Rent My Style Boutique
Interview #1 - Rent My Style Boutique
I was grateful to have had the opportunity to interview the beautiful founder of Rent My Style Boutique, Amy, located in Essendon, Melbourne.
For those who have not heard, Rent My Style Boutique is a local renting service that helps girls find their perfect dress or outfit for any occasion they have. They have a wide variety of clothes available from cocktail dresses, formal and unique and eye-catching party wear, which is one of their specialities.
Rent My Style has been around since 2016 and has since grown to be a well established, trustworthy and recognised rental service for locals in Essendon and surrounding areas.
Catering to the younger generations, with a target market between 15 and 22 years, they are considered one of better rental businesses that cater to this age group as most others have a more mature audience and are further out of Melbourne.
She is local to her area where most of her customers are, she caters to a younger audience that are more willing to buy her clothes and she has a wide variety of party clothes which also makes her stand out to everyone else which is what makes her service unique.
When Rent my Style was first established it was very small and didn’t have much of a following, compared to what it is today with over 4,500 followers and counting!
Amy only had one rack of clothes when she started, and now, she has now five, full of glamorous clothes with a wide variety of styles and sizes.
The inspiration for her businesses in the beginning and where everything was then put into place when she herself went to a rental boutique to get a dress for herself and in that time, she saw how successful this could become in regards to owning a rental service and left that place inspired, she said that “I wrote everything down and the next day I went to Kmart, got all the racks and just started”.
Today, she can’t see herself doing anything else except for Rent My Style. Amy found her passion for fashion and design, never actually creating but rather putting things together, and decided to make something of it. With an original interest in interior design, then architecture and now fashion, from just dressing up to casual wear and with the realisation of buying too many clothes, Rent My Style was created.
The initial goal was to get as many clothes as she could then afford and to find out what her customers were interested in, worked around them and then started to slowly grow the collection you see today.
Amy noticed that “if I started to get clothes that I liked more, then my passion would show through and people would be more willing to come and enjoy what I also enjoy”.
This is absolutely true, the time is taken to look to her customers, and find out what they like and what they would wear. With her style being similar to what she rents, its pretty obvious to see that her passion for what she does come through, even in the small details.
Rent My Style came around simply by someone who was inspired and made their passion into a career, not by looking at others accounts and having a negative mindset and saying, oh well, someone is already doing this, there is no point for me.
In Amy’s case, this wasn’t it, the more and more customers she had come in, the more she was researching in a way just by simply talking to people and getting their opinions. Everyone seemed to have the same mindset, omg this is such a good idea, and even now with social media, as it was pointed out and that she had found, the majority of people are buying a dress or an item of clothing and wearing it once, for the gram.
So she saw that there were people spending a ridiculous amount of money on one item of clothing just for the sake of likes, “that’s our culture these days, you spend money on one dress to only wear once” with the mentality that I've worn this dress in this picture meaning that I can’t wear it again.
So she got into this gap and made this service where she has the dresses you would want to wear, to rent for a lesser price than what you would pay and then there is no stress of buying something and wasting that money. She started to become more aware of these things as the years progressed and I’m sure that this will change again and everything will have to adapt.
What tips would you give to someone starting their own business?
“Honestly my biggest tip of advice is don’t doubt yourself, do not doubt the future and just do”
“And a lot of young girls say to me, I want to start but I can’t afford all these clothes and that’s not going to go anywhere. That was exactly the same as me and with everyone, you gotta start somewhere, you just gotta buy one item and then one more and keep going and a lot of other people say you know you won’t make money for a long time but if you have that mindset you won’t go anywhere, its not about the money at the start at all, you just have to do it and you just have to start. “
When I walked into the boutique, it was warm, comforting and relaxed and this I think hit the nail on the head, especially when there is a customer coming into a different environment to try on clothes in front of a stranger, so comfort is the main concept which Amy has perfected. She hopes that whenever someone walks in and out, that it isn’t daunting, they are comfortable and that they find something that they can wear with confidence and pride.
All the clothes in the boutique are bought my Amy herself, putting all her money and hard work into providing quality products for quality service. Without even knowing anything about Rent My Style, this is already a huge business expense and shows how dedicated Amy is. The clothes vary in variety, most coming from physical stores and online and also having people bring in their clothes to rent.
Even for Rent My Style like most businesses, it was tricky at the start as the main issue was making people aware that this was indeed a business and not just a game or hobby. But now, through experience and even talking with Amy about things, you can tell that she had to up her game, improve with her policies and be strict because in the rental businesses, items can be damaged easily.
With the goal now to this day with just buying more clothes and looking to renovate the boutique slowly, long term the next goal is to have an actual physical store and with the developing culture and girls buying more and more clothes, they can have somewhere to either hand them in or even save their money and rent a dress for the night and return it to a easily accessible location.
How would you describe your business in one sentence?
Close to home and fun!
Thank you for taking the time to read and learn more about Rent My Style Boutique and knowing more about the ins and outs of the business.
Make sure to follow them on INSTAGRAM and give them a follow to show your support, and now you know the next time you need an outfit, you know where to go!
Also be sure to follow my Instagram, BUSINESS ANTHROPI to keep updated and know what’s happening with the blog!
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