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

LET’S CONNECT: 

• 📸Instagram: @emilymstochl
• 🐦Threads: @emilymstochl
• 🎥TikTok: @emilymstochl
• 📧 Substack: https://prelovedpod.substack.com/ 
• 🎧Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/prelovedpod 

SPECIAL THANKS: 

A special thanks goes out to my Patron Insiders – your support makes Pre-Loved Podcast possible!

• Patty Weber
• Kathy Brand
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• Michael A.
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• Amanda Hale