Dublin department store opens Circular Room for second-hand handbags
A retail operation dedicated to selling pre-owned and pre-loved high-end leather handbags has partnered with one of Ireland’s most famous department stores, Arnotts in Dublin, to provide the stock for a new initiative, The Circular Room.
Since 2012, Designer Exchange has run an operation to buy and sell second-hand handbags.
It has a shop of its own in central Dublin and an e-commerce platform too. It said it was delighted to partner with Arnotts “to share our sustainable way of shopping”.
Director of innovation at Arnotts, Audrey Owens, said the company was “hugely committed” to growing its “sustainable approach”.
As well as buying second-hand bags from brands including Mulberry, Miu Miu and Valentino there, shoppers can bring handbags and ask for a valuation.
The founder of Designer Exchange, Patrick Coughlan, will use his years of experience and technology from a company called Entrupy to authenticate bags people bring in and offer them a gift card to spend in Arnotts or cash for the bags.
Entrupy’s technology is “powered by artificial intelligence”. The company has collected thousands of images of handbags from around the world, to create what it calls a “rich and diverse data-set”. It has used this data to teach its algorithms to differentiate between fake and authentic items. It claims an accuracy rate of above 99%.
“Every item that’s authenticated helps the algorithms learn and improve, creating a smarter solution that adapts to the changing world,” the technology provider has said.
