Hyderabad-based clothing rental platform Kuro lets you feel like a star

The literal meaning of the word ‘Kuro’ derived from Japanese is an endless closet, and the two friends – Tulasi Satty Reddy and Anaisha Singhvee — offer fashionistas a shot at accessing an endless supply of couture through their online rental platform – Kuro.

Started just a couple of months ago, childhood friends Tulasi and Anaisha often heard and experienced themselves the forever conundrum of buying expensive outfits for special occasions which, once worn, languished in a far corner of the closet, taken out maybe once or twice a year or two later at best.

“Many of us do this, and it becomes a liability after a while. You can’t really wear the same outfit again, so you are not getting much use of that expensive lehenga or Indo-western ensemble you got for that wedding or sangeet. What got us thinking was what if that same outfit becomes an asset that can bring in some returns on that investment,” explains Tulasi, a marketing major who divides her time working on Kuro and a luxury cosmetic company.

So, essentially one gets access to ensembles from high-end designers for a fraction of the price and feel like a star at that wedding/cocktail party/ sangeet or any occasion that warrants a splurge.

The duo came up with a model of four-to-seven-day rental cycles where they charge a small percentage on a designer’s outfit and take care of alterations, dry cleaning, sanitisation and deliveries. “Say, we have an outfit worth Rs 1 lakh available for rent, we charge a 13 per cent commission on it that is shared with the designer. Typically, it takes four days to deliver the outfit anywhere in the country,” says Tulasi.

A pandemic may not be considered an opportune time to start a new venture, but the duo has managed to work around that obstacle too. Apart from reaching out to designers pan-India for couture, they have also rolled out a peer-to-peer sharing system where a person can rent out their occasion wear through Kuro.

“More than designer wear, we got a tremendous response from people wanting to rent out their personal Indian wear like saris, churidars, and lehengas. We ask them to send us pictures of the outfit and other details and then put it up for rentals. Now we are in the process of developing a website, but for now, we are doing the marketing through influencers on social media and word-of-mouth,” adds Tulasi. The price range for rentals begin from Rs 1,500 going upwards.

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