Students collaborate on recycled clothing website

A mild-mannered tech guy and a feminist fashionista may seem like an odd couple in business, but the pair may be well on their way to striking fashion gold.

Styleta.org, a student run nonprofit sample sales website, was the brainchild of IU senior Le Wang and recent Harvard graduate Yifan Zhang.

The site offers discounted high-end designer wear from Armani, Chanel and others.
The twosome first met at Carmel High School.  

Wang, as Zhang explained it, said he was looking for a new project where he could apply his technology skills. Zhang said she was looking for a new business partner.
Out of their collaboration, Styleta was born.

“I noticed that there are a lot of affluent women around me who didn’t have a place to donate their clothing,” Zhang said. 

Goodwill and the Salvation Army weren’t the best market for high-end clothes, and Zhang said she loves shopping for thrifty designer duds.

“The thing is, a lot of these women are really busy,” she said. “Styleta is a way to make it easy for them to donate their clothes and easy for people like me, who love to shop for pricey clothes at affordable prices.”

Styleta’s proceeds support charities, such as Dress For Success, which gives women interview attire for their first jobs to support their families. Proceeds also benefit the Indiana branch of Volunteers for America.

Wang, who built Styleta.org from the ground up once the concept was hatched last December, said he admittedly was not a fashion guy.

But this summer he said he acquired a taste for trends and threads when he and Zhang went to New York City to throw their idea around to major retailers and boutiques.

He said he even got to meet fashion designer Vera Wang.

Though Le Wang said he is interested in promoting women’s fashion, he is making sure Styleta turns a profit.

Styleta recently had a competition for aspiring student designers under the theme
“reuse.”

From the 150 entries from the around the world, six winners were chosen.

The winners won the opportunity to sell their clothes on the website, as well as exclusive features in hercampus.com, collegefashionista.com and ecocouture.com.

Wang acts as the chief operations officer, and Zhang is the founder.

With that clout, it was still challenging to present Styleta to designers in New York.

“The idea is new, it’s rare for there to be a nonprofit in fashion,” Zhang said. “But people love an innovative idea, so I think the fact that we were students is appealing to people.”