JD Tagle interviews Raheem Muhammed of online vintage shop Very Rare EU
What brands do you wear personally?
I wear brands such as Nike, Adidas, Alexander Wang, Stone Island, Vans, and Puma. Everything I stock to sell is something I would personally wear. But I still shop in high street stores but for basic stuff like Zara, and I sometimes go to All Saints and Religion.
What made you start the business?
One of the main reasons was that I hated going somewhere and seeing somebody wearing the same jacket or jumper. So from then on I started shopping in vintage stores in places such as Dalston and Camden. But I was disappointed when I saw the prices and thought there must be an alternative, hence Very Rare EU was born.
There was also this whole buzz of vintage and retro, which everyone got in to and is still a trend. So I thought, maybe I can do something that these shops are not doing, by lowering the price and having an online environment where people can come in and pick handpicked stuff, rather than having to dig through a bunch of old school shirts and jackets, with mustard or mould on them. I wanted to bring boutique-ness to vintage – and to make sure that people did not have to look too hard and too long for something they like.
For that reason the majority of our items are designer brands: handpicked, one-offs that you will not find again.
How did you officially start Very Rare?
I checked whether the name was available and purchased it through Companies House. It took about 10 minutes to fill in the documents and then the company gets registered within 48 hours. Then we created our business cards, our branding, logo, websites and social media All our promotional material followed after that.
Who else is part of your team?
Well I am one of the CEOs alongside my cousin who is less vocal and less visual as he is more of a producer. On the brand side we have a Personal Assistant and Buyer, who is amazing. She does a lot of the paper work and chooses the stuff to stock.
We are currently looking for other people to join the team as well, such as photographers, videographers and graphic designers.
In the video below, Raheem explains the operation: