Meet Hasna Kourda – CEO & Co-Founder Of Save Your Wardrobe, A Fashion App For Sustainable Living
If you look into your closet, you’ll find it overflowing with clothes and yet you always stick to those same two jeans, that one black skirt, and one overpriced jacket that you bought while impulse shopping. Ever wondered why? – one of the main reasons is you don’t like wearing half of the clothes that you own.
In our daily lives, we don’t get the time to sit and organise our closets and go through the heap of clothes to find something new to wear. Hence, to make your life easier and better, there comes to Save Your Wardrobe – is a digital wardrobe management app. This app allows you to live your Clueless dream. From uploading every garment you own, categorizing by colour, style and mood to planning and tracking your outfits – this app lets you take control over your entire closet from your phone.
Inspired by her grandmother, who believed in circularity and showed her how to make the most of each textile, Hasna Kourda started Save Your Wardrobe back in 2017 in London with the hope of making consumers more aware of their after-purchase behaviour. This app not only helps to get more wear out of our clothes but also to look after them. In the UK, after housing, transport and food, clothing has the fourth-largest environmental impact and more than half of fast-fashion items are thrown away in less than a year. Therefore, Hasna is on a mission to streamline sustainable living through her startup. From sourcing eco-friendly dry cleaning and repair services to upcycling garments, the sustainability-driven app helps you care for your clothes, making them last much longer – a noble goal considering that extending the active life of a garment by as little as nine months can reduce its carbon footprint by 20-30%.
This app uses AI to help people categorize the clothes they already own and come up with new combinations without buying new garments – helping users to save time while planning an outfit as well as stopping them from impulse buying. Users can also donate their clothes and purchase upcycled garments through the app.
Since its launch, they have been successful in avoiding nearly 9500 kg of CO2 emissions, 23.5M GHG emissions, which is equivalent to a passenger car, and so far recycled 3223 tonnes of waste, which otherwise would have ended up in the landfill. Apart from making a positive impact on the environment, they also step forward to make their audience aware of sustainability by introducing 12 Steps To Fashion Citizenship and hosting the “Save Your Wardrobe Sessions” on Zoom every week with influential speakers. Some of their speakers include Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large, Natalie Hammond, Fashion News and Features Editor at Grazia, Anna Foster, Founder of E.L.V Denim, Lauren Bravo, Fashion Journalist and Author, among others.
Recently, the startup has secured £2.5 million in seed funding, which it’ll use to bolster its technology platform and expand within Europe. Hasna Kourda stated, “Technology is at the forefront of our business and this investment allows us to deliver on our mission to be pioneers in the circular fashion movement, with the most innovative technology to eradicate throw-away culture.”
- Mohor Bhattacharjee