The Feminist Queries: Suzanne Xie

by Jen Nedeau

categories: Interviews, The Feminist Queries

Published May 13, 2009 @ 08:22AM PT

For today's Feminist Query interview, we have Suzanne Xie who is is an entrepreneur, environmentalist and CEO of Weardrobe.com. She co-founded Weardrobe in 2008 and is currently focused on democratizing fashion through web communities. Previous to Weardrobe, she worked at UBS Investment Bank in the Financial Institutions Group as well as in the Global Equities Asset Management Division at Goldman Sachs in New York and London. Additionally, Xie volunteered for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Women 2.0 in the city. Xie attended the University of Chicago where she received a bachelor's degree in Economics. She was born in China, grew up in New Jersey and currently resides in Palo Alto, CA. You can follow her on Twitter @suzannez and read her blog here.

Why did you start Weardrobe.com?

It's a funny story. My original inspiration for Weardrobe was actually rather silly, since it was derived from my obsessive need to organize all my belongings - starting from my overflowing closet in college. I remember spending all night cataloguing every piece of clothing I owned into an Excel spreadsheet that I thought would make my life easier, key word being 'thought.' 

The actual implementation of Weardrobe did not come until years after that though, when I was working in finance post-grad and reunited with my current cofounder in NY. We were both interested in how emerging web applications were solving basic problems, and revisited my 'original' closet spreadsheet. As we started to build Weardrobe as an online closet application, we began to layer on photo content and the community to allow people to share their unique styles. So, although the original inspiration was something quite simple, it has become much more about truly unique and personal expression through clothing. It's exciting to be building a community that encourages the democratization of fashion. 

How do you think fashion allows women to express themselves?

Fashion allows women to express themselves in a range of ways - from how we present ourselves at work to how we dress hanging out with friends, though they can be completely unrelated. The beauty of women's fashion is that there is just so much diversity out there that there is no real baseline to start from. There's no definitive way these days for a woman to dress compared to in the past. This really allows each woman to distinctively decide for herself what message she wants to express with her choice of dress. The different design houses also offer a diversity of looks that resonate with different types of women. Whether it be CDG's distressed black and white designs or Rodarte's romantic flowy pieces, there is just a large spectrum of fashion inspiration out there. 

What elements of feminism do you find in the submissions at Weardrobe? Any?

I wouldn't consider any particular submissions at Weardrobe feminist per se. However, I think that the women in the community on the site are open-minded and creative when it comes to expressing themselves through their personal style. Even women who might have a specific fashion style experiment a bit when it comes to remixing pieces and submitting to our themed contests. One of my favorites recently has been the best menswear look, where we saw a ton of inspiring outfits around dressing mens clothing on women. There's a very strong sense of self and fashion independence that we see amongst a lot of our users which resonate with some elements of feminism.

Do you consider yourself a feminist?

I don't consider myself a feminist, but support many feminist ideals. I believe that women are and should be free to show and maintain their equality through their own actions and choices. Women are just as capable to pursue the same opportunities as men in many fields, and should be given the chance to do so without special preference. This, however, does not apply for every woman since some women choose more "traditional" lifestyles which are just as respectable. I may be quoting some form of liberal feminism without knowing it, but my beliefs about a woman's role in the family and society are constantly evolving as I personally evolve.

If you could ask women everywhere one question, what would it be?

What are you most passionate about, and what are you doing about it?