Natalia Kazakli is a Greek lover of fashion based in London. Holding a Bachelor degree in Business Administration as well as a Masters in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from the University of Warwick, Natalia was well prepared to take on the vast world of entrepreneurship, let alone that of fashion. With a range of previous work experiences in marketing and finance in Athens, as well as working in business development at various start-up marketplaces in London, she laid the foundations and learned the know-how on starting her own business.
Tell us a bit about DressGang? What inspired you to do start it?
DressGang is a fashion rental marketplace, where every woman can rent the latest trends in high end fashion for a fraction of the retail price or monetise their wardrobe. The idea was borne out of my love of fashion, and the sense of empowerment that beautiful clothes can give women. I truly believe that the things we wear and the things we want to wear have a kind of magic about them. We are all familiar with the feeling of lusting after the ‘it’ dress or the ‘it’ bag that will change everything about the way we feel. That bag you’re checking every day trawling through the beautiful collections on Net-a-Porter as if you were flirting with it or waiting for some miracle (a lottery ticket?) to buy it. Being a millennial myself, I have a cautious attitude towards spending, which is a confluence of several factors that have in many ways made most millennials risk-averse, including coming of age during a particularly challenging economic and political climate. I believe that’s the reason we are seeing an emerging trend in the experience services such as Spotify, Netflix, Airbnb and Uber. Single-use ownership seems to be a thing of the past. Being an advocate of an experience economy, I started looking for ways to experience rather than own fashion. I soon realized that there are many rental services in the United States, but nothing satisfying this growing demand in London. It was at that very moment that I decided to start DressGang.
As the founder of DressGang, what does your typical day look like?
DressGang is still in its very early days and as we are a very small team (4 people at the moment), we all do a bit of everything. I have no standard routine or working hours and the lines between my personal life and DressGang are really blurred. Some of the things I do on a typical day include visiting and on-boarding new suppliers, building our general strategy, analysing our business model, making changes on the website and delivering orders on a bike etc. To be honest, that’s something I really enjoy at this early stage as every day is a real surprise! I have to constantly multi-task and plan ahead. I pretty much work on DressGang my whole day and I love it!
What do you enjoy most about doing your own thing?
I enjoy being independent and therefore my own boss when it comes to the creation of new ideas and taking decisions that have an impact on the business. More importantly I love the fact that I build things from scratch on a daily basis. I am a dreamer by nature and I have a big vision for DressGang too. I would say the thing that drives me most is the fact that I am creating something in demand, which matters to other people too. We are not miracle workers at DressGang but we hope our business has an impact on the way our customers feel about themselves.
I believe I work well with others which helped me form a team and find support at the very beginning. I know many people who have their own start-ups; they are great sounding boards to provide advice and support to me on difficult days – something we really need as we are all first-time entrepreneurs.
The fashion industry is such a competitive space and constantly changing. What are some of the challenges you’ve experienced in creating your business?
The fashion industry is indeed very competitive. However, I don’t see competition as a negative. Competition proves that there is a real need for what we are building and it also makes us want to work hard and improve our business every day. DressGang makes high end fashion accessible to anyone who wants it, rather than designing and producing clothes so we are not in direct competition with any fashion companies. Our biggest challenge as a fashion marketplace is to source the best fashion items (we are a highly curated platform) and to constantly balance demand and supply.
How would you describe the importance of social media to drive a business like DressGang?
For DressGang the importance of social media is essential for generating brand awareness and connecting directly with customers. Social platforms make it possible for start-ups to easily penetrate target markets at low costs, in addition to being a powerful tool for building and establishing brand identity and equity. It also offers great ways for businesses to monitor what is being said about the brand, and to provide rapid customer service. It’s vital for DressGang to constantly showcase the company’s products and services in order for current and potential new customers to stay updated with the brand’s offerings. Through Instagram we can share regular news and build customer credibility. We are very lucky to have Caroline Holst, who is a social media expert at DressGang!
Who would you say are the women who inspire you?
There are so many admirable female entrepreneurs in the world but I if I had to choose the ones who inspire me the most, I would definitely say Emily Weiss from Glossier and Sophia Amoruso from the Nasty Gal / Girl Boss podcast. They have built very impressive companies from scratch and their path to success was far from easy…they are real grit paragons!
What would be your top 3 words of advice for anyone thinking of starting their own business?
Patience, Resilience and Perseverance! There is also a quote I love from Phil Knight, founder of Nike for those who want to make a difference: “you have to do all the running in the world if you just want to stay in the same place; you have to run twice that much if you want to go further”.
You can explore more about DressGang here www.dressgang.com
Instagram: @dress_gang / @HolstSocial
If you would like to monetise your wardrobe for a return on your high-end fashion items please contact Natalia via email: hello@dressgang.com
The post Join the DressGang – we meet its Founder, Natalia Kazakli appeared first on Eyedea - Female Millennials Network.