Meet Rossanna Ceccato | CEO & Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rossanna Ceccato and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rossanna, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
As a former compulsive fashion consumer myself, I accumulated an incredible amount of clothes that were only used once, twice, or worst never used. I knew I was not going to put them on, I didn’t want to donate or discard those pieces as they were new or almost new. On the other hand, selling them was not an option, they would give me peanuts for them. Then I thought Swaps were the fairest and simplest way to renew your wardrobe without spending much money, just to realize people come in all shapes and sizes, moreover, personal preferences are unlimited and that is why a large-scale swapping platform would never work or scale. Then the idea behind Redress came to my mind as a digital platform where users can exchange their barely quality used garments for pieces in our inventory, which is constantly being nourished by those same users.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I have worked for more than 14 years in the fashion industry. I have had more than 8 different retail and wholesale ventures in Venezuela, Colombia, and the US, through which I manufactured, sold and resold more than 2 million garments for clients. More importantly, as a former compulsive fashion consumer myself, I accumulated an incredible amount of clothes that were only used once, twice, or worst never used. Just like my clients or the clients of my clients, even though I knew I was not going to put them on, I didn’t want to donate or discard those pieces as they were new or almost new. On the other hand, selling them was not an option, they would give me peanuts for them. Then when I move to the U.S I read that more than 74M people were second-hand apparel friendly consumers and that a large portion of them shared the same frustration when trying to monetize the pieces in their closet. With the money they obtained in resale sites they would need to sell several pieces to acquire an equivalent to any of the ones they sold on such same platforms. This shared feeling led me to remember that when I was younger and as money was not abundant, changing clothes with my cousins was a great and fun option so we could wear different outfits to our common friend’s parties. Swaps are the fairest and simplest way to renew your wardrobe without spending much money I thought, just to realize immediately after how lucky I was that my female cousins had sort of the same body type, age, and style as me. What would have happened if they were taller, shorter, skinnier, chubbier, or if I did not like the way they dressed? People come in all shapes and sizes, moreover, personal preferences are unlimited and that is why a large-scale swapping platform would never work or scale. Finding matches would take so much time or even never happen. With this dilemma in mind, I conducted a simple experiment; I bought some dresses, and together with a couple of mines, I invited some of my Instagram followers over to my place to exchange their barely used clothes with this improvised inventory. As the dresses I bought were from different sizes and styles there was something for everybody to immediately swap. Then the idea behind Redress came to my mind as a digital platform where users can exchange their barely quality used garments for pieces in our inventory, which is constantly being nourished by those same users.

80% of women think they have nothing to wear even if their closets are packed. Impulse by social media they don’t want to be seen more than twice with the same garments. Mint-condition garments are generally not donated staying for years in the closet. Women have tried to do something with the clothing they no longer use on secondhand platforms, but they get extremely frustrated. Resale sites only let them recoup a minimal fraction (30% or less) of the original cost of their pieces, rent doesn’t allow them to monetize what they already have in your closet, and swaps services are until now limited by one-to-one matching transactions. Redress allows users to immediately exchange their barely quality used garments for pieces in our inventory, which is constantly being nourished by those same users. Through our platform, users will be able to renew their wardrobes recouping up to 90% of the original cost of their garments (not in money but in an equivalent or even better piece) while helping the planet by reducing their carbon footprint. With every 1,000 Redress swaps, our community saves more than 1K pounds of fashion waste from ending in landfills, around 18K gallons of drinking water, and reduces around 4K pounds of CO2 of carbon footprint.

Having recently migrated to the US, being a woman and latina didn’t make this easy. Most people asked me why I didn’t start a beauty parlor, rather than thinking about how to disrupt an industry. But after proving myself and others wrong by being accepted and graduating from the largest and most prestigious startup accelerators out there, with a huge effort and hopes we launched our MVP in September 2021 in the Miami area, since then we have grown 20% per month, organically generating to date a community of more than 20,000 social media followers, and transacted more than 3,000 paid swaps, with a recurrence rate of over 70%.

More importantly, Redress was invited as a speaker to the TEDx Game Changers edition talks to spread the idea of how we can change the way the world consumes fashion, one dress at a time.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Would start with brunch at Cafe Bastille in Downtown Miami, a cute small place with the best eggs benedict I ever had.

Then would have a walk at the Vizcaya Gardens to later move to South Point to get a drink by the seaside.

Just when we are getting a little peckish would head to Barceloneta to have a pint of sangria and the best garlic shrimp, pata negra and pan tomaca in the world.

Sunset needs to be at Joia beach where the music and atmosphere are amazing.

Then would dance the night away in my favorite Cuban spot Ball and Chain in calle 8, not before getting some incredible Thai food very near at Lung Yai tapas.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to thank my hidden Co-Founder and partner in crime, my husband,

Matias thanks for supporting my wildest dreams even when in doubt.

Website: www.myredress.ocm

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myredressofficial/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/myredressofficial/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/myredress