Alum Pitches Fashion Startup on Project Runway

Alexandra Shadrow (CGS’12, COM’15) launched her fashion business, UNItiques, while a BU student and recently pitched her idea on Project Runway: Fashion Startup. This show gives up-and-coming fashion and beauty entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch their businesses to investors. Shadrow appeared on the November 3 episode of the series.

Alexandra Shadrow - Project Runway
Alexandra Shadrow (CGS’12, COM’15) makes her pitch on Project Runway: Fashion Startup. Photo courtesy of Lifetime.

Four years ago, Shadrow wanted to sell her old clothes but was tired of being ripped off by local consignment stores and wasn’t interested in listing her address on Craigslist.  She created the BUtiques Facebook page to sell her clothing to other Boston University students. During a 2015 interview with BU Today, she shared that her page “had 2,000 girls within three months”. With clothes-selling in high demand, at least a third of BU girls were using the page by 2015.

After its Facebook beginning, the idea expanded further after Shadrow attended the Entrepreneurship program’s 10-week Startup Camp in 2013. She realized that she needed to hire a developer who could help her expand the UNItiques site. Her team quickly grew to over 20 employees from all over the country and now has over 12,000 members.

She has previous experience of pitching to investors from BU’s New Venture Competition, where she took home first place and over $96,000 in cash. After a rigorous screening process, she was selected to appear on the Project Runway show. She pitched her clothing website to investors from Birchbox, Rebecca Minkoff, the Hildun Corporation, and Gwynnie Bee. “I’m really proud of myself because I did the best I could. I’m not really sure what I’ll look like on TV, because I was more focused on how am I going to get this investment. Even if it comes out terrible, I’m proud,” Shadrow says.

Shadrow and Rebecca Minkoff ended up striking a deal, The Tab reports in a recap of the Project Runway: Fashion Startup episode: “In exchange for 30% of her company, Shadrow would be hired to work for Minkoff as well as run UNItiques on the side using Minkoff’s consulting and advice.”