Dressarte is a sustainable online couture service, empowered by 3D design, and enabling virtual measurements and digital consultations.
At Dressarte, we help people design and tailor one-of-a-kind items such as bridal wear and capsule wardrobes, using dead stock, surplus and recycled fabrics.
We combine traditional craftsmanship and technologies to help clients create sustainable garments of their dreams, encouraging responsible consumption and transparent production.
How did you come up with the idea for the company?
Dressarte is a very personal story. I have grown up having my clothes tailor-made for me by my mum, where I started designing my own garments and selecting fabrics from a young age. I was happy to spend my time in an atelier learning more about the business side of made-to-measure manufacturing.
I went on to study international business and management of IT projects, and then spent years in a corporate world, but my passion really lied within sustainable fashion. During my corporate career I was moving from one country to another (the Netherlands, UK, Eastern Europe, France, Middle East), and wherever I went I always got asked by my colleagues and friends where I got my clothes (about 90% of my wardrobe was tailored), and if there was a way for them to order bespoke clothes too.
I saw the opportunity here and decided to combine my love for tailored clothes with my interest and expertise in new technologies and international business. I didn’t want to launch another standard fashion business with regular collections and mass production as it simply didn’t resonate with me, but it took me a while before I made a decision to launch a virtual atelier.
So, in 2018 Dressarte was born. Paris has always been a big inspiration for the business and myself, with the luxury couture houses, upscale tailoring and premium fashion styles. After living in the city, I found that a lot of the fashion and tailoring experiences just were not accessibly priced, or convenient, and understood that it is such a privilege to have clothes designed and tailored especially for you. I wanted to make Dressarte’s personal shopping experience as a more affordable and accessible option for those looking for premium tailoring, no matter where in the world they are based.
More from Interviews
- A Chat With Tshimologo Leburu, Founder And CEO At Virtual Africa On How African Freelancers Can Build Marketing Strategies for Global Businesses
- Meet Artem Kirillov: General Manager At Performa
- Interview With Alex Marshall, Group Director At Clarke Energy, A Rehlko Company On The Data Centre Industry
- Meet Oliver Yonchev: Co-Founder Of Potentially AI
- A Conversation With Bob De Caux, Chief AI Officer At IFS On Sovereign AI Power Index
- A Conversation With Marina Shulga, Product Leader In Payments And Digital Infrastructure: Why Payment Infrastructure Decides Where Products Can Grow
- A Chat With Ken Naughton, President Of Management Controls, On How Technology Is Transforming Contractor Oversight
- A Chat With Sophie Njagi, Fintech And Payments Expert And CEO Of Eqwire On What Europe Can Still Learn From Africa’s Biggest FinTech Success Story
How has the company evolved during the pandemic?
We have been quite fortunate in the last year as the pandemic has accelerated the growth of Dressarte, bringing new clients across the world. Our business has always been online based, so with the lockdown and all shops closed, people were more open to trying our innovative service, especially brides.
We have seen purchases triple in the past year, with brides opting for covid-compliant and convenient virtual services like ours at Dressarte.
We’ve managed to build our own supply chain sourcing luxurious surplus fabrics directly from mills, and deadstock fabrics from Italian and French fashion houses, thus being able to offer a more competitive price-point.
A new innovation for us is our 3-D design service which allows customers to visualize clothes as part of our tailoring process. This has been increasingly popular with customers so we’ve also launched the first ever Digital Wedding Collection, using 3-D designs, which is a first for the wedding industry and will also help keep fabric waste to a minimum.
The 3-D designing requires no prototypes or samples to be produced, unlike regular collections within the fashion industry. 3-D design has generated a huge interest amongst 2021 brides and has inspired them to design their own wedding dresses with us.
What can we hope to see from Dressarte in the future?
Following last year’s success in gaining new clients, our main focus is to continue to scale Dressarte.
We’re working on new digital collections in partnership with independent 3-D designers to showcase our customizable and made-to-measure clothing. Additionally, we will be adding more custom-made, non-clothing, items to the Dressarte website very soon.
We’re expanding our partnership with tailors and dressmakers and hope to become the hub for tailor-made and custom-made clothing, with technology and craftsmanship at the heart of everything we do.
