New Start-up Fitz Wants to Be in Your Closet
New start-up Fitz — by entrepreneur Alexandra Wilkis Wilson — wants to be in your closet.
The in-home concept provides for a consultation with two personal stylists who evaluate one’s closet — men’s or women’s — over a three-hour period for $300. The service includes an editing of what’s functional, recommendations on what to resell, donate or tailor, and recommendations on what to buy — with direct links to the specific items — to coordinate with what remains in the newly edited closet.
The vetted stylists are from design schools, media publications, fashion houses and retailers. According to Wilkis Wilson, the team now totals 30 and many have been freelancers at Barneys New York, Bergdorf Goodman and J. Crew.
Wilkis Wilson cofounded the early-stage concept with J. Michael Cline, a serial entrepreneur who founded 13 firms. She’s known for cofounding flash-sale site Gilt Groupe and as the former chief executive officer of in-home, beauty service app Glamsquad.
The cofounder said she learned a lot from her years at Gilt and Glamsquad, whether it’s about consumer shopping behavior online, impulse buying or setting up a working community of freelancers.
She added that the shift in mind-set that’s focused on services rather than things is led by Millennials who are valuing experiences. “They are less obsessed with the accumulation of things. The accumulation of luxury goods doesn’t have the same status to a Millennial as a Gen Xer or Baby Boomer. The companies that are growing quickly are Rent the Runway, The Real Real — consumers aren’t as attached to things. You can buy then you can resell,” Wilkis Wilson said.
Fitz has a partnership with The Container Store and can sell organizational items while working with clients. Since its beta launch in November, the company has also serviced clients who live in the surrounding New York suburbs, whether in Connecticut or Westchester, N.Y., New Jersey or Long Island. Fitz is scouting locations in Greenwich, Conn., for its expansion phase, likely in the next month or two.
The company also has sent two of its stylists to be Marie Kondo-certified — there are only 11 in the U.S. — for which Wilkis Wilson described the decluttering training as “very involved, a lot of work and expensive.”
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