S10 Ep17 ISLE of MONDAY: co-founders of the first rental platform for luxury archival fashion, Gabriella Carota and Janelle Gray - on redefining how women access designer clothing.

Today we're chatting with Gabriella and Janelle — the co-founders of Isle of Monday, the first on-demand rental platform for women's luxury vintage archival clothing. Gabriella is the sourcing powerhouse behind the brand, while Janelle leads marketing and growth — and I'm so excited for you to hear how two friends turned a shared love of vintage into a platform that's redefining how women access designer archival fashion. Gabriella's path to vintage started young — she's been collecting and reselling, all while working as a model from age 16, which put her in close contact with stylists and sparked her obsession with archival pieces. Janelle came at vintage from a different angle entirely, falling in love with vintage furniture and interior design. The two met at a pop-up at Canal Street Market, where Janelle spotted Gabriella's collection and the rest was history! After running future pop-ups together and getting certain requests from their customers over and over, they saw the gap rental could fill. They officially became business partners in January 2024, building out a rental platform with bespoke logistics, cleaning, and a proprietary pricing model built specifically for one-of-one archival pieces. Isle of Monday launched into beta on December 1st of 2025 and officially opened to the public on May 18th — and the growth since has been staggering, from under 2,000 followers pre-launch to nearly 50,000 today, with pieces recently worn by Keke Palmer, Doechii, and Ashley Graham, among others. On today's episode, we get into all of it — their now-famous Roberto Cavalli dress that went viral on TikTok before they'd even launched, what it's really like fundraising as two female founders in the still-misunderstood fashion tech industry, and why they believe archival vintage is becoming an investment-grade asset class in its own right. Let's dive right in! DISCUSSED IN THE EPISODE: [4:38] Gabriella's path to vintage started young — she's been collecting and reselling, all while working as a model from age 16 [6:13] Janelle came to vintage from a love for vintage furniture and interior design. [12:02] They met at a vintage pop-up and became fast friends and collaborators.  [14:26] Why they decided to innovate in rental instead of resale.  [19:46] Building a proprietary pricing tool for archival, one-of-one vintage rentals  [22:50] How they think about sourcing "rentable" pieces as opposed to resale inventory.  [34:16] Fundraising as two female founders in the fashion tech industry [39:40] Archival vintage becoming an investment-grade asset class in its own right. [41:34] Gabriella and Janelle's own personal vintage collections and style  EPISODE MENTIONS:  Isle of Monday @isleofmonday Janelle's 2003 Roberto Cavalli gown  Ashanti in Roberto Cavalli S/S 2003 at the American Music Awards  Doechii wearing Isle of Monday Keke Palmer wearing Isle of Monday The Bluemarine dress from Uptown Girls  Sabrina Carpenter S/S 2003 Ralph Lauren dress Blummier Gone Archive 3 Sisters Seacret Vintage <p d