The following post is brought to you by our sponsor, Ethnic Thread—a platform where you can rent, sell and exchange personal style. The images below are courtesy of the Ethnic Thread team. Giveaway details included at the end of the article.
Imagine opening your closet and having a heaping pile of clothes topple all over you—and all of a sudden, you’re buried under your own gluttony and guilt. You start to ask yourself, “Why am I such an impulsive buyer?” And then, you pick up a piece of clothing that had been stashed deep inside this mound and think, “When was the last time I wore this?”
[Who’s seen this in their closet before? Don’t you think it’s time to declutter?]
Hey, we’re not making the idea of shopping and owning a whole lotta clothes sound morbid! Trust us when we say, shopping is a girl’s best friend. But what if you have an abundance of clothes (that you maybe don’t wear anymore), and they actually do fall all over you one day, when you go to open your closet?
Sailee, founder of Ethnic Thread, experienced a similar fate with an excess of clothing she had taking up her closet space. After she returned from a trip to India in 2014, she recalls hanging up all her clothes having splurged while on vacation, when her closet caved in on her!
I was thinking to myself, ‘What do I do? I have so many clothes!’ I didn’t want to give them to goodwill, and my nieces and daughter were too young, so that’s when an idea came along. Why not make something to pass these clothes along to people who are interested?
[A user-friendly, and simple, mobile platform to help through all your buying, selling, and renting needs.]
And Ethnic Thread is the brain-child behind this cave-in and the name of Sailee’s entrepreneurial idea. It’s a mobile app for women to exchange ethnic fashion—they can sell, rent, or exchange with anyone who is interested in South Asian fashion. The beauty of the app is that as a vendor/buyer, you can chat directly with one another because there’s no third party interaction. It’s like a social network for women; or even better, something similar to Kijiji, which is quite popular in Canada, or Poshmark
Every user creates a profile on this platform. Once you’ve signed in and are a part of the Ethnic Thread community, you can start following others who have registered on the app—this is how you get to see who’s posting what to sell and/or rent. Like someone’s style? Follow them to see when they will possibly post something up for grabs!
[Follow your favorite fashionistas on the app to make sure you don’t miss any of their offers!]
So what if a customer, Malini, has a pooja to attend and she’s in desperate need of a saree, something she can find just minutes away from her home so she doesn’t have to travel half way across the state to pick up her rental? She can easily log in to Ethnic Thread and use the appropriate filters to sort her needs by type and even radius. So if Malini doesn’t want to travel that extra mile to pick up her red saree from someone willing to rent out theirs, you best believe she doesn’t have to!
Now, let’s say Malini has picked up her prized red saree but needs someone to do an alteration on it because it’s most probable that everyone who buys/borrows from someone else, will need appropriate fitting. She can easily access the “talents” section of the Ethnic Thread app to see if there’s anyone in her area that has listed “altering” or “seamstress” as a part of their skill on their profile. But you’re not limited to just these skills. You can also list “makeup and henna artist,” “photographer,” and “stylist” just to name a few.
[Plenty of talent and services available for you on Ethnic Thread.]
Although the marketing niche is ethnic South Asian clothing, as a user of the app, you’re free to put up any type of clothing you prefer to sell or rent. Sailee says that this idea picked up steam mainly because people don’t normally repeat their ethnic clothes after they’ve worn it once or twice.
So giving one of your prized pieces away, “makes you feel good because you know that someone will wear your dress on their special day, and that you’re giving another life to the outfit.”
Sailee also wants her brand to focus on connecting the people that are a part of the transaction as opposed to the buying and selling of goods:
I want people to go there [on the app] and feel connected to the person who is selling, and not just what they’re selling. People can write stories about their items as well. For example, we had a lady who was selling envelopes, and she added that her 9-year-old daughter made them, and there was massive support from the community.
[There’s more than just clothing available on the app—how about some jewellery to go with that outfit? Or what about a purse? Ladies, you’re even able to sell paintings on this platform, so you’re not just limited to articles of clothing!]
Even though most of the Ethnic Thread team is based out of India from areas such as Pune, Mumbai, and Delhi, the app is available worldwide. One of the most convenient aspects of this platform is that you will be able to see the deals of the country you sign in from—you don’t have to manually make any adjustments to location.
Ethnic Thread is a nifty platform made by women, for women. With 100% of the team made up of females, you know that they all understand to free up a bit of closet space, all to get something new in there at your earliest convenience!
Hop on to www.ethnicthread.com and check out the wonders the mobile app can work for you! You might just be one step closer to wearing your dream outfit to your next big event.
Ethnic Thread is providing the first 20 women who sign up using the code “BGM” with $20 towards anything they would like to purchase through the app.
Ethnic Thread is a mobile app available to South Asian women around the world. Women can use this app to rent, buy, and exchange their clothing items and fashion accessories in efforts to help declutter their closets and give another life to an outfit. Download the app here, and start exchanging your personal style.
