Community Highlights: Meet Randi Wood of Entre Nous Showroom

Today we’d like to introduce you to Randi Wood

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in a small Canadian town, but as soon as I was given an allowance I was spending it on Vogue magazines. Fashion was never my mom’s thing or anything that I was exposed to in childhood that you could chalk up to “nurture”. It was an interest that I seemed to be born with. I started sketching outfits at 6 or 7 and pasting Editorials on my walls as my wallpaper.

Cut ahead 20 years and after a series of career choices that I felt less than passionate about I decided to go back to school. I moved to Los Angeles and attended FIDM with a major in Visual Communications. I explored all areas of the industry and really connected the most with styling. I graduated in 2010 when the recession hit, leaving paying jobs few and far between, especially for a foreigner. As disappointing as it was, I went back to a job in real estate working for my family office. At this point I was trying to financial survive on my own and this seemed like the only option. What seemed like bad luck at the time turned out to be a great learning lesson. Managing a real estate office for my family taught me to so many skills that would have been tough to learn anywhere else. I learned about managing an office, people, finances etc. This proved to serve me well in the future in running my own business.

After 4 or 5 years I gradually started to divest our real estate portfolio. This is when I met my husband. By the time we got engaged our family office was tying up loose ends and I was able to focus on what my next step in my career would be. Because I had the support of my husband, I was able to pursue an endeavor that I felt passionately about, without the pressure to support myself as well as financially support a new business. I want to share this aspect as I feel like a lot of small business owners have help in one way or the other. Often people’s origin story is not completely shared and feel like being transparent that I had help both financially and emotionally from my husband and my dad for my next business venture is important.

My next venture being Entre Nous. I had always really loved vintage fashion and always had loved the thrill of shopping when travelling. Back 7-8 years ago vintage and resale fashion was more of a “niche” market and not as mainstream as is it is now. At the time I felt there was a hole in the market and I wanted to fill it. My intention with Entre Nous was to create a curated brick and mortar that brought a shopper an elevated shopping experience. I wanted to create a selection of pieces that I felt were unique and special that would be available to buy or rent. Which is what I did…

After creating the business of my dreams, the market started to change quickly. Resale became mainstream, vintage started to become more popular, and competition started to pop-up quickly. Major online start-ups such as the RealReal, Rebag and other like-minded business started to dominate the market as well as build out brick and mortars. The competition became intense. In conjunction with that, social media started to become popular and the everyday person’s motivation to become a luxury goods owner started to really change things.

After a series of break-ins and most of my revenue coming from my on-line sales, I made the hard decision to sub-lease my store. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise though because a few months after COVID hit and all retail got demolished. I also gave birth to my first child during that time, which could not help but slow my life down completely. Over the next couple of years my family moved to a suburb outside of LA and I had a second child. During this very busy time I was able to reevaluate what made sense to devote my time to.

Currently I still do online sales for Entre Nous on 1stDibs, I attend A Current Affair in New York which is a vintage pop-up and I source and shop for a handful of close clients. All these aspects of the business I really enjoy doing, but it also allows enough time and flexibility that I need to look after my family.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I specialize in one of kind pieces, be they designer or not. Most of my pieces veer on the side of formal and dressy wear and everything is available to rent for a special occasion. I am avaliable to pull a selection of items and come to you to give you a personal styling experience for an event or occasion. This is something that I feel is very unique as it isn’t offered anywhere else. You either have to be a celebrity and hire a stylist and rely on their relationships and your star power for brands to lend to you or you can rent items online from big box sites, but you won’t end up with anything vintage or designer.

Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
There are SO many online sources now, that I didn’t have exposure to when I was starting. From podcasts to YouTube what you can find out online is endless. Although if you have the ability I would intern before starting your career. This is the best way to learn about any business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.entrenousshowroom.com
• Instagram: entrenousshowroom

Image Credits
Erica Mendenhall