LONDON — The Volte, an Australian peer-to-peer fashion rental platform that’s been capitalizing on the nation’s resortwear boom with brands like Zimmermann and Alemais, is looking to make its first move in global expansion with the launch of a U.K. operation.

By charging around 30 percent of the full price of a designer outfit that has been purchased and worn for a special occasion, The Volte aims to foster a circular habit by encouraging those with a big wardrobe to share their fashion purchases with those who have similar tastes.

In an interview, Kellie Hush, cofounder and chief brand and strategy officer at The Volte, said the platform has more than 70,000 items listed on the site in Australia.

A sizable portion of the items comes from around 250 of what she calls “super lenders” earning up to 200,000 Australian dollars a year, renting out their wardrobes. The renter has the option to buy that dress in the end, too, if an agreement is reached with the lender.

A prolific figure in the local fashion scene, Hush had a 25-year career in fashion media before joining The Volte. She was the editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar Australia between 2012 and 2018, and now also serves as chief executive officer of Australian Fashion Week.

Hush said The Volte is also helping retailers like Australia’s largest department store David Jones integrate into the circular economy by offering the customers the option to agree to list their latest purchases on the rental platform with a simple click during checkout through an API widget.

“Every time something is bought through that API, a digital passport is created, and we can authenticate that product. In Australia, Zimmermann and Alemais are the two most counterfeited brands. Brands are very interested in it too, because it’s a fully circular model,” she added.

In 2023, the platform closed a $4 million Series A funding round led by eBay Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of the American online marketplace giant.

“At the moment, eBay is our largest investor. They’re great to work with. I think it is much easier when you’re working with a partner who understands that marketplace model and also how hard they are to build,” she said.

The Volte is now profitable in Australia and is growing at around 30 to 40 percent year-over-year. It attracts more than 300,000 monthly active users and has 20 selected brand partners, such as Alemais and Camilla and Marc, renting its stock directly on the platform.

The U.K. operation will stay peer-to-peer at this stage. Hush said she has been actively making phone calls and establishing new connections to onboard the U.K.-based super lenders.

“Under no illusion, it’s going to be hard work to launch in the U.K. It’s competitive. Also, there’ll be idiosyncrasies in this market that we don’t have in Australia. After meeting some women who would like to become lenders, we realized we’ll probably have to have a VIP service here, because people don’t want to do the postage and all of that,” Hush said.

Brand and retail partnerships are in the pipeline, too. “We will be working with brands in the future. We’ve had meetings with department stores and brands to directly integrate with them as well,” she added.

“Our ambition is for people to start seeing quality fashion as an investment. It’s not just that make, take, waste model that we see so often. We want to hopefully disrupt fast fashion, and hope that people start seeing that if you invest in quality fashion, even if you recoup half of that cost, it’s better to buy that than to buy something that you’re going to throw out,” Hust continued.

Choosing the U.K. as the first stop for global expansion is because The Volte has a good relationship with the eBay team here, as well as the fact that English customers love Australian brands.

“And I think even being here in the summertime, the way you guys celebrate summer, with the races and summer parties, is very similar culturally to Australia, and our unique selling point is very much occasion wear. We’re not doing everyday wear like jeans, blazers, day dresses or work outfits,” Hush said.

Looking at the future, Hush said The Volte won’t go into men’s occasional wear rental due to the complexity around sizing, but is looking at partnerships with celebrities for charitable causes and testing for brand partners.

“They can do a special one-off piece to rent to see what that uptake is, and to see if they can drive it into some category that they haven’t done before. We also know that it’s great for discovery. The top 10 brands you see in Australia are ones I’m very familiar with, and then all of a sudden, you’ll see these brands creep in that are really new. And I find that quite interesting, because it means that our customers are renting not because of the brand but because of the style,” she added.