University of Pennsylvania graduate Julia O’Mara is the co-founder of Pickle, a peer-to-peer clothing rental service that recently raised $12 million in Series A funding, writes Beatrice Forman for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Investors are now hoping that the app will become “the Airbnb of fashion.”
Pickle was founded four years ago as a social polling app for users to crowdsource feedback on fashion dilemmas, whether it be a decision about what to wear to a wedding or which designer bag represents a good investment.
A year later in 2022, O’Mara and her business partner Brian McMahon pivoted to a new model after users kept recommending their own clothes and offering that others can borrow them.
Today, lenders rent out clothes for days or weeks at a fraction of the original sale price. The items are either shipped nationally or delivered with Uber or DoorDash within the same city.
“When I needed a last minute outfit, I would run down the street to the Urban Outfitters at Penn or to the closest Zara in New York City to grab something affordable that I would probably wear one time and never use again,” said O’Mara. Pickle “lets you wear something once guilt-free.”
Read more about Pickle and the new layer it adds to the clothing rental industry in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
_____
