It all started when Amrita Aviyente realized she forgot the shoes she planned to wear to an out-of-town high school reunion. After having to buy a new pair, Aviyente figured there had to be a smarter solution, especially during a time when the sharing economy was taking off. From her predicament, Aviyente launched Date My Wardrobe, a startup that would allow women to rent from the wardrobes of other women nearby.
Date My Wardrobe’s goal is to expand your closet to include the lightly worn items going under used in other closets around town, and help save you money. Users can either post their rentable items, or request an item to rent, and Date My Wardrobe makes the match before facilitating an exchange process. Currently, only shoes are listed to rent on the site and app, but this fall, the company will roll out rentable dresses and handbags – meaning you could rent an entire evening outfit through the startup.
After launching nearly a year ago in October of 2013, Aviyente has some new developments, in addition to the inclusion of dresses and handbags, headed to her startup, which is currently based out of the Babson College accelerator Butler Venture Accelerator.
Most immediately is Date My Wardrobe’s new mobile app, which launched in the App Store last week. App users can contact potential rental matches directly through the app and facilitate a time and place to exchange an item, as well as upload photos more easily on their phones. Aviyente said that after launching the online site, the company received feedback from users that a mobile app would be a necessary and appreciated component.
“Everyone is on their phone all the time, and this will let [users] post their pictures and create a digital wardrobe without going to the site. If there’s a nice dress I bought, I can just upload it directly to the site through the app,” said Aviyente in a phone call to BostInno.
Another feature coming to Date My Wardrobe in the coming months is a partnership with local designers. Aviyente hopes to work with area designers to get their collections on the site and app, in order to rent items out to users and test the market.
On top of that, a fourth new feature coming to DMW that will benefit designers and renters alike is the ability to buy items on the app, instead of just rent. Aviyente expects this feature to roll out this fall.
The market, Aviyente said, that Date My Wardrobe focuses on is the college and young professional population. She continued that it’s important to build trust in a sharing economy, and that Boston is a perfect size to launch Date My Wardrobe, because it’s manageable.
Next up, Date My Wardrobe will launch in Amsterdam, in conjunction with the Web Summit in Dublin, Ireland. As of now, Aviyente didn’t mention any plans to expand to another US city.
App screenshots via Date My Wardrobe
