This time: Her-Age! We‘ve had a chat with the founders – Alessandro Berna, CEO, Alba Figueras de la Parte, COO, and Ataman Ersan, CMO – of Her-Age about their business, product assortment, the secondhand fashion industry and partnership with TVB. Read on to see what they had to say. We can guarantee they had plenty of interesting things to say.

Her-Age – who are they?

Her-Age is – as they put it themselves – an “elevated re-commerce platform” launched in September 2021. This means, that the platform is an innovative luxury marketplace featuring vintage and secondhand pieces. But how did the platform come to be?

The idea of Her-Age was first conceived in Milan in the end of 2020 as three luxury fashion professionals – and friends – decided they wanted to change the world of secondhand luxury fashion just like we strive to do at The Vintage Bar.

Alessandro Berna, CEO of Her-Age, came into contact with fashion at a very young age through his mother as she had a passion for collecting unique, one-of-a-kind luxury pieces. After being in the fashion industry for a long time, Alessandro decided to utilize his business know-how and came up with the idea of an online marketplace. Alessandro’s wife, Alba Figueras de la Parte is the COO of Her-Age and she’s always had a deep-rooted love for discovering rare vintage treasures. The last person behind the initial idea of Her-Age is Ataman Ersan. He’s the CMO of Her-Age as well as Alessandro and Alba’s best friend.

It was during the COVID pandemic that the three friends noticed how the resale market was growing more than 25 times faster than traditional retail fashion. They could see the spotlight quickly shifting towards the secondhand market as well as a shift in consumer mindset. People all around the globe started paying more attention to sustainability and preservation of the environment. The three friends therefor decided on not just an online marketplace but an elevated re-commerce platform with a focus on exclusive pre-owned luxury items.

As the journey of Her-Age began, the team found a plethora of gaps in the resale market which where not being addressed by the current big players. Some of these gaps were a lack of curation, difficulties in tracing the history of vintage items, absence of origin transparency and lack of 100% guaranteed authentication. Her-Age therefor decided to tackle these gaps head on so you always know what you’re getting when shopping vintage and secondhand items from them – both from their own site but also on TVB.

This is the story of Her-Age and their conception, but all you really need to know is that Her-Age focuses on giving new life to pre-owned luxury items and wants to redefine the luxury fashion industry as we know it.

On choosing secondhand fashion

The three founders of Her-Age have amassed over a decade worth of experience within the luxury fashion space, which means they’ve all developed an understanding of the potentially devastating consequences that follow unconscious consumerism which is largely driven by the industrial obsession with quantity-oriented profitability. By 2020, all three of them had witnessed first-hand just how much raw material was being wasted each season by mass overproduction and they decided they instead wanted to be part of the solution to this growing problem.

Alba, Ataman and Alessandro all believe that circularity can have an immensely positive effect on the fashion industry as we know it and the conceptualized a vision of extending the life cycle of already existing luxury pieces. This vision is exactly what drives TVB as well, which is what makes Her-Age a great fit for our platform.

The three friends believe that “every piece has a story to tell” and that’s why Her-Age puts a lot of effort into their product catalogue. The founders thrive on discovering “special, one of a kind pieces” and they’re very thankful for their team of treasure-hunters who provide the customers with the best of the best when it comes to vintage pieces. Want to know more about the product assortment? Read on!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by her-age.com (@herageofficial)

What do they specialize in?

The product assortment at Her-Age has more than 2.500 pieces and includes ready-to-wear for both men and women as well as bags, shoes, accessories, jewelry and watches from more than 100 premium and luxury brands. These include all time favorites like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, Hermés and Dior. The team at Her-Age wants to provide a mix of categories that cater to customer demands – and all genders and ages shop secondhand!

Her-Age sources from individuals as well as other secondhand sellers and sell to shoppers from all over the world. They’re trusted by more than 60 partners from a variety of fields such as vintage stock suppliers, small vintage and secondhand stores, resellers, authentication experts as well as fintech and technology collaborators. Last but not least, Her-Age point out that their individual sellers “are the ones that help us hunt incredible fashion treasures which supports us in expanding our unique and exclusive product offer”.

