An Interview With Monica Sanders
Build a great team. Find good people you believe in and care about. When the company is growing, you need to step down from some responsibilities and learn to trust others doing it as well as you or even better.
As ‘slow fashion’ grows in popularity, more fashion companies are jumping on the bandwagon. Renewable consumption has been gaining popularity for a while, as people recognize its importance, and many fashion companies want to be a part of this change. In this interview series, we are talking to business leaders in the fashion industry to discuss why they are embracing slow fashion and renewable consumption. As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Lovisa Kallstorm.
Lovisa Kallstrom is the Swedish founder behind Worn Vintage, a carefully curated online reseller of pre-loved goods. The vintage shop started as a passion project but Lovisa, having been an avid vintage aficionado for years, found herself reacting adversely to the current climate crisis.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood “backstory”?
I’m born and raised in Stockholm and have always been a creative soul — love to read, create, and design. Growing up in a creative home, where my mother often painted and my father played the piano, I had creative freedom from early on. After high school, I went on to study copywriting and had plans to go into advertising, but when it didn’t feel perfectly right, I navigated toward design and marketing. I’ve been fortunate to work with and learn from creative, innovative, and experienced individuals in my career, and this helped me immensely as I launched my own brand — Worn Vintage.
Can you tell us the story about what led you to this particular career path?
I have worked within the design industry for many years. First in marketing for an interior brand, and then as an editor for a monthly magazine covering design, interior, and art. I loved working with design and the creative process of it. From starting out with an idea to working with the vision until you see the result in front of you. It’s a rewarding feeling of accomplishment.
But this also made me aware of the enormous amount of products being produced and it cemented my intention to work with something more environmentally friendly.
For the past 10 years, as a hobby, I have bought and sold preloved clothes, mainly because I enjoyed it but also to earn a little extra money. Somewhere between my wish to work with something more fulfilling and my passion as a vintage dealer — Worn was born.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I have always been a fan of masculine and oversized clothes. Most of our vintage clothes are men’s clothes, and I love the look of women wearing cool, oversized men’s blazers or jackets. Model Hailey Bieber has a great sense of style and as a style icon of our time, I couldn’t in my wildest dreams think she would be wearing our pieces when I started Worn.
About a year after I founded Worn, a stylist reached out through Instagram saying how much she loved our pieces. After some research, I found out she was styling Hailey Bieber. She asked us to send some jackets for a fitting for Hailey and at first, I couldn’t believe it. About a week later, I was scrolling on Instagram and saw Hailey wearing our vintage leather jacket. It was so surreal! I just stared at the picture for the longest time, it made me feel so proud and happy. It was a turning point for us and the memory will always be a special part of Worn’s journey.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Holistic mindset — I believe there is a glorification around having to work 24/7 year-round to be successful and I don’t agree with that. Don’t work hard, work smart. Humans need time to reset and recover. I try to do long walks every day and many of my best ideas come to me when I’m not working. Solutions to problems or new ideas often appear when my brain has a chance to reload and rest, and thinking differently and challenging my thoughts is, in my opinion, one of my strengths. My holistic thinking, and taking the time to rest and reset, allows me to be more creative.
Good observer — You learn so much by truly listening and studying your environment. Since I was young, I have always been more prone to listen rather than talk, which has been a beneficial trait for me and my success. I have always loved to listen to people and observe them. Being curious about how others think, present themselves, dress, and what their passions are has taught me a lot about myself, my strengths and my weaknesses. A big part of marketing is psychology, which is something I try to continuously learn about from books, podcasts, and studies.
Intuitive — A big part of me is my intuitive side. I try to develop and learn to listen to my gut feeling in every business move. This is not only in my work persona, but also embracing this side in every part of my life. This side is important when you run a business, you need to know yourself very well and know what you want and which direction you want to go towards. You know best about your business and it can be easy to be deluded by other people. One example of when my gut and mind have been in disagreement is when I got a business proposal to do a project with a famous Swedish brand, I hesitated because somehow I didn’t feel passionate about it. It could be a great choice for the brand and would receive tons of press, but I just didn’t feel it. I wrote lists and weighed the pros and cons, but for some reason just couldn’t make up my mind. That’s when I felt the best way to navigate this decision was to tune into my intuition, and it said no. I will never know if it was the right decision but for my gut — it was and I will always feel ok about that.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
A year after I founded Worn, I was contacted by some of the world’s most influential stylists. They had found my brand on Instagram and wanted me to send some pieces to their clients. Some of our pieces were picked by the clients, which are some of the style icons of our time, and from that moment on, we saw a skyrocket in mentions and press as these clients posted pictures online with the pieces and were photographed for their street style. This was the turning point for my brand and I’m beyond grateful for this opportunity.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story of how that was relevant to you in your life?
