From a young age, Marlies ter Wielen has loved vintage designer handbags. But a good webshop with beautiful vintage designer bags simply didn’t exist. ‘If nobody else is doing it, I’ll do it myself,’ thought the former Tio student. Marlies started at her kitchen table, with one bag and a dream. Today, Pepper Luxury Vintage has grown into a successful brand with its own team, a loyal following on social media and a new handbag collection launching on the website every week.
Marlies studied International Business Management at Tio Business School. She completed several internships in the fashion industry, where her love for designer handbags really took shape. “During my internships, I saw women carrying the most beautiful bags. That’s when I thought: one day, I want that too,” she says. “When I got a bit older and started working in paid employment, I bought my own designer bag with my first salary.”
When Marlies stopped enjoying her job, she handed in her notice. “I’d always had the dream of starting something for myself, and my love for vintage handbags was already there. It felt logical to start then; I had saved some money and I was ready. Let’s go!”
Trial and error
She built a website and a fully functioning webshop and went live. And then… nothing happened. And it stayed quiet. “That was nerve-racking. I did think for a moment: this has to work, I’ve put all my savings into this. There was no plan B. It wasn’t until two weeks later that I sold my first bag.”
Slowly but surely, more and more people found their way to the webshop. “At the beginning, it was mainly learning by doing. Which payment methods work? How do I ship items safely? How do I build trust? It was a lot of trial and error. The company was growing, but it felt like I was constantly putting out fires.” Marlies laughs. “I’ve had quite a few sleepless nights!”
Bad news
Just when Marlies finally felt she was getting her business on track, a letter arrived from a French lawyer. The company name and logo of Bobbie Luxury Vintage (as Pepper was called at the time) were allegedly too similar to those of a French company. Marlies was given one month to change everything or face legal action.
“The ground fell away beneath my feet,” Marlies says. “I was completely on my own and genuinely didn’t know what to do. I hired a lawyer, but they were very clear straight away. It involved a multinational, and this was not something I could win.”
“I seriously considered quitting. But in the end, I decided to push through. Within a few months, I changed everything: the name, logo, packaging and branding. From that moment on, my company was called Pepper.”
Pepper today
A year later, in 2025, the business really took off. “That was the year we started thinking strategically: where do we want to go?” Pepper grew from a one-woman business into a team of nine, moved into a larger 550 m² premises, and now launches more than a hundred new handbags on the website every week.
Marlies mainly focuses on buying, strategy, marketing and managing the team. Because she thinks it’s important to know what’s going on, she still occasionally helps out with customer service. “Basically, I’m busy with Pepper 24/7. And my boyfriend also works in the business. So at home, we just carry on happily,” she says with a laugh. “But I wouldn’t want it any other way!”
“I really enjoy the freedom and creativity that come with being an entrepreneur. Everything I want to do, I can do. If we want to shoot a campaign in London tomorrow, for example, we can. Developing new ideas and products is what I enjoy most. It’s amazing to build a brand that just keeps growing.”
Studying at Tio: personal and practice-oriented
Marlies studied her business programme at Tio in Utrecht and made a very conscious choice for Tio. “At Tio, you have small classes and lecturers know you by name. That personal attention was very pleasant; I didn't ave to feel like just a number. On top of that, at Tio you can complete your bachelor’s degree in three years. That really appealed to me.
She still benefits greatly from her studies in terms of content. “The programme is very practice-oriented. Lecturers come straight from the professional field and share what things are really like in practice, based on their own experience. I also worked on projects for real companies and completed several internships.” All that practical experience gave Marlies an edge. “I learned so much from it. It definitely helped me when I started my business!”