As mentioned, Her-Age also works with professional sellers and love to work with small vintage stores, just like we do. These stores come to Her-Age with their stock because they want their items to be curated, appreciated and to have their story told. The Her-Age team loves finding these lesser-known stores and getting the chance to showcase these rare pieces and get them the recognition they deserve.

When it comes to sourcing, Her-Age is very specific. The team undergoes a thorough and careful process when selecting pieces from 20+ suppliers, professional sellers and small vintage stores. Her-Age carries a wide assortment of items that cater to a wide variety of customers and their needs. You can therefor shop trendy pieces from the latest collections as well as iconic items dating back to the 70s – Her-Age does a great job of walking that balance. Her-Age also refers to their best selling brands and try to keep them in the mix but the team is also mindful to have niche and “fresh” brands that are making waves in the industry in stock.

The company takes great pride in finding the perfect combination between the condition and price of each item, so they can present the customer with the most competitive offer.

The crown jewel of Her-Age’s assortment is an exclusive selection called the Signature Collection. This collections is comprised of the rarest vintage (15 years or more of age) luxury finds and includes Haute Couture pieces straight from the runway. When Her-Age says they’re rare, they mean it – some pieces can’t be found anywhere else on the market! The team at Her-Age takes the time to identify valuable pieces that represent not just fashion but pieces of history, so you know exactly what you’re buying and what that means. This is why Her-Age takes great pride in their highly curated selection – you don’t just buy an item, you buy the story.

Her-Age is extremely grateful for its network of private and professional sellers. “They represent the heart and lungs of the company” and they “play a key role in providing Her-Age with the unique and rare vintage pieces that are most difficult to find”, say the founders of Her-Age. They also explain how “this allows us to provide our clients with an added value of product scarcity, which is an exciting element that drives our collectors and patrons to come back again and again”. With an assortment like this, we’re super excited to have Her-Age as a professional seller on our platform – they know what they’re doing!

What sets them apart from other resellers?

Her-Age partners with industry disruptors to “harness the power of technology to make a positive impact”. One case of this is their collaboration with SNAPFEET on the creation of a 3D shoewear fitting room in order to support customers when shopping for shoes. Because of this initiative, product returns in the footwear category have exponentially dropped which further reduces the company’s carbon footprint.

The business is also the first marketplace where you can buy and sell secondhand goods with NFT certifications! They’re not lying when they say they want to use technology to make a positive impact.

Besides the obvious technological collaborations, Her-Age stands out from other resellers and platforms because of their product assortment. We’ve already mentioned it above, but the time and effort that goes into Her-Age’s curation is definitely worth noting and checking out.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by her-age.com (@herageofficial)

Working with a partner like TVB

When asked about why TVB and Her-Age are a good fit, the founders say, “in many ways, Her-Age and The Vintage Bar are cut from the same cloth so to speak”, and we agree. Her-Age values the circular fashion community and represents a resale destination for premium and luxury resale and so does TVB, but most importantly both businesses are working to prove that secondhand fashion can be both sustainable and cool!

It’s very exciting to be able to grow alongside professional business partners, such as TVB, and to work each other op through our shared mission of creating a positive impact on the world.

The TVB styling lounge takes place right before and during Copenhagen Fashion Week and is a place where influential people from the fashion industry can come and borrow cool secondhand and vintage items to wear for fashion week. Her-Age has kindly lent us items from their unique assortment in order to help us make the styling lounge become a reality and raise awareness of the secondhand industry and its coolness.

When speaking on participating in this event, Her-Age says, “Copenhagen Fashion Week not only serves as an incubator for fresh new talents on the luxury fashion scene, but it’s also the first and only sustainability-driven fashion week in the world!”. Because of this, Her-Age is more than happy to partake. They also point out that they love seeing how the CPH FW community styles and incorporates their items in order to “create exceptionally creative and astonishingly beautiful outfits”.

The founders of Her-Age finish of the interview with “thank you very much for including us” and we couldn’t thank them anymore in return. Without cool partners like Her-Age, our styling lounge would never be as successful as it is.