A KPMG report in 2017 estimated bridal wear in India to be a $50 Billion industry. Indian culture calls for brides to be dressed in traditional embellished bridal wear. Indian weddings are large affairs. A guest list of 1,000 is not unusual. The wedding involves a minimum of three events before the actual ceremony, often followed by a reception. It is increasingly common for affluent Indians to spend on outfitting family members and even guests for the occasion — all the better to show off on Instagram. Brides are becoming more conscious about how weddings are documented, and with the aim of a uniform aesthetic, close family will also choose looks from the same brand. But these outfits are usually so heavily embellished and uncomfortable that they are not re-used as often. Guests attending these weddings end up buying designer clothing to maintain status quo. Most of these clothes lose their wearability due to being heavy in weight and heavily embroidered and embellished. People also no dot prefer repeating too often and want variety in their wardrobe. It costs a fortune for families and people attending weddings to buy new clothes each time. Thus, my project is going to focus on lending and renting Indian luxury wedding designer clothes.

The problem I am addressing is the production of clothes which are utilised only 3-4 times by consumers. The opportunity is huge as there is a great demand for wedding clothes for one off wear.

 | Strength: Luxury designer wear at affordable pricing, huge demand for wedding wear which is increasingly high priced. Wide range of designer clothing under one app. Ease of shopping. 
| Weakness: Not having ownership of the garment, lack of emotional value.  As a new business it may take time to build trust with customers.   
| Opportunity: Adjusted to measurement rental clothing. Growing demand for wedding designer wear. Large wedding industry. 
| Threat: Social factors, competitors, need for ownership   

-          My business model aims to identify sample designer wear clothing that is not being used by companies as a resource for my company. 

-          The app itself is a product as a service model. The app will be used as a platform to rent clothing that can be returned after wearing. 

 

We will provide a service in which consumers can rent clothing as per occasion and have it fit to their size for a period of time (e.g., 4-6 days) at an affordable price, we will reduce the need to buy new clothes. This will reduce the demand for new clothes to be made, leading to lesser amount of waste and will lead to be positive social impact. This also increase the life cycle of a garment made as it will used in a circular way. 

 There are some key issues that must be considered:

·       Garments need to be clean, sanitized and smell-free as multiple consumers will be using them. To provide consumers with garments that feel new each time they wear them. 

·       It will need to be easy to alter them to various sizes and will need to be tailored really well for them to fit to measure. A team of highly skilled tailors/sewers will be key to provide this output. 

·       Order processing and delivery/pick up will need to be seamless 

To come up with a plan/idea for the way the wedding clothing industry works and bring about a change. Educate consumers to become aware about circular fashion and the value of second-hand/rental clothing. Bringing out awareness to rethink buying habits and the need to reduce buying new clothes. 

 

To reduce the amount of new clothes being produced by bringing down the demand for buying new clothes. Use of sample garments made for collections in the rental app. Circulating garments in the industry for rental use. 

 

This will be a completely reuse based business model as we will be focusing on sharing clothing based on a rental model. It is focused on reuse             by another customer of a discarded/sample or circulating product which is in good condition and can be circulated in the industry.  

Renting things, you would only wear a few times is a more sustainable answer because more people sharing clothing means less clothing waste.  By offering consumers a shared clothing economy, traditional wedding wear clothing demand will reduce, reducing the use and waste of textiles. 
Along with all the above, it will help increase awareness of the environmental impact of buying new clothes and the need to move to a circular economy.

We will have an initial inventory of 25 wedding wear outfits in different categories as per occasions as follows: 

Cocktail Party (Sangeet) 

Wedding 

Reception 

Festive Indian (Mehendi) 

 

Our year membership model will allow customers to rent 6 outfits a year at an annual membership cost of Rs 20,000 (approx. 200 Euros). Alternatively, they can opt for one-time rental as per product pricing. 

We have estimated we will need 200 subscriptions to run the business. 

We can keep increasing the inventory and also will have recovered the cost of the outfit after a certain number of rentals/subscriptions and the outfits would remain part of the inventory.