How I made £100k by renting out my wardrobe

Rental trend has solely boomed since its inception – and undoubtedly, has turn out to be the go-to choice for a lot of eco-conscious wedding ceremony friends – however the rising recognition of guilt-free wear-once outfitting has additionally introduced with it one other welcome bonus: that’s, the flexibility to truly generate income (and heaps of it) from our personal wardrobes.

The truth is, many have discovered monetary freedom that they had by no means dreamed of by means of such platforms. It is definitely the expertise of Kelly Keogh, who has turn out to be one of many UK’s high rental lenders by way of trend rental app Hurr – having up to now remodeled £100,000 by loaning out her wardrobe. Chatting with GLAMOUR, she describes her rental service as her “business and full time job” – and as a mom, says it has given her the flexibility to work flexibly in a method she by no means may earlier than.

“For as long as I can remember, I’ve spent my money on fashion,” she says. “It was my first love. The key driver for all of my first jobs was to be able to buy the clothes that I wanted – but back then, the majority of those purchases were often forgotten as quickly as they arrived.”

“After I first heard about rental, it was a lightbulb second – immediately, all the issues I’d coveted in magazines for years had been inside my price range, and gadgets that I already owned may make me some cash once I wasn’t sporting them. So in 2021, after having my second little one, I listed my first two Rixo clothes – a black velvet embroidered mini [that has since been rented over 20 times], and a inexperienced and pink backless magnificence that I’d worn as a bridesmaid. Inside days, the bookings got here in.

“For the first time ever, I could see that my love of fashion was a genuine opportunity for financial empowerment. Having previously had a career in advertising, I was at home with two under two at the time – and the opportunity felt so exciting.”

For people who deal with rental trend as a enterprise alternative, there’s real course of and curation behind every merchandise. “I started to carefully reinvest the money that I made on other pieces, and crucially, I considered any new purchases I made in a way that I’d never done before,” she says. “Do I really need this? Will I wear it multiple times? Will others want to wear it too? Do I love it more than anything similar I already own, and is it different enough? If it doesn’t tick all of these boxes – but the burning desire to wear it even once is still there – rental is the answer. For a recovering fast fashion shopaholic, to suddenly stop and think like this was a revelation.”

“I’d dreamt of having a fashion boutique as a kid, but I had never imagined that the carefully selected and treasured items within my wardrobe would become that dream. Or that the beloved pieces I own would be worn by myself, my friends, and thousands of other amazing women. It’s so lovely when you get someone telling you that you helped them to feel the best that they’ve felt in years. And seeing someone style something that you own in a totally different way really does strengthen the desire to wear your items even more.”