”You don’t grow on a secure path, to grow and improve you need to be there at the edge of uncertainty.”
This is one of my favorite quotes by the famous chef Francis Mallman. I watched a program with him and was so taken by how he lives life and how he romanticized it. He talks a lot about taking risks in life and how to live to the fullest.
I want to inspire more people to dare to do things they love. Life is beautiful when you jump out into the unknown. I always liked living on the uncertain side but with plenty of freedom. I believe many of us would be a lot happier if we set our own rules. To quit my day job and jump off the classic career path was a big leap into the unknown.
Who is your fashion hero or heroine? Why?
I’m influenced by a lot of people, style-wise, but I would say, Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia. Last year he gave away his company to nonprofit organizations dedicated to fighting the environmental crisis and defending nature. He is an incredible role model who influences people to think more about others. I’m so impressed with how he built the company and stayed true to a mindset of doing good.
Why did you decide to create and use a sustainable business model for your fashion brand?
In today’s market and world, I don’t think there was any other way to start a fashion brand. Knowing what I know and what we continue to read about the climate today — how can I work daily with something that harms our planet? Although our brand is not 100 % sustainable today, we are working hard to improve our business model to be better. In this economy, being profitable while 100% sustainable is a challenge, but I am confident in our efforts to continue doing good.
What are three things we should all know about “slow fashion”?
Slow fashion is usually on the pricier side. The price chain is different and everyone in our chain gets paid a reasonable salary for their work. To make every piece as high quality and as sustainable as possible, great knowledge is needed from workers. Materials can be more expensive but for the most part, they will then be more durable and last the customer longer.
The philosophy of buying fewer clothes in better material won’t threaten jobs for workers if we change the way we shop. If we only accept clothes made ethically, the retailers need to change the way they buy clothes and be willing to pay more for clothes that will last longer.
Be cautious when a brand claims they are sustainable. What does sustainable mean for them? Do your research before buying “sustainable” clothes, some brands are just really good at marketing.
Can you please explain how it can be fashionable to buy less, wait a little longer, or even repair clothing?
I recommend buying timeless pieces and working towards building a capsule wardrobe. Find pieces you love that can easily be styled with the other things in your closet. It’s much easier and more fun to get dressed when you’re not overwhelmed with options and love the pieces you have. Besides going for the classic design, try investing in high-quality materials that will stand the test of time. Don’t wash your clothes too much, some pieces can easily get freshened up by hanging outside or just washing an area of the textile. And if your clothes don’t fit as you wish, find a good tailor to repair flaws, design them for another look or just let the tailor guide you towards something fantastic. A good tailor is a must!
Thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful Slow Fashion Brand”.
- Like what you do. If your goal is to earn money and be successful — I would not recommend it. I think you need to like your work if you want it to succeed. Find what drives you and stick to it. You have to create energy in your business and love it otherwise I think it will be hard to spend every day being passionate about it.
- Build a great team. Find good people you believe in and care about. When the company is growing, you need to step down from some responsibilities and learn to trust others doing it as well as you or even better.
- Work on your emotional intelligence and learn to trust your intuition. When I started my brand, I didn’t realize how many decisions are made by your gut feeling. You have to make a lot of important decisions and you need to learn to trust yourself. It means you need to know yourselves well so I would say to spend a lot of time learning about you and what makes you. Nobody does it like you so trust feelings.
- Ask questions. Find a group of people that you can trust and help you. Try to browse your network of people you admire and ask questions about things you don’t know. You will be surprised how many people want to help. I got so much inspiration and help from other people and having their knowledge has been key to our brand growth.
- Be patient. Good things take time so have patience. We live in a fast-paced world where everything spins so fast. Good brands take time and you need to learn how to navigate everything. I had a vision of 5 years when I started my brand and thought it would take around 5 years to be able to have a salary and employees by then. The brand has grown faster than I thought and that’s amazing but I was not expecting it so it has just been a good surprise.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
About the Interviewer: Monica Sanders JD, LL.M, is the founder of “The Undivide Project”, an organization dedicated to creating climate resilience in underserved communities using good tech and the power of the Internet. She holds faculty roles at the Georgetown University Law Center and the Tulane University Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy. Professor Sanders also serves on several UN agency working groups. As an attorney, Monica has held senior roles in all three branches of government, private industry, and nonprofits. In her previous life, she was a journalist for seven years and the recipient of several awards, including an Emmy. Now the New Orleans native spends her time in solidarity with and championing change for those on the frontlines of climate change and digital divestment. Learn more about how to join her at: www.theundivideproject.org.
Lovisa Kallstrom Of Worn Vintage On Why They Are Embracing Slow Fashion and Renewable Consumption was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.