May 05, 2021

Earth Series: Laura Vidrequin

After many years spent in New York working as a fashion buyer, French-born Laura Roso Vidrequin settled down with her family in London. Laura is the founder of second-hand children’s website Kids O’clock, offering parents a more sustainable approach to buying kids clothes.

Laura wearing EARTH pullover and STORM coat.
Photographed by Cathy Kasterine

You were a buyer and how did you make the decision to change that and create this really cool brand of pre-loved clothes, right?

Yeah, I actually didn't really decide to do it, this is what's so funny about it. When I had my son, I realised that everything I was doing as a parent was basically hurting my footprint. Diapers, bottles.

For the first six or nine months I was so busy, but after nine months I was like ‘ok, now I'm going to have fun with clothes’. I didn’t want to shop high streets brands, and obviously, I didn't have the expertise of creating something with my hand. I wanted quality, but I was not going to be able to afford quality in the long run because he changed sizes four times a year, that's a lot. So I started looking for options, and there was nothing so I created one. I started creating it with a bunch of people around me and everybody was so keen and you know when you ask people options and everyone was like “yeah, I'm gonna help you, I'll help you do this, I'll help you do that, I'll join” and then Kids o’clock was born.

Nice. In Mongolia, we also love for kids to wear pre-loved clothes. Because it's such an important thing. I guess it's not because of environmental reasons but they say kids have amazing energy, when they wear other kids’ clothes, it can only mean positive. Grownups in Mongolia are not keen on wearing just anyone's clothes but kids' clothing becomes popular, especially shoes, because they get softer after being worn by others.

When you're a kid, you're so pure, you're so vulnerable but you also so naturally yourself. Because you're not going to be built by society and second feelings, like what people are going to think of me, my image. When I see Alby, my son, he's so pure in whatever he does - when he stains himself I never scream at him because he just did it so naturally, in the end it's just a stain. When I receive clothes that were pre-loved in another house, I hope that those clothes had fun before they arrived in our house.

Yeah, that’s so important. And how do you find the pre-loved suppliers?

We do it two ways. Mostly it's parents just selling their clothes online. And the second way is resources through brands Partnership Schools nursery. Also we have a concierge service, so you can just send a whole box to us and we take care of the whole upload process, which has been very popular, especially during the Lockdown. I think people were just tired of these like spring cleaning.

Cool. And are there certain criteria that should be followed or only certain brands? Because you talked about qualities or criteria when you select.

At first, I was really strict. When I build the supply of the brands. But then quickly I realized that it wasn't necessarily about the brands but more about the look of it. There are some items that the team or I would say no, because we know this has no resale value and the price is going to be very low. But we're trying to accept everything, it is just sometimes parents are very cautious on the pricing around it because there is some sensitivity around it. I know that I will never sell pajamas for example or special pieces. What I do is try to just keep one or two pieces for sensitivity reasons.

Exactly, Laura. I want to keep only one small space for each of us at home and I have said that I never want to have clothes that I don't wear. Then if I’m done with it, I just pack them in the boxes and I send them by container to Mongolia. Things need to be used, because otherwise they just stay there and gather this dead energy.

Agree. And this is why this brand, OYUNA, is so great because it feels like just something you can wear over and over and over again.

Especially this Earth collection, we made a super democratic and very simple piece. Anyone could wear it and feel completely comfortable. So next just a quick game. I'm just gonna say some words, and just say the first thing that comes to your mind.

Blue?
Red.

Precious?
Love.

Sustainability?
Planet.

Soft?
I would say cotton balls.