By Emily Latimer
Less than 1% of UK venture funding goes to all-female teams, and the figure is even lower for ethnic minority lead businesses according to the Gov Rose Review. Additionally, women-owned businesses win less than 5% of corporate and public sector contracts and only one in three UK entrepreneurs are female.
Nina Evangeli, 24 is one of these and shares what inspired her to start her business, the struggles of managing one on her own and why sustainability and body diversity are so important to it.
Did you know that the majority of our clothes returns end up in landfill and that this contributes 15 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year? I didn’t until I was introduced to Desyr an online shopping app developed by Nina.
Desyr aims to show clothes that are rated and reviewed by everyday people like us. You can see clothes on real women of all sizes, body shapes and skin tones to get an idea of how they might look on you. The aim is to make online shopping less of a nightmarish experience and to break the cycle of clothes going to landfill, in doing so making an environmental difference.
Nina is the one-woman-band behind this business. I meet her on Zoom and she’s wearing a bright baggy jumper and minimal makeup. Not the ‘stereotype’ of what you might expect for someone who runs a fashion business, but a reminder that in 2021 women can show up as they please.
“I had a bit of a crisis when I first started that people wanted me to be some kind of fashionista when I’ve never really been that person,” she says. “But building a business around a ‘fashion thing’ doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be a fashion designer or an influencer. I’ve always wanted it to be more about the brand than about me. I’m primarily a businesswoman so it doesn’t really matter what I’m wearing, it’s what I’m saying at the end of the day.”
Nina started Desyr when she was only 22. She was inspired to start a business at a young age due to the fact she’s always liked to do a bit of everything: “I’ve always been the kind of person that wants to come up with the idea, execute it and deliver it. When it came to the summer of my third year at university and everyone was applying for jobs, I felt like my life was ending. The thought of applying to a job just felt so restricting,” she says.
Whilst for many starting a business can be a hugely daunting task, Nina was inspired by people she follows online who encourage you to take risks. “Don’t let fear guide your life, let optimism, hope and excitement guide your decisions,” she says, radiating a similar level of confidence.
But as if starting a business fresh out of university wasn’t brave enough, Nina was also someone who knew little about business before she started. According to HM Treasury, this is something which isn’t uncommon with only 39% of women confident in their capabilities to start one compared to 55% of men.
“I decided to study a Business Masters because I wanted to equip myself with knowledge so that I don’t need to rely on anyone else,” she says.
Yet despite such optimism, it’s clear that running a business isn’t all it’s often glamorised to be and as with anything there are always privilege barriers: “I think being a woman trying to start a business with a small amount of money by myself I have to be on my game more,” she tells me.
What advice would she give to those wanting to start their own business? “Resilience, financial management and motivation are probably the three hardest things.”
“You’re not just in one role, you’re wearing ten different hats at the same time. I can’t allow myself to act like I’m unemployed because I have no one to report to. If I want this to work, I have to do stuff for it,” she says.
As well as this Nina highlights there is a lot of acceptance of being poor: “People don’t understand others’ financial position until they are in it. I’m just working for myself to get Desyr off the ground, and that’s a hard part of it.”
It’s easy for us as consumers to only see the good side but it’s clear this is only half of it: “There have been times when I’ve had mental breakdowns and thought I can’t do this anymore, I just want a job. It’s so easy to want to give up. I think everyone has imposter syndrome and self-doubt but the key is to be resilient, allowing yourself to feel that way and then dusting yourself off."
Nina suggests resting is the key to not burning out and I’m reminded of an Aja Barber quote: “If you’re not going to quit, you’ve got to learn to rest.”
She tells me: “It is tough because I can never fully switch off, there are some nights where I won’t sleep because I’m thinking of all the things I have to do. I often envy people with a 9-5 who can genuinely not do anything on their days off and not feel guilty. The separation between work and life is all a bit of a blur. So, I think the key thing is wanting to do what you do and enjoying it. If I didn’t believe in Desyr and love it, I wouldn’t have carried on.”
Desyr now has 940 users and 440 reviews, so this hard work is paying off and the community is thriving. But Desyr is more than just a shopping app and Nina states: “I wanted it to be a place about positivity”.
She explains: “When I buy online often things look completely different online to what arrives in the post box and it’s frustrating. Then the more I got into it, the more I realised these models all look the same and as a conventional size eight, white woman I hadn’t even noticed it because they’re all made for me. So, I thought if I’m getting frustrated imagine being a dark-skinned black woman, who is 5ft 10 and size 20! Imagine trying to shop online it would just be horrific. So, I thought how can I help them as well”.
She continues: “I wanted it to be a nice community to shop online as opposed to just having 20 tabs of different websites sat on your own”. A struggle all of us can relate to with lockdown restricting our ability to shop in person.
But alongside calling yourself a ‘sustainable brand’ there comes a lot of responsibility, something Nina is aware of. “Sometimes I get a bit worried because we’re talking about sustainability but then people will review things about fast fashion and the two don’t go together. But at the same time, people have messaged me and been like you’re great because you’re talking and educating about sustainability but not in a preachy way and that’s exactly what I wanted to do.'
She laughs and adds: “It’s difficult because we live in a society where there are billions of people all around the world and the only way you can be truly sustainable is if you build yourself a mud hut and go plant berries!”
But whilst Nina is rightfully critical of her brand, it’s important to acknowledge that we can’t solve all issues at once. Creating Desyr to reduce landfill is a step in the right direction and arguably it’s down to us as consumers which brands, we review on it.
“Not everyone can shop sustainably,” she adds. “Plus size women don’t always have the option as there are limited companies who do curve fashion. It’s unfair and hypocritical to expect these women to shop in the same two shops.”
She continues: “I think it’s better to create a space where people are nice as opposed to shouting at people about sustainability. I think education and small steps are the ways to go rather than trying to completely overthrow the fashion industry.”
An attitude less radical than it could be, but one which is understandable. Nina also points out, whilst companies have a huge responsibility to be sustainable, we as consumers also have a responsibility to support those companies who are making the effort.
Ultimately, Nina says the absolute dream is for people to be able to measure how much they are helping the environment through using Desyr. Plus she smiles: “for Desyr to become the UK’s number one shopping platform”.
So, with such great ambitions, Desyr is definitely the platform we should all be signing up to.