High-End Bargain Hunting
Henry McNeill-Njoku remembers the thrill of his first second-hand sale. It was 2014, and he’d flipped a £1.50 Lacoste polo shirt for £6 on eBay — a 300% return! He reinvested his money from there, graduating from eBay to Depop and setting up his own brand, HMS Vintage. But 4,000-plus sales later, “and you’re like, ‘I don’t want to see my items alongside PrettyLittleThing’,” he says.
Platforms like eBay and Depop have fuelled second-hand fashion’s popularity — but also created a sea of fast-fashion sludge that makes it harder to find real treasures. So in 2022, with friend and former JPMorgan product manager Theo El-Kattan, McNeill-Njoku set up Known Source.
“You get to a certain size and you’re like, ‘I don’t want to see my items alongside PrettyLittleThing’”
The platform brings together specialist vintage clothing dealers — about 30 at present — selected for the quality of their finds. Some examples: Issey Miyake pleated puffy jackets, 1990s Dolce & Gabbana skirt suits, rare trainers.
Last September, the pair won a free-of-charge, year-long lease at the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford after pitching the concept as part of a competition. It’s an unusual sight in a shopping centre otherwise packed with chain shops — but the opportunity to bring the boutique-meets-thrift-store concept to life couldn’t be missed. It helps Known Source’s curators reach an even wider audience, and it’s great marketing for the brand as a whole — since opening a physical location, McNeill-Njoku says website views are up 300% and online sales are 500% higher.
