My Passion Project Revealed: One/Third

model: @juliacates / photography: @ironandhoney

If you follow along on instagram, you might have seen that I FINALLY was able to reveal the passion project that my friend and former colleague, Coabi, and I have been working on since the summer.  Meet One/Third – a direct to consumer company that specializes in third pieces (an industry term for jackets) at a reasonable price point.  Some say the third piece is that layer that gives your outfit the chic factor–and personality, and we couldn’t agree more.  When we were at Trunk Club and launching the women’s business together, we saw there was a real white space in third pieces under $200; they were either really inexpensive (and cheap feeling) or they were on the other end of the spectrum, costing upwards of $600.  We finally put our money where our mouth was and got to work on launching One/Third.

If you’ve ever launched your own business endeavor, you know that it takes a LOT of time.  We put in all our own money, made a sample locally here in Chicago, chatted with everyone we knew and everyone THEY knew in the industry in order to find a supplier who could make our design and often had to play the waiting game.  We decided to start small and to launch one jacket–a collarless, tweed jacket with a slightly unfinished feel that can just as easily be worn to work as it can with jeans–in order to gauge demand and get feedback from everyone–we sold out in less than 24 hours, which was a huge thrill.  I know there’s a market for jackets at this price point and while we’re still ironing out our strategy, we both agree that a something like a monthly ‘drop’ is more aligned with our goals rather than 45 styles a season.  We want to be curated, purposeful, and sustainable.   Ideally, I would also love to crowdsource styles and colors from our customers, as well.  That’s the future of fashion, in my opinion.

So THANK YOU, for your interest in One/Third and if you bought a jacket, THANK YOU, again!  Coabi and I spent all weekend packing them up in our fancy fulfillment centers (aka our respective dining rooms) and we are so excited to see them go out around the country.  I can’t wait to continue on this journey–more to come! (Follow One/Third on instagram for updates!)