The day Leonor swore the Constitution, the Infanta Sofia She marked her profile with a rented dress from the favorite brand of British royals, highlighting one of the sectors of the textile industry in full expansion in Spain: luxury clothing rental. Her model, by Erdem Moralioglu, cost 1,770 euros, but she was able to wear it for the occasion for 268 euros. If a princess gets on the bandwagon of renting the most stylish fashion and the most glamorous brands, have you ever wondered why you can’t do it yourself? Did you know that you could show off your signature dress this Holiday season for around 80 euros?
“Why spend a lot on a party look that you’re probably never going to wear again?” With this question you summarize the germ of your company Blanca Mayoral, founder and CEO of Lend the Label. In just two years, what He started out as “a donkey with 10 dresses in the living room of a student apartment”has become one of the most famous fashion renting companies on the national scene. They pull from your wardrobe ‘influencers’ like the Pombo sisters or the Lozano sisters, aristocrats like Cayetana Rivera, actresses and television presenters, as well as businesswomen and women who “want to show off trends and a different model on their most important dates”details.
In 2021, this woman from Malaga, who was studying biotechnology, was in Madrid finishing an internship at a multinational. She began to look for new options for the future, when one day with her friend Ángela González, who came from communication and marketing and had taken a luxury fashion course in Paris, she began to fantasize about ‘a Glovo of clothes’, because they were going out that night and needed an outfit. “I wish they would bring us a ‘look’ home and take it away tomorrow,” she remembers.
References
“Following that idea we began to study international business models who rented clothes for a limited time,” recalls Mayoral, who assures that this idea is “very established” in USA since 2012where Rent the Runway It is quite a reference [y una empresa unicornio, el sueño de cualquier ‘startup’, que sin estar en Bolsa supera los mil millones de dólares]or the United Kingdom, with platforms like HURR or By Rotation. “They all have their own personality, although a similar vision, reduce pollution from the textile industry without giving up the best looks and trends of the moment. At Lend the Label we are also inspired by our clients, the key to success is listening to what the new generations are looking for, what their tastes are, and all of this helps us to perfect the service and incorporate new functionalities,” observes Mayoral, who today directs alone the business, along with a team of five women.
Two weeks after The Chen sisters opened Borow on Madrid’s Gran Viain Chueca, Lend the Label did the same in the Salamanca neighborhood. Two platforms with stores today emblems of the luxury rental sector, which were born at the same time that the leading fashion rental business in Spain was languishing, The Cutest (founded in 2012, last October it closed all its stores and e-commerce). “We spoke with their CEO, Polo Villaamil, to advise us in this sector. They had specialized in clothing and party accessories, but without betting on luxury brands. Furthermore, I think their problem was that it was not aimed at a specific audience. And today, Any 15-year-old girl knows what a Louis Vuitton or a Balenciaga is, and looks for very specific things.“says the businesswoman.
“Our intention is to democratize luxury fashion, so that it can be an option for all women, and also make it possible for women to share and make profitable the jewelry they have in their closet”
Accessible luxury
“Talking with friends I realized that we had the same problem, a multitude of events and thousands of dresses in our closet that we had worn only once… We didn’t want to continue spending so much money,” says the woman from Malaga, who adds two other problems to this problem. On the one hand instagram: “We take a photo, we upload it, and we no longer feel like repeating ‘look'”; and on the other, the aspirational desire to dress with luxury brands: “We see luxury fashion more and more, but it is still inaccessible for most budgets.”
The donkey with 10 perfect guest rental dresses soon fell short. The company became known and the objectives also became more ambitious. The priority of all, give garments more than one life. “Our intention is to democratize luxury fashion, that can be an option for all women, and also make women can share and make profitable the jewelry they have in their closet“.
Catalog with 400 ‘looks’
The latter has been key to success by Lend the Label. If your catalog right now is made up of between 350 and 400 ‘looks’, which “are renewed almost daily”, it is not only for the garments purchased from the brands, but for all those that the clients contribute to be rented. “They are all equally impeccable,” says Mayoral. “The funny thing is that they change. Have national brands, such as Baymo, Amlul (that of Gala González) or Juan Vidal… and international ones, such as Carolina Herrera, Zimmermann, Ralph Lauren, Alexa Chung or Sea New York”, enumerates.
“We have a Logistics department that picks up the pieces, delivers them, picks them up again, takes them to the dry cleaners…” explains Mayoral, who points out that perhaps this It is the most complicated part of the business“make sure that a dress that five clients have ordered for the next few weeks arrives on time for all of them.”
“The service The Wardrobe allows any woman to give a second life for your most beloved garments, while earning money and collaborating with circular fashion. Maybe a dress cost you 500 euros, but you can recover that money, and even earn more, with the rental,” details the CEO.
Currently Lend the Label distributes its business 65% in store and 35% ‘online’. “But more and more people order more online, and they know their measurements and sizes. Furthermore, if you request a ‘look’ for home and then it doesn’t convince you, you only pay the courier costs,” he explains.
The key to success
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Ensures that they reach up to 50 requests per day. Just have to fill out a form about the garment, indicating the brand, date of purchase, original price and how much you want to rent it for, and attach a photo. If it is selected by the department, it goes to the temporary catalog. “This was how we grew our inventory. We received thousands of requests from girls who wanted to make some profit out of their closets and support more sustainable consumption. I would say this was the inflection point to grow our business, and what sets us apart from the competition“says Mayoral, whose company is already present in Portugal and aspires to conquer other European markets like Italy, where “there are some brands but with very local logistics.”
For example, a ‘look’ of about 3,000 euros by the Colombian designer Johanna Ortiz, here you can have it for 170 euros. The rental is from Friday to Monday, normally. The average price is around 80 euros for a dress or outfit, and if you decorate it with a coat or cape, it costs 150 euros. They also have bags, usually from emerging brands that provide their exclusive capsule collections for a time.