My Ex Wardrobe in Abu Dhabi

Pop-up retail initiative My Ex Wardrobe is helping the city’s spendthrifts sell unwanted clothes. Jenny Hewett tries the service for size.

Clothes-hoarding is a vice that some have down to a fine art, but it can wreak havoc on your wardrobe and severely diminish your style cred. As most lovers of fashion know, there comes that time in every season when you have to let go of the once prized threads that are no longer doing it for you. It can take you weeks, months, sometimes years to realise that you had lost interest in a piece long ago, but were holding on to it for sentimental or monetary reasons. While many of us are quick to donate our old things to charity, there is another option for those looking to make back a quick buck on expensive unwanted items.

UAE-based pop-up retail initiative My Ex Wardrobe offers a platform for people to buy and sell pre-loved items at a discounted rate. Run by British-born sisters Sian and Teagan Rowlands, the pop-up label holds events in Dubai and Abu Dhabi every month and will sell your clothes for a fee. ‘We cater to all sorts of sellers, but one thing they all have in common is they are all fashionable,’ says Sian. After notifying the team of our interest to sell, we were sent an easy-to-follow Excel spreadsheet to provide a detailed list of the items we were parting with. There is an admin fee that varies depending on whether you are selling up to 20 or 40 pieces, and My Ex Wardrobe takes 25 per cent commission on whatever you make over Dhs500. We wonder if our clothes, which are on the petite side, will appeal to their audience. ‘Mostly we sell the middle-range sizes, UK 8-14, but occasionally we have one or two larger or smaller sellers, and when that happens we try to contact buyers who we know are looking for those sizes,’ says Sian. ‘We have lots of regular customers who we see at every event, so it’s great to be able to keep an eye out for special things we know they want. It’s the same with shoe sizes as well – for example, one woman has pretty much guaranteed she will buy any size 37 Louboutins we get in,’ she says.

And so begins the task of sorting our wardrobe and deciding how much we should sell each piece for. My Ex Wardrobe suggests pricing items at 45 per cent less than what you paid if it’s well-loved and up to 25 per cent if it’s never been worn, but we decide to slash them further to make more sales. We leave no corner of our closet unturned and list everything from heels and hats to designer dresses and cheap chain-store buys that are still in good condition.

Overall, the process takes about two hours over a couple of nights, but if you consider the effort it would take to organise a stall at a market, it’s no big deal. We throw our once-loved items into plastic bags and arrange pick-up from My Ex Wardrobe for an extra Dhs50 fee (you can also deliver items to their warehouses in various locations at no cost). The pick-up time is pushed back a couple of times, but our items are eventually taken away to be tagged and prepared for the event.

The sale itself is all very professional: clothes have price tags and are displayed on racks, and there are changing rooms and a cash register for any purchases. We spy everything from pricy Jimmy Choo courts to Dhs50 bags. Four days after the event, as promised, we are sent an email informing us that we had sold 12 items and made over Dhs1,100 with the commission deducted. Not too bad a result after listing 40 items. The option is there to then have your clothes returned or donated to charity after the event and 14 days later we receive cash-in-hand and the delivery of the remaining clothes to our office. Delivery is again charged at an extra Dhs50. The delivery and pick-up needs a little fine-tuning, but otherwise it’s an easy and streamlined service that’s really worth giving a go if your clothes are of good quality you and think you can make over Dhs1,000. We suggest pooling with friends and splitting the admin fee.
Dhs150 admin fee for 20 pieces; Dhs250 for 40 pieces. www.myexwardrobe.com

More market places

Sheraton Flea Markets
These run quarterly, proceeds go to charity and anyone can buy a table at the event. It’s well turned out, too.
Sheraton Abu Dhabi Hotel & Resort, Abu Dhabi Corniche (02 677 3333).

Dubizzle
Want to sell your phone, car or boat? This website is a treasure trove for all types of second-hand goods.
abudhabi.dubizzle.com

Souq
A buy-and-sell website that services the whole of the UAE.
www.souq.com