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Today we’re chatting with Gabriella Carota and Janelle Gray— 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.
“These are actually huge assets that I'm sitting on. This is potentially my retirement. Rental is a great option because I can make money off this piece without giving up ownership.”
—Gabriella Carota, Isle of Monday
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 right dive in. 🎧
[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
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Thanks for listening to Pre-Loved! You can find me across the internet on Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn! 💛 - Emily
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