Being a husband-and-wife team definitely has some really good advantages.
So, for us, for example... Makes you work longer hours!
The high street is not what it was. And one Singaporean couple is taking full advantage.
Who wears the trousers? Chris is really analytical.
Rae is a lot more focused on the branding side,
the operational side of things. We all have a balance.
When Chris Halim and Raena Lim saw an opportunity to redress sustainability
issues in the fashion industry, they wanted to do so in style.
This problem affects me personally, so I was very motivated to solve it.
And the duo behind clothes rental app Style Theory certainly don't do things by halves.
We did put in like $40,000. I mean, honestly, we don t know whether we are foolish or brave.
Style Theory is a Singaporean fashion rental platform,
which allows subscribers to loan unlimited items for a flat monthly fee.
The Softbank-backed start-up today boasts more than 200,000 registered users
across Singapore and Indonesia, and offers an inventory of 50,000 clothes and 2,000 bags.
Ex-Goldman Sachs banker Raena Lim and consultant husband Chris Halim got the
idea for the company in 2016 after facing a common conundrum: having nothing to wear.
I think the 'a-ha' moment came when Chris actually questioned me and he's like why is
it you have so many clothes and you're always complaining that you have nothing to wear?
For someone who came from a finance background, using logic and mathematics,
and it just suddenly felt like wow, that's really a very illogical response that I have to fashion.
Having spent her early career working for a non-profit in Kenya,
Raena was keen to start a project that allowed her to do good.
And with the environmental damage of fast fashion coming to the fore, the opportunity was clear.
When I was working in Kenya, you know, it was 5am in the morning,
I'd cycle down to the village, I'd get to interact with the people directly,
talk to them and really figure out how to help their business grow.
That feeling, it always stuck with me.
That just was something that I craved for after five years at Goldman.
So that's when we started talking a little bit more about
potentially building up a company of our own that could really solve a problem that we care about.
Textile production is one of the world s largest polluters,
generating global emissions equivalent to 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.
That's more than all international flights and shipping combined.
Since 2000, global clothing production has doubled within 15 years while the
average number of times an apparel is worn before being disposed decreased by a third.
That inefficiency has spawned a host of new clothing rental platforms
seeking to satisfy conscious consumers with a guilt-free alternative to fast fashion.
Pioneered in 2009 by U.S. platform Rent The Runway,
the circular fashion industry has bloomed over the past decade,
inspiring other brands such as My Wardrobe HQ in the U.K. and GlamCorner in Australia.
Yet, the logistical challenges of Southeast Asia have made it a tough market to crack.
That led newbie entrepreneurs Raena and Chris to adopt a test-first strategy.
We started with a waitlist first, so we had enough number of clothes
and enough capacity for customers.
And as the customers come in, we are either proven
right or proven wrong and then we continuously iterate from there.
Very fortunately, the business model was a hit. It allowed us to actually scale.
And that means increasing the number of inventory and increasing the number of customers.
The couple s data-driven approach led them to switch from owning all the
inventory in-house to a consignment model in 2019.
Under the new structure, Style Theory holds stock on behalf of designers and individuals,
paying them each time an item is rented.
The company then takes a cut of the $95 unlimited monthly subscription fee
for the management, courier and cleaning of goods.
That savvy approach has won the minds and wallets of investors,
including Softbank, Alpha JWC Ventures and Indonesian real estate company the Paradise Group,
who have backed the company to the tune of $30 million.
Jefrey Joe, co-founder and managing partner at
investment firm Alpha JWC Ventures, explained more.
When we invest in a company, we always think about what is the problem that they are solving.
So, the problem that they're solving is definitely for the users and,
in this case, a lot of female users.
This also provides solutions as well to even the suppliers or designers
to be able to reach this target market in a more direct manner.
And number three, we also believe that this rental and resale industry's also
solving this environmental issue as well.
The funding indicates investment appetite for the young but growing sector.
The online clothing rental industry was valued at $1.2 billion globally in 2019.
By 2027, that figure is expected to more than double,
growing at an annual rate of 10% to hit $2.8 billion.
Even before the pandemic, we have a thesis:
the rental kind of platform, or sharing economy if you will, is the future.
The whole industry just started a few years ago, but we know that there s a strong trend towards
that, because at least the younger generation are much more comfortable being able to
rent and then have the sharing economy, rather than owning.
Much of that growth could be led by Asia Pacific,
whose relatively nascent clothing rental market is ripe for disruptive players like Style Theory.
The region is forecast to account for almost a quarter of the overall market by 2027.
Southeast Asia in general, I would say the market size of this segment is still tiny, and
it means two things. One is that we need to spend more time to educate the consumer.
But secondly, if we look at the other side, we also see a huge potential.
This market is not as big as the other verticals like maybe fintech,
general e-commerce and all that.
But we believe that this circular fashion
market is big enough to create at least a unicorn from Southeast Asia.
Raena and Chris aim to capitalize on that opportunity
by tailoring their offering to the specific needs of consumers in Asia.
Every country that we are in has a slight difference
for what kind of clothes fits their lifestyle or what they actually prefer.
So that also meant that we had to craft every inventory for every market differently too.
Yeah, so for example in Indonesia, the customers there are a little bit more modest, so for
them we actually tried to get items that are a little bit longer, you know, the sleeve length.
However, the outlook for the fashion industry is not without challenge.
The onset of the pandemic in 2020 struck a blow to retailers, denting profits and shuttering stores.
Meanwhile, with social engagements cancelled and hygiene taking a priority,
clothing rental was hard hit.
Until now, Style Theory has only recovered 75%
of pre-pandemic users. But its new resale business for preloved items has helped cushion the blow.
Obviously, the pandemic is probably the most
challenging time for us as a company. But it also brought a ton of opportunities.
The most exciting one for us was actually fashion resale.
We actually ramped up our fashion resale efforts, officially launched the platform last year,
and were able to grow that business 10 times in like 12 months.
Still, the Style Theory founders are confident fashion rental is no fad.
In its five years, the company says it has facilitated more than 2.3 million rentals
and saved more than 600,000 preloved designer items from prematurely entering landfills.
Now, it plans to expand into new markets and consumer bases,
starting with Hong Kong later this year.
We re expanding our category lines. So, we're doing men's,
you know, we want to also bring in more childrenswear, kidswear.
I think those are some of the different services that we want to be able to put out
for a bigger segment of the market that hasn't been able to enjoy fashion sustainability.
That's some order to fill.
But despite the challenges,
the husband-and-wife team say they have found a good match for their fashion outfit.
Basically, the business is a baby, right, for us, so
we definitely have to put a lot of hours into that.
But, other than that, the full trust, the 100% alignment, is really, really helpful and
super important when you're making key decisions together.