Material Wrld’s evolution

5 years ago this month, my friend and co-founder Jie and I were brainstorming how to refresh and connect closets online in ways that can involve and evolve the industry that we worked in. At the time, Jie worked at J.Crew and I was at Coach. While we admire quality fashion and have always used fashion as a form of our own self expression and voice, we questioned the ways of the industry we worked in. The fashion industry continues to push newness, but never got involved in what happens to those pieces of quality fashions once they are purchased. To be frank, we also questioned the industry’s exclusiveness and closed approach, since having been raised in multiple cultures around the world, both of us value openness, diversity and individuality. We also realized that not only do women feel guilty when they buy new things, they feel guilty even being involved in the fashion industry since it felt self-absorbed.

We wanted to change all of that. We believed that fashion shouldn’t represent selfish consumption, but that it should be an appreciation for great pieces of creativity which helps us self express, and that there should be a way to give more access to quality pieces in an environmentally friendly way. We also felt that working for a company or an industry, you should never have to feel guilty, but rather feel rewarded for the impact that you make to the world.

And so we created Material Wrld. It’s been 4 years since we left our corporate jobs and it’s been a wild ride so far. We’re so grateful for our incredible team that has built, iterated and reinvented Material Wrld innumerous times, and we’re so excited for the journey ahead as we continue evolving.