Tulerie Sees Historic Surge in Clothing Rentals During NYFW
Closet-sharing rental platform Tulerie is getting a makeover along a surge in demand and app downloads.
“As we started building and as we started growing, I learned so much about the fashion industry, the production side, the end. It became a constant conversation we were having with our users. There’s so much stuff, and what do we do about this?’” said Violet Gross, founder and chief executive officer of Tulerie.
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Core to the shift is a website redesign that better communicates Tulerie’s stake in the circular fashion community.
A lean business built on a closet-swapping imperative, Tulerie emerged thanks to Gross and her sister Diana Giese in 2018. While the pandemic took a toll on revenue for rentals and consignments (including for Tulerie) — downloads are now at an all-time high.
Gross said the company has had “more borrows for this entire weekend than we’ve ever had in our history,” perhaps in line with New York Fashion Week and the back-to-office outfitting kick. The company saw an over 300 percent increase in transactions.
Agua by Agua Bendita, Dolce & Gabbana, Zimmermann, Johanna Ortiz and Cult Gaia have been some of the most requested and borrowed clothing this year. In terms of accessories, bags from Bottega Veneta, Loewe, Fendi, Stella McCartney and Chanel take top accolades.
Item owners handle logistics from inventorying (kept in their closets), laundering and dry cleaning. Before joining, users are screened via FaceTime interview with the Tulerie team.
While Tulerie doesn’t publicly disclose average active renters, demographics include city-based women in lower to mid-30s. Top rental areas include New York, Miami and Los Angeles (and surrounding suburbs), and now D.C., Cleveland, Chicago, Oakland, Calif., and San Francisco.
Speaking to the positive consumer sentiment among renters, Gross said orders are higher in value in the past two months (in the $150 to $250 range as opposed to $80 to $90), and “people are packing entire suitcases to go on vacations with them. It just seems things are more meaningful to people.”
With avid renters like Carrie Symonds putting a spotlight on secondhand wedding attire, Gross believes “[peer-to-peer rental] is going to start growing in the U.S. as quickly in the U.K. Brands are going to start getting in on it.”
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