Sophomore Michelle Shahparast is launching an online store, Unwritten, to sell second-half clothing (above) on April 3 with her brother Sean, a 2008 alumni.
CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, this story incorrectly stated a student’s major and the percentage cut Unwritten will give to clothing donors. The article has since been changed to reflect this correction.
The kind of student who might shop at Michelle Shahparast’s store, Unwritten, has no use for style rules and seasonal fads.
“It’s for someone who is unwritten. They don’t follow trends, they’re their own person,” Shahparast, a sophomore business major, said. “I think it’s so cool that people show their identity through their outfits.”
Shahparast and her brother, 2008 business school alumnus Sean, set out to create an online store that would encourage just that. Their company, which will launch online Wednesday and will kick off Tuesday night with a party and fashion show at Big Play Sports Grill, will provide women with a venue to recycle unwanted clothing and buy others’ secondhand wares at affordable prices.
Shahparast and her team will only buy and sell the highest quality items, she said. The business model follows that of ventures like Uptown Cheapskate, a store with locations in Rockville and Timonium where students can get cash or store credit for their fashionable pieces. At Unwritten, however, students donate their clothing and then get a 50 percent cut once a sale is made.
Shahparast said she got the idea for Unwritten in fall 2011, when her brother told her his biggest regret was not starting his own business while in College Park.
“What’s missing at Maryland? There’s really no place to shop,” she said. “People are always looking to make money and girls have extra clothes. … and what makes it even more convenient is they don’t even have to leave their dorm.”
In addition, there was a retail market that hadn’t yet been saturated — Rugged Warehouse on Route 1 could be hit-or-miss, and On Cloud 9 on College Avenue was too expensive for many students.
“There really aren’t any places I know of to shop in College Park,” said Jessica Wiley, a sophomore mechanical engineering major. “I have to go home or go into D.C.”
Shahparast said while she’s looking forward to the launch party, what excites her most is finally seeing her idea come to fruition. After studying the founder and owner of NastyGal.com, a street style-centric online clothing store popular among college women, she thought a similar business focused on College Park could thrive.
With the help of her brother, Shahparast set out to find the perfect team to build her dream business — but it was much harder work than she expected.
“I kind of just thought you just come up with the idea and set up the site, and people would sell their stuff and you just sit back and get money,” Shahparast said. “There’s so much you don’t even realize matters.”
She had trouble finding people who shared the same passion, and many potential partnerships fell through. No one was really in it for the long run, she said.
“A lot of people thought it was a great idea, but it’s a big time commitment. You have to be into starting a business,” Shahparast said. “Everyone likes to go out and everyone has a lot of school work, but you need to spend hours on end every day.”
Over winter break, Shahparast did make some meaningful contacts — Brigette Fine, a sophomore English major, and Eva Woolridge, a sophomore communication major. With their help, the Shahparast siblings were able to get Unwritten off the ground.
“I can only speak for myself, but I think the reason that the four of us work so well together is because we genuinely enjoy each other’s company,” Fine said. “Our Thursday meetings can last three hours, in addition to hour- or two-hour long Skype sessions throughout the week, but I never feel like I’m working.”
The team meets three times a week, but also has other meetings as needed to discuss the fine mechanics of running a business.
Shahparast said she didn’t realize how expensive it was going to be. She and her brother have fronted a majority of the costs of putting together a business.
No one has earned a salary yet, and the costs of building a website and promoting the idea, as well as reserving space for the launch party, have been staggering. And they’ve spent hours building decorated drop-off boxes to place in each sorority house to make clothing donations easier.
There’s also the matter of actually getting the clothes. Their business plan won’t work unless women donate clothes, so they had to start promoting Unwritten early.
So far they’ve collected a few outfits, about 80 or 90 pieces — enough for photo shoots and a fashion show at Big Play. Once students get to see what Unwritten is about, they’ll be more likely to send their clothes in for sale, Shahparast said.
“There is no other website where students can make money selling their own clothes and accessories without doing the dirty work to put it online and ship it,” Fine said.
They’re currently accepting clothes, shoes and accessories. Higher quality clothes from more expensive brands like Free People will sell in the $30 range, while clothes from brands like Forever 21 will sell for less than half of that.
If it’s successful, Shahparast said she wants Unwritten to spread to other campuses — a full-on brand.
“I would definitely be willing to check something like that out,” Wiley said.
Sophomore psychology major Katie Ingram said she would welcome a new place to shop.
“If clothes are unwanted, there must be some reason, so I’m a little skeptical of the quality,” Ingram said. “But shopping options are pretty bleak in College Park, so it’s definitely a start.”
