Gap Finders - Isabella West from Hirestreet
Today’s Gap Finder is Isabella West, the founder of Hirestreet UK, one of the UK’s first high street fashion rental platforms. She started her business from her parents' basement.
On Gap Finders this week, Winifred Robinson speaks to Isabella West, the founder and CEO of Hirestreet. It was one of the first high street online fashion rental platforms to launch in the UK. Isabella describes the website as a cross between ASOS and Booking.com. She founded Hirestreet in 2017 when she was just 24 years old. Customers can hire sustainable and affordable fashion outfits from the site as an alternative to buying a fast fashion outfit they’d only wear once.
Isabella was born in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. She used her savings to start up the business from her parents’ basement. An Economics graduate from Oxford University, she comes from a family of entrepreneurs.
After working as a strategy consultant for Selfridges and then for an investment bank in London, Isabella returned home to Newcastle to launch Hirestreet. To get started, she borrowed 200 dresses from her friends, put them up as stock on her website and began renting them out.
Over the last five years, she has scaled up her business and now has 25 people working on her team. She has also partnered with big brands such as M&S, ASOS, Warehouse, Oasis, French Connection and River Island.
Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Tara Holmes
Last on
Broadcast
- Thu 6 Jul 2023 12:04Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 FM
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