She sold over $1M in clothes on Depop. Her next act? Opening a store in NYC.

Bella McFadden made headlines early in the pandemic as the first person to hit £1 million in sales on Depop, the London-based tech platform that has become Gen Z’s go-to shopping platform for used and vintage apparel.

On Saturday, she’s opening her first brick-and-mortar space: iGirl, a tiny, 210-square-foot storefront on Third Street near Avenue A.

McFadden, 28, earned a following online — where she and her brand are known as internetgirl or iGirl — as a vintage reseller with an eye for Y2K style that Vogue once described as “red-hot mallrat fashion.”

She moved to New York City from Los Angeles in September, specifically to launch her retail space. But navigating local real estate has come with a steep learning curve.

“They said it was 300 square feet, but when I got the architectural floor plan, it’s actually 210,” McFadden said in a recent interview at her store. “They were like, ‘Oh, well it says approximately on the lease.'”

McFadden made a name for herself by thrifting cheap finds in her hometown of Winnipeg and selling them for modest markups on Depop. She also built a following for selling stylized "bundles," outfits aligned around a theme, such as “off-duty ballerina” or “teacher’s pet.”

She's since branched out with her own iGirl brand of accessories and apparel. One of her earliest and most popular items, the iGirl pendant necklace introduced in 2017, sells for $25. She now estimates that the brand and website sales make up 80% of her revenue, with the remainder coming from Depop thrift sales and bundles.

A Depop spokesperson declined to provide details on McFadden’s performance on the platform but confirmed that she remains one of its invite-only “top sellers.”

When McFadden decided to finally risk a brick-and-mortar enterprise, she said her decision ruled out staying in Los Angeles.

“It’s the lack of foot traffic,” she said. “Everyone drives there. I’m not super familiar with New York, but I knew this would be the perfect destination.”

The small storefront is decked out with a pink awning. Its interior is reminiscent of "Alice in Wonderland," with a black-and-white checkerboard floor and pastel pink walls decorated with antique cherubs, which McFadden’s mother picked up in Canada.

McFadden describes her brand’s aesthetic as sort of “alternative” and inspired by mall goth culture popularized in the early 2000s by chains like Hot Topic. “My designs are kind of like ‘dressing the rock star girlfriend,’” she said.

As her store has taken shape in recent months, McFadden noted, nearby retailers and neighborhood residents have reached out to welcome her to the area and offer help with anything she might need.

“The sense of community here gives New York a towny aspect, even though we’re in this humongous city,” she said. “I love that.”

McFadden said moving into a real-life space carries some anxiety. She added that the overhead for her online-only business was not small, comprising fees for email newsletter and text blast platforms, online shipping fulfillment, e-commerce via Shopify and its add-ons, including one that provides compatibility for Instagram sales.

“Adding rent, three employees, insurance, utilities, the point-of-sale platform … figuring out the whole retail aspect of things is gonna be a lot different,” she said.

Although opening a retail store in 2024 might seem like a risky move, particularly as the city’s clothing stores have suffered losses since 2020, some research suggests that young adults still shop in stores. Faire, a platform that connects retailers with wholesale merchandisers, commissioned an analysis of Gen Z’s post=pandemic shopping habits last year and found that around 47% of them say they are more likely to shop in person than online.

“Algorithm and recommendation fatigue is real,” said Lauren Cooks Levitan, Faire's chief financial officer. “It’s not necessarily that Gen Z isn’t shopping online anymore, but there’s a noticeable, increased interest in having these IRL shopping experiences.”

McFadden said her small storefront means she won’t be moving huge amounts of product through it, but she hopes expanding her business into the physical world will provide other revenue and promote the brand. She aims to eventually host pop-ups and events in the space, including tattoo sessions. She also wants to work with friends and collaborators by featuring their items.

For now, she’s excited to be part of the Big Apple. “I’ve been blown away by the sense of community in New York that really does not exist in L.A.,” McFadden said. “People are very much fighting their own little battles there. But here, everyone wants to know what’s going on and be involved and is so supportive.”