Nottingham e-tailer my-wardrobe.com specialises in "accessible luxury" – designer labels that we're all encouraged to buy into. Its success has won it a clutch of awards, the loyalty of celebrities and fashion mags and, in December, its first million-pound selling month. JENNIFER SCOTT reports

A BRIDE-to-be wants a last-minute pair of designer shoes for her big day – tomorrow!

Coleen Rooney wants a selection of Uggs and jeans posted discreetly to her door.

And a holidaymaker on an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean has forgotten all her bikinis and needs urgent replacements.

Where do they all turn?

To Nottingham's soaraway success online designer clothing retailer my-wardrobe.com.

The company was set up by 36-year-old Sarah Curran and her entrepreneurial husband Andrew just four years ago.

Bizarrely, my-wardrobe, which sells designer labels like Vivienne Westwood, Paul Smith and Dolce and Gabbana, was initially huddled in the former offices of Sarah's father's pest control business in Lenton. However, it expanded so rapidly amid a tide-rush of glossy magazine placements and celebrity endorsements that a year ago they moved to bigger premises on Lenton Lane.

The Notts location proved perfect for Sarah – partly because of its proximity to London and partly because of the area's textile expertise.

Heritage

"I really remember the Lace Market from when I was at school because my dad used to do the contracts for some of the businesses," recalls Sarah, from Market Harborough. "It's got such an amazing heritage and it sometimes gets overlooked which is really sad."

Now the lace-makers have, in some intangible way, passed the baton to Nottingham Trent University's highly creative fashion department.

Accordingly, many of my-wardrobe's 45 Notts staff are ex-Trent fashion students. The Lenton site houses the web development, finance, customer service and packing teams. The remaining 20 staff, including web design, PR and buying, are based down in London.

All 118 women's brands and 77 men's are sent to my-wardrobe's vast football pitch-sized Lenton warehouse to be measured, modelled and photographed.

My-wardrobe regulars will often telephone the company before they place their orders. The staff are poised ready to grab your chosen item and describe it to you over the phone, even trying it on if necessary.

Emma Lang from Old Basford is an ex-law student who has worked as a customer service manager for 10 months.

"You get to know the customers by name," she says. "We are their eyes. It's quite difficult for them to understand the product without seeing it."

Coleen Rooney and Sharon Osbourne are regular buyers on the site, as well as a variety of other footballers' wives.

Sometimes the customer team deals directly with the stars but, more often, it's their stylists.

"A lot of the time the celebrities keep it pretty simple; they know what they want," explains Sarah Cusworth, from Selston, who deals with their inquiries. "They request items like bikinis for their holidays, right through to dresses for special occasions and personal items like Uggs and jeans."

The team also assists on fashion shoots for national magazines.

"They'll tell us, for example, they're working on a nautical theme and it's our job to get the samples down there," explains Sarah.

The team takes about 300 calls a day – although on the first day of their post-Christmas sale, it rose to 600. Orders reach their peak at 3pm.

"Often we're running around at 5.50pm trying to get everything dispatched to catch the post," says Sue Ault, the general manager, previously head of retail at Intimas, the Long Eaton lingerie company.

Last year, my-wardrobe.com won overall gold and best innovation at the Draper's awards. The website features a range of innovative ways to help you shop, such as a blog, a catwalk video of the outfit and a recommendations panel on how you can complete the outfit.

The necessary "buy-without-trying" culture means trust is essential. Some go to extreme lengths to check things fit.

"We've had people send us cardboard cut-outs of their feet through the post before," laughs Sue.

Returns – which are free – stand at about 20 - 30% so most people are happy.

And business has boomed. Thus far, my-wardrobe has proved a phenomenon that's beaten the credit crunch, with a £10m turnover.

The business had its first million pound month in December and is growing about 100% year-on-year.

Sarah, its poised, raven-haired founder, grew up in Rutland. Her father, Nick Issitt, was a businessman in Nottingham.

She skipped university, choosing to work for her father as a teenager, before getting jobs in merchandising at L'Oreal and as a sub-editor at News International, working on Times Online.

She had always loved fashion. As a teenager, she had propagated an early form of vintage, wearing her dad's old jackets and combing charity shops.

"I designed my own prom dress – it was probably hideous," she laughs.

She gathered up all her experience to found a London boutique called Powder but swiftly recognised fashion's big-money future lay on the internet and sold the boutique in 2007.

In April 2006 she launched my-wardrobe – envisaged as occupying the mid-range market between cheerfully chic, celebrity-inspired Asos and the more budget-mangling Net-a-Porter – with £750,000 of her own money and £4.25m of investment.

Sarah is careful to keep her site simple but imaginative. She's planning a redesign for April and is currently working with beloved British accessories designer Lulu Guinness on the possibility of following a product's progress from design to sale, via the website.

She also talks to designers about creating one-off pieces for the site.

Landing Vivienne Westwood's Anglomania collection was a boon.

"Paul Smith was also a key brand for us because we're based in Nottingham and he has such a strong presence here. He's like an icon for the area," she smiles.

Above all, she wants fashion-chasers to feel included in the site – the essential "something for everyone" factor, no matter where you live or how much your budget.

"The fashion industry can be extremely exclusive," she admits. "If you're not wearing 'the right thing' you can feel you're not part of it.

"I've been there myself – I've walked into a store and felt as if I wasn't wearing the right clothes or I looked as if I couldn't afford the prices. Most of all I want people to feel welcome."

Log on to www.my-wardrobe.com for more details.