Two years ago twentysomething Brooklynites Robert Kalin, Chris Maguire and Haim Schoppfik decided Ebay had ruled the online world for long enough. It was time to launch a revolution and Etsy.com, a shopping portal specialising in the handmade – from Brit GreyGoat’s side-tie knickers to the Japanese blouses of Chicstore – was the result.
“Many of the goods in our lives are so utterly disposable,” says Etsy’s Matt Stinchcombe. “We do not think we are alone in being pretty fed up with it.”
Indeed, it seems they are not. Similar independent shopping portals such as Dawanda, a European version of Etsy, myriad blogs and offshoots of the shops advertised on Myspace.com and Flickr.com have a growing legion of fans. Indeed, Etsy sales recently topped $11m, with 360,000 registered users across 60 countries.
One of their number is Fanja Ralison, once a production assistant to an independent jazz label, now a stay-at-home Hertfordshire mother. Ralison has her own blog, online shop, web pages showing her own photos on Flickr.com and Etsy pages titled Le Train Phantome, where she sells her handmade limited edition totes and toys. She herself also shops independently and online when possible, favouring the sites of Swedish ceramicist Karin Ericsson, the Swedish illustrator Camilla Engman, and the French independent fashion and accessories portal Frenchtouche.com. A dedicated browser, she tries “to buy handmade whenever I can”. Part of the appeal, says Ralison, is “it feels like walking into the biggest craft fair filled with my favourite artists’ creations”.
Ralison, who prefers vintage wallpapers from Germany and mid-century antiques from Ercol and Robin and Lucienne Day to anything available on the high street, admits to liking the small-money status of Etsy and similar sites. “It feels less consumerist than the high street or the big online retailers. You feel a much more direct connection to the artists you are buying from and, through their websites, you feel like you are invited into their world.”
Victoria Woodcock, a 26-year-old magazine staffer, receives regular mail shots from glossy online shops such as Net-a-Porter but, like many of her friends who prefer customisation and shopping from markets and independent online stores, uses these as inspiration for shopping elsewhere.
“Buying crafty items is a conscious decision to shop in a more ethical manner. But the big appeal is seeking out something special, individual and handmade. The high street is rising to the challenge of making the mass-produced seem individual – smaller runs of clothes by more indie designers, crafty-looking embellishments – but this pales in comparison to being able to actually e-mail the very person who made the skirt or bag you are buying.” When shoppers buy from Ralison she frequently receives an email photo of her designs in their new home, along with an accompanying Thank You message. It’s commonplace on Etsy or Dawanda for sellers to include handwritten or hand-designed notes and packaging with their products.
Add to this the fact that the purchase price is often half of what you’d find in physical stores as there’s no retail mark-up, and the attraction is clear. No wonder Karen Boyer, a 46-year-old logistics co-ordinator from Pennsylvania, visits her favourite online emporium, South African Heather Moore’s Skinnylaminx site (graphic hand-printed cushions, T-shirts and home accessories), weekly. She still shops at independent US lifestyle boutiques such as Rose & Radish and Hable Construction, but says with all her online handmade purchases – including a pillow cushion from Surrey, earrings from Brooklyn, and an original sketch from Scotland – “the sellers have been sweethearts. It’s a pleasant experience, not just a business transaction.”
Finally, in contrast to the modern shopping world, there’s little guilt attached to the indie, handcrafted purchase. Though it may sound sentimental, it can even feel virtuous, as if a buyer is contributing to a rebirth of cottage-industry values.
“I don’t experience any buyer’s remorse when going to indie online sites,” says Boyer. “Sometimes, I’m even swayed by the designers’ bios to make a purchase. I think, ‘She sounds great, I must buy something from her shop.’”
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Top shops
www.chicstore.etsy.com
www.greygoat.etsy.com
www.skinnylaminx.etsy.com
www.itsyourlife.etsy.com
www.letrainfantome.com
www.camillaengman.com/misc/shop/main.htm
www.frenchtouche.com
www.karineriksson.se
