We were lucky to catch up with Rachel Ceruti recently and have shared our conversation below.

Rachel, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

The fashion industry is built on exclusion. Marketing of the latest trends encourages people to discriminate all in the name of increasing revenue. The revolving door of trends to follow keep people isolated, limiting their interaction with each other as they try to achieve the newest looks. At Reclypt, we believe style lasts longer with community. The Reclypt community is the driving force behind everything we do; from the upcycled fashion community to the DIY repair community. In fact, Reclypt’s latest journey of educating and engaging people on all forms of circular fashion, started from the team’s own community, our mending club. A few months after Reclypt launched as the first-of-its-kind online marketplace for upcycled fashion we noticed a demand beyond purchasing upcycled fashion. We noticed that our community seeking ways to grow and learn the methods to keep their clothes and accessories out of landfills. So, we started offerings mending clubs to teach mending basics, and before we knew it, the Reclypt Mending Club took off. It’s still thriving and growing as it’s all fueled by community.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Reclypt believes that style lasts longer with community, and because of this, we’ve emerged as the trusted resource for all things circular fashion. Since Reclypt’s conception as a blog to promote and raise awareness for upcycled fashion, into our first venture as an online marketplace for local upcycled brands in NYC, and through our current undertaking of helping people discover how they can keep their clothes out of landfill in ways that work for them, we are fueled by a passion to reduce fashion waste.

The Reclypt team (all women who connected through various circular fashion events and networks over the past few years) unknowingly developed and implemented a proof of concept from our own little mending circle last year. As Reclypt began cultivating a community passionate about reducing fashion waste, we noticed a demand to grow and learn skills to keep clothing & accessories in circulation. So when we started offering classes, events, and workshops to educate and engage our growing community on the various ways to keep their fashion out of landfills. It was an overwhelming success. Not only did a diverse set of attendees join us from near and far, but brands large and small reached out to bring Reclypt to their customers.

We’re currently “popping-up” at various cafes, businesses, event spaces, festivals, and more all over NYC in a variety of ways. This can look like a “mending 101” class at a cafe in Brooklyn, an “upcycling workshop” at a Venture Capital firm in Manhattan, a “swap and mend” event for a local runners group, or a clothing swap at a vintage store in Queens. Nearly half of our attendees are repeat customers, our attendance and revenue continue to increase event-over-event, and, most importantly, we’re able to maintain fair wages. The latter being important as consumers have been so overexposed to cheap and exploitative fast fashion prices, that a huge part of Reclypt is education on why and how a sustainable and ethical product is priced the way it is. Furthermore, learning circular fashion methods and techniques prove to be the least expensive option in the long term (i.e. mending your jeans instead of buying a new pair).

In our experience, participants are delighted to go home with a new skill and/or garment, but they value the information, community, and problem solving of the conversations they have at Reclypt events exponentially more. Our community is growing because of our community and the demand for our offerings is exceeding our supply. We are well on our way to reach the people already interested in or practicing circular fashion techniques, and we want to bring this to people who don’t even know they want it. We could be bringing more brands onto our marketplace, hiring more staff, and providing more opportunities for people to learn and grow the circular methods that work for them, but we don’t have the capacity due to being a bootstrapped business. Our community is following us all over NYC to attend our events but Reclypt’s full potential would be realized if we had a consistent space to continue cultivating this community. People are looking for community and ways to be more sustainable, Reclypt allows people to access both.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Partnerships have been the most effective strategy for growing Reclypt. We strategically align with partners in our space both bigger and smaller than us to increase exposure, expand our reach, and strengthen our credibility. Not only do partnerships grow our community but helps our business develop best practices as we learn from our partners. A majority of the time, we’re learning helpful methods, techniques, software, and communities, but we also learn what not to do. Partnerships helps Reclypt’s community grow.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

We currently use Shopify and absolutely recommend this to other businesses. It is easy to use, adaptable, customizable, easy to learn, and user friendly. Reclypt started on WordPress and didn’t benefit from it at all.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.reclypt.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/reclypt
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/reclypt
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-ceruti-658aa0159/
• Other: www.pinterest.com/reclypt