jeans I received as a gift when I moved to the states from almost 18 years ago. I have worn them a countless number of times until the back logo came off. I continued to wear the jeans anyway, until the flyover button fell off. I plan to get the jeans repaired though. My most comfortable PJs are the ones that have been worn a countless number of times. It gives me a lot of joy when they are torn because I’ve used them to the maximum amount of their lifetime. The circular fashion model can be part of all of our stories.
Let’s remember these numbers! It takes 75 lbs of carbon emissions to produce the average pair of jeans and 700 gallons of water to make one new T-shirt. A survey shows that people really only wear 20 percent of what they buy. That means they have a lot of unworn clothes collecting dust in their closets. So when you get home today or if you are already home, check out your closet. You might be shocked to find out how many unworn items you have, some with brand new tags. You can donate or resell them. If you really want a new outfit, consider renting or buying used instead of buying new. And do consider high-quality, sustainable brands that last longer over low-quality fast-fashion brands and clothing.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Anya: Rent men’s clothes monthly instead of buying new by subscribing for Taelor’s menswear rental membership. Use code “AUTHORITY” to get 25% of the first 2 months at https://taelor.style/pages/membership. Limited time offer. Ends on Oct 31, 2022.
Learn more about Taelor at https://taelor.style
Partner with Taelor at hi@taelor.ai
Connect with Anya Cheng on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/anyacheng/
Connect with Phoebe Tan on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/phoebe-tan-b6a3166/
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Modern Fashion: Anya Cheng and Phoebe Tan of Taelor On The Five Things You Need To Lead a… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.