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| Elle - Spring/Summer 2009 | How to get what you want this autumn |
 | Laura Emerald: Laura, 30 from Liverpool uses clothesagency.com to sell her barely-worn designer pieces in order to buy new clothes. 'I've raised up to £300 for a pair of designer shoes that I couldn't walk in' says Laura. 'There is a listing fee to sell each piece but this is stated before hand and is not a percentage of your sale, so your profit remains all your own. Plus, you can also become a member of the agency and receive benefits such as free monthly listings', she explains. This month she is selling a designer trouser suit, two pairs of designer sunglasses and a wallet that was an unwanted birthday present. She hopes she'll make enough to bag these new autumn 2009 pieces. Grey jumper with embellishment, £189, by Day Birger et Mikkelsen. |
| istock analyst online - 27 October 2008 Lady Apsley's Online Clothes Agency Booming |
(Source: Western Daily Press (Bristol UK)) It was dubbed "Black September", small businesses were hit hardest and now the country is entering a recession, according to Mervyn King. But business is booming in spite of the credit crunch for the owner of a second-hand designer clothes agency in Gloucestershire. Lady Sara Apsley has been forced to close her shop in Cirencester and focus on the online arm of her Clothes Agency - which has a staggering 100,000 members. "The business took off more than I meant it to," she said. "With the credit crunch building up, the second-hand designer clothes market is taking off. There's such a call for second-hand clothes. People pay a fortune for good, decent designer clothes - they want the quality, the cuts, the fabrics that you can't get on the high street but they can't afford it. People recognise that gentler-used clothes aren't a badge of shame - they're a badge of honour." Lady Apsley, who was recently appointed vice president of the British Legion, started a small designer clothes online business in 2005. Her friends joined the group and bought and sold designer jackets, suits and clutch bags online among themselves. To read the full article, click here or go to the istock analyst website. |
Daily Telegraph - 5 November 2008
Lady Sara Apsley's new chic from the clothes agency:
gently used designer clothes
 | The only piece of new clothing that is allowed in these credit-crunch times, it seems, is the cloak of guilt. Who dares to splash out when the monthly budget demands cutbacks? But even though there are unworn clothes in our wardrobes - £4.7 billion-worth in the UK, according to Oxfam last month - it doesn't stop us craving something new. Thank goodness, then, for an unlikely knight in shining (second-hand) Dolce & Gabbana. |
To read the full article, click here or go to the Telegraph online.
| Star PR! | You Magazine, June 2008 |
 | For worn-only-once-bargains go to......... |
| Cotswold Style | July 2008 |
 | Business is still booming 'Sex and the City' was bound to be a smash hit with that word in the title and women in their millions watched it religiously. But in the process they got totally hooked on the designer wardrobes as sported by the four heroines and now, if anything, business in at least one area of the designer world is booming. You'd think that with 'credit crunch' and 'economic downturn' on everyone's lips the frivolous world of fashion would be suffering. But not in one little corner of the Cotswolds. This is Lady Apsley's revolutionary Clothes Agency which is not only a two-storey business just outside Cirencester but also an online store (clothesagency.com) which has more than 100,000 members worldwide and celebrates its fourth birthday. Nearly new Dolce & Gabana, Prada, Gucci, Hermes, Alexander McQueen, Emilio Pucci and Diane von Furstenberg (to name but a few) can all be found gracing the pages of clothesagency.com, enabling us all to quench our thirst for a top brand but without breaking the bank. |
| Western Daily Press, June 2008
Other examples of clothes on sale include a gorgeous blue Ronit Zilka double-breasted coat in pure wool for £65, which has been worn but is in excellent condition and would cost nearly £400 new; and a Gloria Vanderbilt bridal gown, which was on sale for £395 and has since been reduced again to £148. Check out www.clothesagency.com or visit the showroom in a converted 18th century barn just outside Cirencester. It's open on weekdays from 9.30am to 5.30pm. Call 01285 885283. |
| Good Housekeeping, June 2008
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| Glos Echo | Weekend, June 2008 |
 | Snap up some designer bargains |
| Express & Star, June 2008
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The Lady, May 2008
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Daily Mirror, May 2008
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| Portland Mercury USA April 2007 | |||||
  | FashionSpring Cleaning with ClothesAgencybyI am getting into the spirit of the season with some spring cleaning of my wardrobe. I’m not sure if it’s normal to get as much pleasure out of this process as I do: Trying on literally everything that I own and analyzing whether or not it’s time to give it the boot. Do I ever wear it? Does it even look good? Too tattered? Ugly? Oh, the hours of fun. Then it’s off to the Red Light where I might get enough money selling them to buy a nice sandwich, and give the rest to charity. That’s because I’m small-time, but women in the big-time go through the same process, and their castaways are from Armani and Chloé, for instance. Thanks to the internet, you can have clothing swaps with such people, but frankly I am extremely wary of EBay. The British site ClothesAgency is similar, but more straightforward: There’s no auction/bidding/waiting/strategizing, just straight you like it, you buy it. It also is all high end clothing-specific, either unused or barely used. And you don’t necessarily have to use PayPal, which also gives me the willies. It’s also cheap to sell, should you have anything worth selling. Here is an example of a nice find (because 80% of the point of spring wardrobe cleaning is making room for new things): A fabulous example is a mini-dress from the aforementioned Chloé, brand new with the tags still on. The price is 75 British pounds, which if you roughly say is twice that much in US dollars, means it’s $150. Compare that to a never-owned Chloé dress, which will run you $1,000 at minimum, and potentially well over $5,000.Comments Posted At last! Someone else has discovered this site - its getting real big in London, especially for folk who are a bit wary of Ebay (right there with ya Marjorie!) - Ive been buying it up - last week took delivery of the most gorgeous Prada bag EVER. The overseas shipping has been a godsend and they're sooooo reliable - rock on Clothes Agency - and enjoy! Susie.Posted by: Susie Erikson | | ||||
| Vogue.com News, | April 2007 | ||||
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| Sunday Observer, | April 2007 | ||||
 |  A new season means new clothes and everyone's gone absolutely shopping mad. It's one thing lusting after the latest summer dress, but quite another when you can't afford it. New research shows that today's young women spend around 80 per cent of their average £18,000 salaries on clothes, shoes and bags, putting most of it on to credit and store cards. This means fashionistas end up spending at least half a week's wages every month paying off credit-card interest alone. If you've overspent and need to pay off your debts, Lady Sara Apsley may be just the fairy godmother you need. Her clothing website www.clothesagency.com aims to help women sell their unwanted clothes and buy other items for a fraction of their retail price. Unlike eBay, The Clothes Agency allows sellers to name their price, so there is no bidding war, and there are no commission fees, although sellers must pay £1.25 to list each item. 'We all have ever tighter budgets to follow and simply because you've not worn something for ages, it doesn't mean it has no value to someone else,' says Apsley. On the site now, you can pick up bargains like a Reiss summer jacket for £30. There's even a celebrity section where you can pick up an ex-Kate Winslet Ben de Lisi gown or one of Nicholas Parsons' elegant vintage suits. Who could resist? | ||||
