“Fast fashion – but sustainable”: How fashion rental platform LOANHOOD is looking to revolutionise the industry

How the app works

The app is similar to Depop but for fashion rental, Hall explained, and works as a peer-to-peer marketplace targeted at the “digital first Gen Z” generation, born between 1995 and 2010.

“It’s like fast fashion – but, it’s sustainable,” Hall explained.

“We know that to get people to change behaviour, we have to make it fun and appealing.” 

Users can create an account on the app and can navigate the platform for garments – ranging from designer to high-street store items. 

“We want to encourage people to start with what they have,” she said.

The platform aims to be ‘gender inclusive’, so users can opt to list items as ‘ungendered’.

Users seeking to rent out an item are called ‘borrowers’ through the app, and can request to rent an individual item of clothing or seek to rent out a complete ‘look’ compiled by another user.

‘Borrowers’ are able to rent out an item for up to seven days for 20% of the cost of the total price of the garment, or ‘look’.

Users renting out items are called ‘loaners’ and can upload details about the garments, selecting preferences of how the item should be cared for. 

‘Loaners’ are provided with the option of signing up to a lender insurance guarantee provided through the app, to protect garments.

Hall explained there will also be a review system in place, which will be monitored. 

Initially, the first cohort of users accessing the app will need to be manually approved by the Loanhood team for item verification purposes, she explained.

Once the app is opened up to a wider audience, the founders will seek to use AI software to approve and manage item uploads.

The app will also use Stripe, an online payment processing platform, for payments and user ID verification, as users will need to be over the age of 18 and have an address in the UK to use the platform.

“That’s for safety as well, because if you’re meeting a person you want to make sure we have their ID and know who they are,” she said.

App users can arrange to exchange items in person, via bike delivery, or via post. 

Connecting communities and future of the app 

To coincide with the official launch of the app, the founders are planning to host a “rental pop-up” event in London. 

Prospective users will have assistance to create accounts and sign-up to the app, the option to try on clothes “straight from the rails”, and bring along items for other users to rent.

“We really want to grow these big hubs and big communities,” Hall explained, as the founders plan to encourage users to connect with each other outside of the app at pop-up events. 

“You see when you get out of London that there’s a much more of a community vibe.”

“We really see it growing like that,” she added.

The younger generation have “lost that face-to-face community” through the pandemic; “we want to bring it back,” Hall emphasised.

“What we really want to encourage people to do, is to follow people within their community,” she added.

In the future, the founders plan to branch out to partner with local businesses and universities across the UK. 

The platform has already partnered with LCF, the London College of Fashion, to create a ‘hub’ through the app which will include working with local influencers and lecturers.

Hall explained the plans are for the app to partner with universities in the North to create similar ‘hubs’.

“We’re going to go to Manchester, which has a huge fashion community, and communicate with universities there,” she said.

“What we hope to have is little hubs or lockers where people can drop the items, or partner with local businesses so you can drop off your item and have a person come and pick it up,” she said.

The app is set to launch within the next few weeks with a release to the app store, prior to the pop-up event and official launch.