Aisling Byrne and The Nu Wardrobe
2013 was formative year for Trinity College Dublin student Aisling, who had always loved fashion. The Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh in April 2013 opened her eyes to the stark reality that lay behind the glamorous façade of fashion. A few months later, while she was volunteering in India with Suas, she witnessed first-hand the poor working conditions and the environmental degradation caused by the fashion industry. She began to realise that as a fast fashion consumer, she was complicit in the system. She recalls, “I was heartbroken because I didn’t feel I could enjoy fashion without contributing to the problem, but I didn’t feel that I had any power to do anything about it.”
Participating in the STAND Global Issues course in 2014 increased Aisling’s understanding of development and sustainability and encouraged her to connect global justice issues to her own life. Aisling felt that although ethical and sustainable issues can seem overwhelming, she was determined to do something to encourage people to change their attitudes and behaviours.
Aisling and her friend Ali realised that the seed of a solution might lie in the clothes-sharing that they already did amongst their friend group. In 2015, Aisling and Ali joined the Ideas Collective to develop their idea of a clothes sharing network. Their aims were to reduce the amount of first-hand fashion that is bought, increase awareness of the negative impacts of the fast fashion industry, and connect like-minded people in their local communities.
The Ideas Collective provided practical support and encouragement from mentors and peers. The original swap shop idea evolved into a website and then into app. Nuw is now a thriving business spanning Ireland and the UK. When the Covid-19 crisis struck, Nuw pivoted its offering to take advantage of the increased online element in the fashion business, and to capitalise on the lockdown trend of closet-clearing; this enabled the business not just to survive the pandemic but to rapidly grow. 1,600 pieces of clothing were shared on Nuw in January 2021. Nuw has ambitious plans, including expansion into European and US markets.
Aisling’s experience with the Ideas Collective in 2015 enabled her to get Nuw up and running, and set her on the pathway to further development. In 2016, Aisling was selected for the TCD Tangent ‘LaunchBox’ programme, which provides student entrepreneurs with financial support and access to networks of investors and mentors. She has driven on with the business in good times and in challenging times alike. Her innate belief in herself and in the principles behind Nuw means that that she has never given up: “It’s actually just about getting up every day and turning up regardless…that’s why it keeps going.”
Aisling believes that the Ideas Collective gave her the confidence and tools that she needed to build a business that makes it fun and easy for people to live more sustainably. She states, “Through Suas I have seen how the way we live affects people across the globe and have since been determined to create systematic change which I hope will lead to better respect for both people and the environment around the world.”
