DesignerLaundry, Part One

| Posted Jul 18th 2008 10:01AM by Kristen Seymour
Filed under: CELEBRITY STYLE, Fashion, Celebrity, News, Stylish Living

This is Part One of our interview with Patrick Robertson (CEO), Christina Angelacos (whose role ranges daily from Marketing to Sales to Operations to Customer Care), and Joselle Yokogawa (Fashion Director), the folks behind DesignerLaundry, a high fashion online boutique that sells designer clothing donated by celebrities, stylists, and others and donates a portion of the proceeds to one of several charities.

Often, people try to see the world in black and white. Either you love fashion and crave designer clothes like Colin Farrell craves a cigarette, or you're more charitably-minded and wouldn't dream of spending that kind of money on clothes when you could be feeding a child or building a home with it.
Fortunately, some people see things in other colors -- beautiful, richly textured, designer colors, to be exact. Late last year, Patrick, Christina, and Joselle got together and formed DesignerLaundry, a "revolutionary concept combining the sale of celebrity donated clothing with giving back to those in need."

The idea began with Patrick, who had been consulting with a friend who created messenger bags from recycled billboard canvases. "Every bag was unique and 10% of the proceeds from each sale was being donated to the AIDS epidemic in South Africa," says Patrick. "I liked the idea of recycled clothing for a cause."

Additionally, he had worked in the nightclub business for nearly two decades, and had a large social network in fashion and entertainment, meaning he "knew a lot of people with style that had a lot to give." He wanted to give them a way "to offload their high end designer items and at the same time convert their wares into donor dollars."

Tags: charity, designer, designerlaundry, discount, interview, shop