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About fifteen years ago, the word “secondhand” held a sacrilegious meaning in the trend-chasing epoch of fashion. “People thought that it was a dirty word,” said Rati Sahi Levesque, over the phone from California. “It was like, ‘I don t want to wear other people’s clothes’ or ‘I don’t want to tell people it was used’ and we learned early on that people were keeping it a secret. They wouldn’t share that they were buying secondhand.”
But Levesque underscored the value of shopping secondhand from the get-go. After getting laid off from her corporate job at Wells Fargo, Levesque ventured into retail, working for a local shop and later opening her own store, Anica Boutique. Half of her inventory consisted of the latest from then-emerging designers such as Alexander Wang and Maryam Nassir Zadeh, and the other half were racks of vintage pieces from Dior and Gucci. “I noticed people were buying more on the secondhand rack than they were at the front of the store, which had most of the new designers,” she says. “And some of these pieces were actually priced higher because they were one of a kind.”
Levesque, through a mutual friend, would later meet Julie Wainwright, who had led several companies, including Bellamax and Pets.com. With Levesque’s expertise in fashion retail and Wainwright’s e-commerce and tech-savvy, they launched their e-tailer start-up The RealReal in 2011. “It was a true start-up story. Working in someone’s garage, moving into a small warehouse in a strip mall, just two girls trying to get people on Craigslist to help process items,” Levesque recounted, chuckling over the site’s early days. Today, The RealReal is the world’s largest luxury consignment marketplace, with Levesque at the helm as the company’s president and chief operating officer.
Within the last few years, our collective fashion consciousness has undergone a remarkable transformation, driven in no small part by our growing awareness of climate change. With consumers wanting to shop more responsibly, Levesque’s vision for The RealReal comes as a pioneering force in line with these changing values.
When dressing for work, Levesque highlights the importance of dressing authentically for oneself, much like the company’s name, while striking a balance between personal style and maintaining professionalism. “We encourage everyone to just be authentic, hence the name. That’s a big pillar for us culturally in the company,” she said.
Levesque’s approach to office wear leans towards comfortable classics, subtly infused with a hint of fun. “There are days where I have to be in board meetings and investor calls, and I’m the only woman around the table, so I do think about how much I want to push the envelope—and I always try to push it a little bit!” she regales, adding “it’s interesting, and it becomes a good piece of conversation for people in the room.”
Keep a work uniform
I think it’s great to have an office uniform. I have one, and this is one of them. It’s a Lemaire shirtdress which I paired with brown suede Louboutin boots. I change out my uniform, I’d say every season, but I ll wear the same six or seven things, and that s one of them right now.
Play with textures
I love this oversized suede jacket from Rag Bone because I could just pair it with the vintage Yohji Yamamoto skirt I wear often. I do wear a lot of white and light colors, and just having dark hair, I think it s so flattering. I wear this jacket a lot, either with pants or a skirt—I was even wearing it with pajama pants the other day! It s just an easy one to wear with anything.
You can still stay comfy while looking chic
I wear this look a lot to the office, but I wear this to dinner too! I wear this anywhere, honestly. This is one of my favorite looks just because it s so comfortable. Our head of legal was joking around. He was like, “You can t wear pajamas,” and I said “They re not pajamas!” Okay, dad.
You can never go wrong with an all-black look
I’ve had this dress forever from Vanessa Traina. It’s really flattering and easy and I wear it to weddings—a couple of weddings, actually, like two or three. I love to wear it out at night or to events. The accessories are all Bvlgari and Cartier and I love these earrings, and I tend to wear just a few pieces of jewelry day and night. Keeping it minimal with an all-black look just looks great.
Try mixing high and low
I just love the studs on this Miu Miu skirt, and I’ve been really liking the denim skirt trend right now. I’m also such a fan of the Mary Jane trend. I’ve had these pieces in my closet forever. I love a good T-shirt, and this one—I have eight of them—from Muji! It’s really soft and I buy them in three or four packs just because I go through them so often.
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Embody the California cool
I find it so funny that California looks really warm, but when the weather is in the low 60s, high 50s here, we’re all freezing. So I have a winter look that I wear to the office when it gets cold. I wear it in the winter to work and when I have an event afterward or dinner. I think it’s great to wear to a board meeting or a YPO event where I wanna dress it up a little bit. I just think it looks so cool.
