Teegan Garton, the founder and director behind the newly launched re-loved fashion marketplace, Remi, is on a mission to make reselling more accessible and centralised. In this Q&A, we explore Teegan’s career journey, what inspired her to create Remi, and her hopes for the platform. “While we are transparent in the fact that we aren’t reinventing the wheel, I think by making reselling more accessible, we can inspire a mindset shift,” she says. Garton envisions Remi becoming an everyday habit, where phrases like “I’ll check on Remi” or “sell it on Remi” become second nature, supporting the growing circular fashion movement.
In conversation with Teegan Garton:
Tell us a bit about you, your background and your career to date:
My name is Teegan, I’m 32 years old and I have five beautiful children, two of my own and three that came into my life when I met my husband Kyle. I grew up in Auckland, loved gymnastics throughout my childhood and competed in the 2006 Commonwealth Games, studied six years at university and became a radiographer. I lived in France for six years where I travelled, had my son and lived through an incredibly isolating time through Covid overseas. In 2021, I moved back to New Zealand just before my daughter was born to begin navigating a new life as just the three of us.
What inspired you to create Remi, and how did your personal experiences shape its development?
In France there is one really popular resale platform that is essentially the household name for buying or selling second season clothing. I used this a lot when I lived there, and upon moving back to New Zealand with one suitcase, I thought buying second hand would be a lot easier than it was. I found that although there were a lot of resell destinations in New Zealand, I didn’t have the time to follow and check each one for what I was looking for. Most came up short on their user friendliness and accessibility and highlighted the need for a one stop shop in New Zealand. Thus Remi was born.
How does Remi differentiate itself from other re-loved fashion marketplaces currently available?
We wanted to take all the good parts of established reselling spaces and bring it onto one platform while keeping people, community and circularity as key drivers. The platform itself is attractive and user friendly. It was made with individuals, side hustlers, resellers, business entrepreneurs and community/charity users in mind. It emphasises a social experience allowing following, notifications of profiles you like, a two way support of influencer and reseller pages and growth through social interaction. Remi is not niche, its branding and platform allows for a wide range of users/products and missed opportunities such as men’s fashion/content. Ultimately we believe by having one platform that does everything, re-sell will become more accessible, centralised and in support of a higher call towards a circular fashion movement. Remi was created in support of resellers, not in competition with.
What were the key challenges you faced in making Remi user-friendly and search-efficient, and how did you overcome them?
If anyone buying in the re-sell space is like myself, then as a buyer I often already know what I am searching for – some new shoes for my son, or a coat for winter for example. I wanted to ensure that when searching categorically for something (size, colour etc) that, that was what came up. I recognised this was missing within other re- sell spaces – the ability to actually find what I was looking for. Although a perfect system is not possible, these two functions are at the heart of our platform design and something we will always be working to improve. User-friendliness means the platform is easy to navigate and use, the payment is seamless and information handover is automatic. Life is busy for everyone, and my goal is to make Remi so user-friendly that it becomes a go-to for all.
What role do fashion opinion leaders like Jessie Kirk, Josh Young, and Abby Plested play in promoting Remi? How did these collaborations come about?
Fashion can be a beautiful expression of who we are and whilst fast fashion often dictates what is ‘on trend,’ what I love about the people we have worked with is that their style reflects what is personally meaningful to them. Their fashion expresses their individuality and even as I follow them I am inspired by their content for lots of different reasons. We always want our collaborations to add value to those that use Remi and follow us. Jessie, Josh and Abby have all brought their own style to promoting Remi and in fact Jessie is going to be doing a fun collab with us in the next few months so follow along to be a part of that.
As a single mum of two, how do you balance the demands of entrepreneurship with your personal life?
Being a single mum and trying to make business dreams come to life taught me and pushed me into more than I ever thought possible. I learnt so much about myself, to trust myself and that being a mum and a business owner could both coexist and help to leverage perception and understanding. Practically I try to be present when each area demands my time, lean on my support system and to constantly take note of where I am at personally.
What advice would you give to other mothers/parents looking to start their own business?
This may be controversial but remove the word ‘balance’ from your vocabulary. For me balance implies that there is a scale and that putting more effort into one thing makes away from another. I believe that you can be successful in all areas of your life, as a parent, as a friend and as a business owner. It’s understanding that those areas might look a little different in different seasons of them all but that’s okay. Also, you are worth the effort, you are worth your dreams and celebrating each small step you are taking.
Quick-fire questions
The most cherished item in my home is… My fridge (haha), it’s covered head to toe in my kids drawings. It’s such an eye saw but special to them. And also the fridge is where the chocolate is kept (controversial?).
My favourite place to dine… At the beach with fish and chips.
My next holiday destination… Australia to visit family and a little business too.
Best pre-loved fashion find… I found the most amazing pair of Italian leather boots at a small op shop in Palmerston North, they have done me three winters now and I don’t plan on stopping wearing them any time soon.
My guilty pleasure TV show or movie is… The Rookie – every season just gets better!
Album/artist on repeat right now… I am going to Neyo in October so am currently living in a throwback, relive highschool era of music, haha.
Three beauty products I can’t live without… My Emma Lewisham Vitale Elixir Serum, my Dior Forever powder foundation (school run lifesaver) and my No Nasties detangler hairbrush (for the bird’s nest that is my daughters hair in the morning
Images: Supplied.
