Sarah Davis: Founder and President of Fashionphile

Second Life

Clique Media, Female Founder, Entrepreneurship, Career Change, Career Pivot, Fashion & Beauty, Hillary Kerr, Personal Journals, Who What Wear, Clique, Career, Arts, Business, Careers, Second Life, Career Advice, Self-made, Entrepreneur, Mydomaine, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sarah Davis is the founder and president of the luxury resale company Fashionphile. Davis was a self-proclaimed “debate nerd” during her teens and had early aspirations of becoming a lawyer. After earning her undergrad, she quickly enrolled in law school at the University of Maryland. Growing up, Davis had become accustomed to taking odd jobs to pay for things like clothing, so she applied that same mentality to putting herself through school. To make money, she cut boys’ hair in the dorms and even started a peer-to-peer used lawbook platform with her brother-in-law called lawswap.com. She also began selling her belongings on eBay for extra cash, and that’s when she realized that there was a largely untapped market for luxury resale. In 1999, she created a storefront on eBay called Fashionphile, focused on reselling luxury handbags, and was soon able to make enough money to pay off her student loans. Although Davis did graduate from law school and even pass the bar, she had found her true passion in growing her resale business and decided to opt out of pursuing a law career. She ran Fashionphile on eBay for the first several years of the business before bringing her brother-in-law into the fold and legitimizing the brand with its own website. Today, over 25 years later, Fashionphile is the largest platform in the country for buying and selling pre-owned, ultra-luxury accessories. The brand now has headquarters in San Diego and New York City, an office in Tokyo, and retail locations all across the country.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is what you do when you have high standards and fancy all the fancy things, like an iconic Dior saddlebag or that diamond tennis bracelet.
0:10.0	You go to eBay. There you'll find new loves that will never disappoint, expertly authenticated and everything.
0:20.0	Whether it's that vintage pearl necklace or brand new ruby earrings,
0:23.6	a product cross-body bag to be besties with your other handbag,
0:27.6	even an eternally classic watch like that Rolex oyster or that Cartier tank.
0:33.6	You know the one.
0:35.6	And when you find it, eBay has their expert's eyes to make sure you're
0:40.5	getting the real deal. That way, you can be confident that the designer finds you came for
0:46.4	the luxury wardrobe that you've always wanted. It's all real. In fact, it's verified authentic.
0:53.8	So bring your high standards and never limit what you can find.
0:58.0	Yeah, eBay, the place for new, pre-loved, vintage, and rare fashion, eBay, things people love.
1:08.0	Hi, people love.
1:20.1	Hi everyone. I'm Hillary Kerr, the co-founder and chief content officer of Who What Where, and this is Second Life, a podcast spotlighting women who have truly inspiring careers.
1:29.3	We're talking about their work journeys, what they've learned from the process of setting aside their doubts or fears, and what happens
1:34.9	when they embark on their second life. Today on the show, I'm chatting with the founder and
1:39.3	president of the luxury resale company Fashion File, Sarah Davis.
1:44.6	I've loved watching Fashion File grow over the last couple of decades, so I was thrilled
1:50.1	to sit down with Sarah and go back to the origin of her brand.
1:54.7	Sarah originally planned to become a lawyer.
1:56.8	She did debate in high school, graduated from law school, and even passed the bar,
2:01.4	before realizing her career was going to go down a completely different path than she had imagined.
2:07.6	Sarah paid her way through law school, so during her studies, she was always looking for a way to make a dollar.
	...

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