TheRealReal’s Online Luxury Consignment Shop

In 2011, Julie Wain­wright, an e‑commerce entre­pre­neur, found­ed The­Re­al­Re­al, a plat­form for sell­ing pre­vi­ous­ly owned lux­u­ry goods. Sell­ing used cloth­ing wasn’t a new idea; vin­tage and used-cloth­ing stores have been around for­ev­er, and some have even got­ten big. Buf­fa­lo Exchange, which is based in Tuc­son, began sell­ing used jeans and flan­nel shirts in 1974, and now has fifty loca­tions across the coun­try; Cross­roads Trad­ing, which opened in 1991, has thir­ty-sev­en. A few renowned shops, such as Decades, in Los Ange­les, have spe­cial­ized in very expen­sive used design­er goods in an atmos­phere in which much is made of a gown’s prove­nance, espe­cial­ly if, as is often the case, the pre­vi­ous own­er was a celebri­ty. But, gen­er­al­ly speak­ing, resale busi­ness­es were lit­tle local shops that catered to afi­ciona­dos, hip­sters, and peo­ple on a bud­get. Wain­wright decid­ed to go glob­al and high-end.

Read the full sto­ry from The New Yorker