Our Story
House De'Ville
House De’Ville was founded in 2020 by Jemelia Whitaker aka Jemelia De’Ville! Previously Jemelia had a decade long career working as a freelancer, in the costume department for TV and film. Her love for clothing led her to selling vintage & other wears at markets in London as a side line hobby, trading at her first market in 2016. What started out as a side line hobby, soon ended up in Jemelia falling in love with sourcing vintage and sustainable finds. Enabling her to let her creative styling background collide with creating curated collections for her markets. During the pandemic in 2020 when the film and TV industry came to a grinding halt, alongside many other industries, Jemelia turned to her side line hobby and decided to take the opportunity to turn it into a sustainable clothing and lifestyle brand. Wasting no time to make her small business dreams become reality, she used social media platform; Instagram to sell her vintage finds. She soon after launched her online store in December 2020.
Jemelia moved from London to her hometown of Margate in 2017. She immediately fell in love with the beautiful coastal town and the creative community, she knew this was the place for her! She feels ever inspired by her hometown and the community within it, which is what led her to open her first physical shop in October 2022 on the High Street of Cliftonville right in the heart of the community.
Jemelia uses her background in costume styling to curate diversity in her collections. Understanding the uniqueness of each individual by putting together collections that enable people to delve into their self-expression and explore whatever that may look like to them.
The online shop and physical shop are both continually updated with hand-picked items, all sourced by Jemelia herself!
Today Jemelia is so thrilled to have achieved a still growing audience of wonderful and likeminded sustainable shoppers, with many returning customers since the website first launched!
You can also find Jemelia in London at her usual vintage markets (Taking it right back to where it all began for her in 2016!). Head to the ‘pop-ups’ page to find out where she will be next!