Celebrity wardrobes for sale
Ever wondered where those A-list outfits go after the red carpet? This is ebay for the rich and famous, says Bethan Holt
Sharon Wolter-ferguson has a philosophy that she calls “semi-sensible shopping”. Earlier this summer, she bought herself two new dresses and hats for Royal Ascot. The sensible part? “As I was buying them, I was thinking, which one will sell better afterwards?” Then there’s the silver Dior handbag that she recently acquired. “I was in Selfridges, and saw that they have the same bag in this gorgeous deep berry colour. I just stood and stared at it. The lady said, ‘Don’t you already have this? You’ll have to buy it in the other colour’, and I thought, well, that means the silver one will have to go, and then I can have the new one. It’s liberating.”
She may be a self-confessed “absolute shopaholic” but the 54-year-old has turned her love of the new – and need to sell the old in order to buy said new – into a business. We’re sitting in her plush office at HEWI London’s new headquarters – the basement of a Marylebone town house. Wolter-ferguson is as glamorous as you’d expect – even her trainers are wedged Isabel Marants. HEWI (an acronym of “Hardly Ever Worn It”) is the website that she runs with her daughters, Natalya, 25, and Tatiana, 27. The business has become a platform for the rich and famous to
discreetly sell their unwanted designer pieces. The site’s client list includes Sienna Miller, Tamara Ecclestone and a host of A-list names who prefer to remain anonymous – even Kate Moss has sent pieces in the past.
“I open magazines and, often, most people in there sell with HEWI, but their privacy is important,” says Wolter-ferguson, who offers a concierge service for VIP sellers, to help them edit their wardrobes and choose what to sell. “Normal” sellers (still dripping in designer goods) can upload too, but everything is checked, and everything is high end.
Thanks to fair pricing, super-fast next-day delivery and a personal approach to customer service, HEWI has become as much a hit with buyers as with sellers. And while Wolter-ferguson is on first-name terms with most of the shop assistants in Selfridges, that doesn’t stop her from enjoying the odd “pre-loved” designer splurge herself – her outfit of shiny-buttoned Balmain blazer, black cropped trousers by Haider Ackermann and Balenciaga heels has been sourced from the site.
Second-hand clothing wasn’t always on her radar; far from it, in fact. A “Lancashire lass” originally, she met her first husband – a Dutch businessman and the father of her daughters – in Stringfellows, having become friends with Peter’s thenwife Coral when they studied beauty therapy together. They were engaged after three months. “If I had my eye on something, he’d be very kind,” she remembers, “even after the divorce, he was generous.” By then, she was living in Monaco and trying to keep up with the indefatigable pressure of the very wealthy to fill their wardrobes with newseason buys. “If we sat at a bar, we’d all put our bags down and there would be a 30-second glance around as we checked each other’s out. Anything old was a no-no.” And while that must sound like extreme wealth compared to most of us, Wolter-ferguson compares herself to the
1 per cent instead. “I wasn’t Birkin range – but I’d love to treat myself to a Chanel bag,” she adds. “If I hadn’t needed to, I’ll be honest, I would have stopped”, but after the credit crunch her ex-husband asked if there was anything she could do to help with the girls’ school and university fees.
The idea for HEWI London came following a last minute invite to the Red Cross Ball (a highlight of Monaco’s social calendar). “I called my friend, who had a pre-owned designer shop, in a bit of a panic. She sent a few options and I ended up wearing this fabulous Alberta Ferretti chiffon number. It was originally £10,000 but I paid under £1,000. My dress was one of the most fabulous of the night.”
And so HEWI London was born, the internet’s answer to Helen’s Monaco storefront. “The next thing to deal with was my confidence,” she says. “It felt slightly ridiculous – how am I going to do this? I could only just send an email. I went to meet these three website guys in Liverpool, and I think they thought all their heavens had come at once; I knew nothing about tech.”
Five years on, Wolter-ferguson has tapped a who’s who of the advertising and tech worlds for help. Business advice comes from her “male best friend in Monaco”, Stelios Haji-ioannou, the founder of easyjet; Sir John Hegarty, the advertising legend, is on the board; and Sophie Cornish, Notonthehighstreet.com’s founder, has invested. Everywhere you click on the site today lies temptation. There’s a Chanel cashmere top for £290, Saint Laurent stiletto cowboy boots for £175, an Alexander Mcqueen nipped waist jacket for £180. On a shelf in Wolter-ferguson’s office sits a Birkin bag being sold by a Middle Eastern royal (yours for £35,000), while a £1,250 sequinned Prada jacket glistens by the window. The average item will sell within a few hours or days, rather than languishing for months, as can happen on other sites. Wolter-ferguson maintains that this is thanks to her meticulous attention to detail. “I’m finicky. I can’t stand seeing an item on the website that doesn’t look right. I can get so upset – but then, it’s like my baby.”
‘I open magazines and, often, most people in there sell with HEWI’