How this Hong Kong-based startup is mixing fashion with 3D technology

A photo of Sarah Chessis

This article is part of Tech in Asia’s partnership with The Jay Kim Show where we publish the revised transcripts from the show’s podcast interviews with top entrepreneurs. This is heavily revised from the original show transcripts. For the full interview, go here.

This week, I spoke with Sarah Chessis, the founder of Isabella Wren. Isabella Wren is a Hong Kong-based studio dedicated to tailoring professional wear for women. In this interview, Chessis shares how she got into entrepreneurship, how her business started, and the cutting-edge technology that sets it apart in the retail industry.

Who is Sarah Chessis?

I am the founder and CEO of Isabella Wren, which is a custom clothing company. Our focus is professional women, and we have created a marriage of technology with fashion.

I started my career in London as a stockbroker. That career in finance went on for almost 20 years. At the time, everything was exploding with hedge funds, and things were getting busier and busier. Then, I stopped, as I didn’t get to the point where I could marry and have children.

I always wanted to be a fashion designer back then. I was told that I was good but not good enough to pursue fashion design. So, I did it as a hobby. Then, I had the opportunity to come to Hong Kong and set up an online store.

I think I had ideas that were fairly commercial and I felt I wanted to be in charge of my own destiny. It was my dream to have a fabulous showroom full of wonderful clothes made of fabulous fabrics. And any individual could walk in and choose any garment and customize it to exactly the way they wanted it. That was the vision when I started the business.

There were two big obstacles when I started the business:

• It was very difficult to get clothes to fit.
• Nobody wanted to manufacture for me because manufacturers wanted 5,000 units—not one—every single garment we produced was unique.

Did you have a fallback plan?

No, I didn’t have that. I did go back into banking, working for a very good friend of mine in Hong Kong. Her company had recently opened an office in Singapore, and they needed a responsible officer.

On the financing side, I thought that if I didn’t raise any money, it wasn’t meant to be. But two people gave me money. And then two years later, I raised some more money with a family office fund, which I used for the development of my company’s technology.

Going back to the two big obstacles, I became an accidental geek as I solved the problem. I don’t know anything about technology. But I’m very fortunate that I am here in this particular industry at a time when technologies like 3D body scanners and 3D CAD software are available, which just didn’t exist five years ago. We’re now using algorithmic coding.

Tell us more about the business

Remember that I was in sales and banking, so I had to wear suits. It was just really hard to find something nice. And when I did find something, it never fitted very well.

You also tend to wear the same thing over and over again. And since you’ll sit in that suit for a long time, they need to be well-made. I didn’t seem to be the only person that had these pain points, that’s why I set up Isabella Wren.

At what point did you incorporate technology?

What are your future plans for Isabella Wren?

What advice could you share with entrepreneurs?