Interview By Natalie Kliewer

𝑬𝒓𝒊𝒏 𝑺𝒐𝒌𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒔𝒌𝒚 is a woman on a mission. Ex ballerina now turned tech wiz kid, she is on the cutting edge of women in business the business of fashion. With her new app Feimso she plans to make fashion as well as creative talent more accessible.

FYI besties – if you sign up to feimso before 16th May you could win $500 worth of Pamu jewellery. Details here.

SP: Hi Erin, Thanks for chatting with us. We see you’ve been very busy with this amazing new project. We are all signed up and have been following your journey with great excitement!

Can you tell us a bit about feimso?

feimso is a digitalisation of the fashion industry, connecting all the elements in one place for what we believe is the first time ever. It’s a place where individuals, brands, businesses and professionals can all come together to socialise, sell, rent, book and shop everything fashion. Our first version has just gone live, and we have some exciting features to release to make it even better after we’ve officially launched. 

SP: Who is the site for?

Remember what YouTube did for Justin Bieber? It put him on the map because people found his talent. Now, TikTok is the platform to discover all kinds of talent. Feimso aims to be that, but specifically for the fashion industry – there is talent everywhere and we want to have a fair, and accessible platform for all parts of the fashion industry to be found in their own niche and empowered to grow and flourish in fashion!For individuals and students it’s an app where they can monetise their wardrobe and fashion assets with rental or selling, or their skills like mending, styling, makeup, modelling, photography etc., for a side hustle or to grow into a business. All of us consume fashion, but don’t get much access or choice in what we buy. We want to empower the individual to have more of a say in fashion. Imagine being able to shop smaller, DIY brands, plus everyone’s closet, as well as the normal brands and options: With feimso, you can!

For businesses, designers, brands and professionals, it’s a place where they can list their products of course, but also be able to monetise other elements like events, classes, coaching, custom or bespoke designs, tailoring and more. The sky is the limit: If it’s fashion, it can be on feimso. 

All users can have access to equipment and tools, find models, MUAs, and other services in the industry and check out all in the one app. It’s a social fashion marketplace, that means visibility and accessibility in a purely fashion-focused target market without the cost of SEO, or targeted ad spend, or diluted hashtags. We find that pretty exciting. It lets professionals focus more time and money on their skills and art, rather than struggling to be seen amongst the sea of everything else on other platforms.

And mostly, it’s for community – everyone belongs on feimso through fashion. There are so many genres, groups and micro trends that people follow, shop and identify with – feimso is the perfect place to list and also find exactly what you’e looking for!

SP: What sets it apart?

We believe it’s the first time a fashion platform has existed with the potential to connect the entire industry. That alone is a powerful thing. We also give small, easy and tangible steps toward sustainability with options in our first version for every user to rent items, and support local – lengthening the life span of products and minimising carbon footprint, alongside access to other brands and products embodying the same values.

How did you come up with the idea / concept?

Ina and myself had a clothing rental company before Covid just renting our own wardrobes out. We styled music videos, models for photo shoots and people going to events. When the pandemic hit, our business all but disappeared. Ina came with the initial idea of a platform connecting others to rent to each other from the comfort of their homes, and together from there the platform evolved with each added idea to cover a whole industry to the tiniest element: From needles and thread, to image editing to modelling to products. Now we’re ready to take over the world and give everyone a voice and a choice in fashion! 😉

You are an international lady. What made you set it up in NZ first?
I originally came for love in 2009. After 7 years, it didn’t work out (that’s life), but I chose to stay after falling in love instead with my amazing friends and the stunning country that as of last year I am now a citizen of. 

SP: What are the future plans, what countries are you taking it to next?

Feimso is my passion so for the next years I plan to work really closely with our users to make sure each of them get the maximum benefit of our platform, and hopefully make meaningful change to an industry that has a lot of pain points and problems. New Zealand always seems to get fashion last of not have the same access to the industry as other countries and my first goal is to change that and shine a light on this country I now call home and all the talent that exists in fashion right here.

Pictured: Erin Sokolowsky and Ina Feimi.

We’re building partnerships and inviting individuals, brands and our first users to populate the marketplace before we launch, which has been extremely exciting to see each new listing go up and see names I don’t know as we grow! I feel excited and nervous about the future and the hundreds of users that have come in a very short time has really made us feel confident that we’re really bringing an app that will make people’s lives better in fashion!

We’re also already working on some amazing partnerships in a few countries at the moment for feimso including Australia, Dubai and Saudi Arabia. It’s an extremely exciting time and with the help of our New Zealand users, we can bring fashion to the world, from the end of the world ; )

You can check Feimso out at www.feimso.com on Facebook, and on Instagram.