Examentrainers

BUY DESIGNER FASHIONS ON A SHOESTRING

Chic&Seek is selling luxury clothes and accessories at low prices. So how does it measure up?
Maisha Frost reports

A NEW firm has fashioned a way of selling designer labels at a snip thanks to its own business model. Chic&Seek is a destination for expensive, beautifully made clothes and accessories that their owners no longer want, but regard as too [id:86553] or little used to throw or give away. Entrepreneur Tara Nash- King’s recession- conscious venture gives contemporary classics a second life by what she describes as ‘redistributing’ them at a fraction of their original cost. Customers who never lacked taste, just the [id:86554] to do it justice, can now afford a timeless silk Chanel top for £180 or a handbag by Alexander McQueen for less than £300. Nash-King, 29, sells online and by visitor appointments. The recession has changed the way lots of women shop. Even the rich are keen to get [id:86555]. There’s something very desirable about not paying the full price, but still owning something very lovely. At first Nash-King thought her buyers and sellers would be two distinct sets of people but that is [id:86556]. She says: “People who sell through me also buy. London is a fashion leader and some of my clients work in the fashion industry and are selling on samples they have received but don’t need themselves. The clothes and accessories I sell are preowned but not necessarily worn or used before.” She comes from a family of entrepreneurs and that, along with the training in all aspects of the fashion business working for top London accessories brand

Anya Hindmarch, gave her the confidence to [id:86557]. “Fake goods are a big problem for designers. I was taught how to spot a counterfeit which has come in very useful now that I have started my own company. I also learnt about the commercial realities of the fashion business”, she says. It was the recession that ultimately [id:86558]her move. “The return on my savings dropped to nothing, so I thought it was time to make better use of them. I calculated the most I could afford to lose was £10,000 so that became my investment budget. I learnt to do the photography for the website and my biggest outlay so far has been on photographic equipment,” she says. Chic&Seek is a perfect fit with London, but what does she think of its [id:86559]? Nash-King says it could be replicated in other cities such as New York. Then again, she could buy up a chain of warehouses and dedicate each to a particular item, shoes being an obvious candidate. “Wall-to-wall Louboutins and Jimmy Choos — my customers would never leave,” Nash- King muses.

Daily Express, 2010