An Interview with "Share Our Style" Founder Samantha Lingham

Today's interview is with Share Our Style founder Samantha Lingham. 
[caption id="attachment_543" align="alignright" width="340"] Samantha Lingham, Founder of "Share Our Style"[/caption]
Samantha Lingham is founder of Share Our Style, the first sharing economy platform for sharing designer handbags with a ‘borrow don’t buy’ focus.
Since launching The Ethical Style Project in May 2017, you will have seen me feature a number of ethical brands that offer stylishly sustainable fashion goods. I made the decision to buy cruelty-free fashion items and cosmetics ONLY in 2015 and since then I have never gone back on my word. Read more on my disclaimer here. Having said that, I do own a number of items, including designer goods that may occasionally appear in my #OOTD posts that were purchased before my ethical changeover in year 2015. Earlier this year I discovered the company Share Our Style, which offers a great sustainable handbag loaning service. No matter whether you have recently converted to supporting sustainable fashion or are interested in saving money, buying less and saving space in your home, the Share Our Style system is a great service that will help to cut your spending and save the planet! I love the sustainable ethos of the brand and am delighted to present to you this wonderful interview with Samantha Lingham, founder of Share Our Style!

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• Hi Samantha, thank you for taking part in this interview. Could you please tell us a little bit about your company, what you do and what do you offer?

Share Our Style is a new online marketplace for people to share authentic designer bags. Think Airbnb with bags not bricks!  Members can be stylish while living sustainably.  Borrow a bag when you need it.  Share the bags you have.  You can rent a gorgeous designer bag for as little as £15 per night from someone like you.




We provide an Authenticity Guarantee and require that all designer bags on our site are authentic.  The Share Our Style Guarantee offers owners peace of mind.  We have an insurance policy for eligible owners for claims over £250 and a warranty for claims below that.   We don’t charge any membership fees.

• Describe a typical day for you at work…

Being a new entrepreneur I’m yet to have a typical day and tend to find myself always thinking about Share Our Style in some shape or form.  That said, my daily routine includes liaising with members, working on our social media feeds, dealing with emails and keeping up-to-date with what’s going on in the fashion world and the sharing economy.
 

• How did the idea to start your company come about?

Many of us are moving away from the idea of ownership and the responsibilities that often entail to a freer, more sustainable lifestyle where we can borrow what we need when we need it and share what we have.  I’ve launched Share Our Style in response to the growing movement for us to consume more responsibly.

• How does your company operate and how is it environmentally friendly?

We’re the first offering with style and sustainability at its core.  By embracing the creativity and craftsmanship of style, and buying high quality pieces we love, we are supporting designers to make more sustainable choices.  Share Our Style is a space for us to share where we can not only generate some extra income from our purchase, we are buying less whilst giving ourselves more choice too.  Let’s join together and play our part in the fashion revolution for a more sustainable future.
 

• As you know, this interview is part of Online Personal Stylist’s “Ethical Style Project”. What advice would you give to anybody who is starting out on their ethical style journey? How can they make their fashion choices more economical and environmentally friendly?

Definitely go for it!  It means you buy less stuff, you can go for what you truly love and choose experience over ownership. By supporting the sharing economy you are supporting entrepreneurship, which is great for the economy – and great for the forward-looking start-ups that are an expression of new, sustainable values in our society.  You can save money by borrowing what you need when you need it or earn money by sharing what you have while saving our planet’s precious resources. In the words of Vivienne Westwood, the original enfant terrible and fashion anti-establishment grandee “Buy less, choose better and make it last”.
 
Contact Samantha from Share Our Style here:
www.shareourstyle.co.uk
hello@shareourstyle.co.uk