Brass officially launched with an e-commerce offering five women’s dresses ranging from $75 to $125, manufactured by a Chinese factory that also manufactures products for high-end brands such as BCBG Max Azria, Tory Burch and DVF.
Sara Castellanos
Technology Reporter- Boston Business Journal
Fashion-related businesses in Greater Boston have become a burgeoning sector in the startup world — and who would have thought?
A year ago, there were grumblings in entrepreneurial circles about how difficult it was to launch a fashion-related, business-to-consumer startup in Boston, a city known by many as a mecca for business-to-business technology and innovation.
Likely adding fuel to that notion was Birchbox, a successful subscription-based beauty products business founded in 2010 by Harvard Business School graduates who decided to locate their headquarters in New York City. Now, Birchbox has garnered more than $70 million in funding, with the latest round of funding valuing the company at about $485 million.
And while there are still Boston-born fashion startups that have decided to relocate to New York City ( most recently, Nineteenth Amendment), it would no longer be fair to say the Boston area is an unfavorable place for startup founders looking to launch and scale their fashion-related businesses.
In the slide show to the right, I highlight 11 startups focused on combining fashion and technology, from Woburn-based clothes-fitting technology startup TrueFit to Boston-based e-commerce website Fashion Project.
These companies have collectively raised at least $50 million in investor funding from angel investors and seed-stage investment funds like Bridge Boys and Founder Collective to Breakaway Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in early- to growth-stage companies.
Aaron Fleishman, co-founder of Brookline-based Wardrobe Wakeup, sees the Boston-area as an ideal location for his business, which offers a subscription-based service that aims to spice up the closets of stylish women who can’t afford to splurge on designer clothes. Among the biggest draws for him: “One benefit over New York: You can set up shop a lot cheaper.”
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