News, The Business

Lauren Santo Domingo’s Online Trunk Show Startup Has Already Raised $1.15 million

By Lauren Sherman Thursday, Aug 19, 2010 / 11:46 AM

We’d heard rumblings last month that Lauren Santo Domingo was launching an online trunk show business. According to a Form D filed recently, that’s very true.

In fact, Trunk Show Inc. has already raised a $1.15 million venture capital round, led by New Atlantic Ventures, a firm that usually offers seed money to young companies. Their investments typically run between $500,000 and $5 million.

Trunk Show’s concept is simple: The site will livestream fashion shows, and members–we’re assuming it’ll be by-invite-only–will be able to order looks almost immediately, straight from the designers/manufacturers. We’re also assuming some designers will offer a 10-30% discount, given that most designers offer a small discount at their trunk shows.

Santo Domingo’s partner in this thing is Aslaug Magnusdottir, who used to work for Marvin Traub at TSM Capital.

If this is executed well, it could be freaking amazing. The concept takes the best of Net-a-Porter and Gilt Groupe and combines them into one powerhouse that could further democratize fashion.


Tags:

Comments [6]

esse says:
@ 3:50 PM / 19 Aug 2010

This could be the best thing since sliced bread…though not so much for my bank account!

theworkinggirlesq.blogspot.com

Reply
RashomonRebel says:
@ 5:21 PM / 19 Aug 2010

“*Marc Jacobs (loved the looks on the runway, but went into the store and the quality of the garments seems to have taken quite a dip)”

I told you not to go into the outlet store!
http://ny.racked.com/uploads/2007_08_marc%20jacobs%20outlet.jpg

Reply
Disneyrollergirl says:
@ 9:24 PM / 19 Aug 2010

I still don’t get how buy-straight-from-the-show works. I thought the 6 months between showing the garment and it landing in store was to give time for the fabric to be ordered and the garment to be made and shipped. Do people really put in an order for something, then wait weeks for delivery? Aren’t they over it by then? Or is this how the other half lives?

Reply
Anonymous says:
@ 12:04 AM / 20 Aug 2010

I was wondering that too. The article said “order almost immediately” – does that mean you wait for actual delivery? Also the discount – given that basic retail markup is 100%, does that mean that the trunk show organiser take about 30% leaving the rest as a discount for the client?

Reply
lucy says:
@ 1:38 PM / 20 Aug 2010

i wonder if the term “democratization of fashion” is being over-used/misused. The Internet has enabled fashion to reach out to more people, many of whom were incurious, suspicious or afraid of and insecure about dressing up.
Online sites have given confidence to women to make buying decisions on their own. But does it really mean that fashion is “democratic” and every woman can now buy a Balenciaga or Lanvin if she wants to?
I think 99 per cent will still debate the niceties of fashion, but the ability to buy is still proscribed.

Reply
Gisele says:
@ 3:53 PM / 20 Aug 2010

if anyone needs the invite to Gilt, here it’s http://www.gilt.com/invite/egisele

Reply

Leave a comment