South Asian fashion rental The Borrowed launches in New York
The Borrowed, a platform for renting, reselling and lending South Asian designer fashion, has launched in New York as its American headquarters. The company built its business in the United Kingdom before crossing the Atlantic, according to WWD.
The company was co-founded by Divina Chopra, its chief executive, and Shreeya Thakkar, its chief operating officer. Chopra previously worked in merchandising at Hermès, Burberry and Rolex. Thakkar spent a decade at Goldman Sachs before co-founding the business.
New York was chosen because it has the largest South Asian consumer market outside the subcontinent, the company said. That is the reason it gave for the city as its base.
The catalogue spans well-known names and older pieces. The Borrowed carries work by Sabyasachi, Manish Malhotra, Anita Dongre, Tarun Tahiliani and Neeta Lulla, among fourteen designers it lists. It also sources contemporary wear directly from South Asian labels including AK-OK, Rahul Mishra Pret and Anita Dongre Grassroot. Archive pieces include Sabyasachi looks from 2001 and work by Neeta Lulla from the 1990s.
The money works like this. A rental of the average piece brings in about $360, against an average piece cost of $1,800. WWD reported that pieces typically pay for themselves within five rentals. That means the platform depends on a garment being lent out several times before it earns back its price.
In London, the company works with the retailer Estiee to move aged inventory and samples. Aged inventory is stock that has sat unsold for a long time, while samples are the test garments a brand makes before full production. Estiee's role gives the platform a second route to pieces that might otherwise sit in storage.
Rental and resale have grown as ways for shoppers to wear expensive clothing without buying it outright. For a fashion label, a rented piece still earns money, but it is worn by many customers rather than sold once. The Borrowed's New York launch adds a new market to that model, built on South Asian designers whose work is often worn for weddings and festivals.
