After officially launching just last year, a local founder has taken a passion for the side hustle and turned it into a startup.
In an industry that has seen well established businesses fold amid the economic pressure of the pandemic, Dallas-based fashion rental platform Rent My Wardrobe has rolled out a number of digital features. And with long lasting changes to the retail and fashion industries likely ahead, the company is focused on helping others become their own entrepreneurs.
“I really was a born entrepreneur,” Rachel Sipperley, founder of Rent My Wardrobe, told NTX Inno. “I was kind of a living, breathing model of the gig economy and why it works.”
While attending college at the age of 15 and graduating at 19, Sipperley made extra cash income from numerous types of gig work – renting space in her apartment or her car on various platforms. After graduating and moving to Dallas for a job Sipperley found herself at different events and parties, which would require outfit after outfit.
“I was going to events all the time. We were at parties and D Magazine would take a picture, and then the next night I would give [my friend] my dress… so I noticed women were exchanging clothes within their inner circle,” Sipperley said.
Like many young entrepreneurs, the personal budget wasn’t there to keep closets stocked and fashion fresh, so borrowing and sharing made more sense. As social media began to become more integrated into people’s daily lives and a whole new type of medium – the influencer – took rise as a
way for individuals and companies to extend their brand and reach, Sipperley created Rent My Wardrobe to help others like her share their style and make a few extra bucks on the side.
“Millennials are not going to fashion magazines, they’re not looking at traditional media when they’re making their own fashion purchasing decisions. They’re going online and looking at influencers, they’re looking at what they’re wearing… so people all over have really homed in on this and tapped into this,” Sipperley said. “Right now, anyone can come to our platform and become their own entrepreneur and utilizing our app to make money renting their own clothes… what we’re targeting is helping those women.”
Rent My Wardrobe is an online marketplace, where users can rent out clothes and other accessories. It also offers styling education, closet organization and outfit curation. The startup then takes a small cut of each transaction. The app, which Sipperley describes as like an Airbnb for clothes, can be found on the Apple store.
The company was created in 2016, with a MVP launch in 2018 and an official launch last April. So far, the company has raised at least $1 million in Seed funding from local entrepreneurial couple Court and Kameron Westcott, who were one of the families featured on Bravo TV’s “The Real Housewives of Dallas.”
“The heartbeat behind it was really for the side hustler, the entrepreneur, the influencer or blogger whose looking for additional revenue streams and ways to make money,” Sipperley said.
Being a virtual platform has allowed the company to quickly navigate changes and roll out new features to continue driving traffic in a time when the economic impact caused by the pandemic has forced many other fashion retailers like local household brand names JCPenney and Neiman Marcus to file for bankruptcy.
While the pandemic has taken a toll on Rent My Wardrobe as well, slowing down some operations and bringing on new stylist and brand ambassadors, the company has been able to roll out new ways to bring the styling and renting process virtual. Through its app, users can virtually connect one-on-one with Rent My Wardrobe stylists who can help them curate their outfits, find fashion tips on the right look to fit them and remove some of the clutter from their closet. The company is also hosting online workshops on fashion.
“I definitely think there’s big changes coming for the fashion industry as we know it,” Sipperley said. “I think the entire consumer shopping experience is changing - the way people buy clothes and the way that they make decisions on what they buy, I think that we’re going to see a huge change away from malls and shopping centers, even more than we already have, and a shift towards online retail.”
Sipperley attributes part of Rent My Wardrobe's ability to navigate the pandemic to this virtual model and also believes it will position it for changes in the fashion retail industry. She said part of the draw of Dallas to Rent My Wardrobe is its prominence in the fashion influencer scene, which has grown with the rise of social media in everyday life as well as boosted locally by companies like influencer monetization and marketing firm rewardStyle. She said as people increasingly turn to influencers for fashion cues, her startup is well positioned to accelerate the shift to online shopping.
“There were suddenly all of these women who were full time fashion bloggers and their sole source of income was taking these photos and posting them to Instagram and selling their clothes,” Sipperley said.
Another draw the Metroplex startup ecosystem has for Sipperley is its support for female founders and willingness to give them a seat at the table. Though she does not that here and elsewhere across the country there is still a large gap in venture capitalist funding dollars going towards women. However, through the work that Rent My Wardrobe does, Sipperley sees an opportunity to help other women on their entrepreneurial paths, whether that’s through renting out their outfits or through honing their styling skills through the company’s app. Sipperley also hosts a podcast called The Female Founder which highlights other female entrepreneurs' stories as a guide to help other females on their startup journeys and has featured a number of prominent local female leaders, including Gardenuity founder Donna Letier and Poo-Pourri CEO Suzy Batiz.
“I think so often, particularly as female founders, we’re experiencing these things and we don’t know that other female founders are going through it too,” Sipperley said. “Our mission is to empower women to become incredible entrepreneurs and really give back and create opportunities for women to get excited about business, get excited about technology and learn. I always say, ‘if I can do it, you can do it too.’”
