Galcon: If you’ve ever fantasised about having an endless walk-in closet, then Style Theory is your dream come true.
Take your pick from over 50,000 dresses and 2,000 luxury bags to suit your body, your style and your life.
Have you ever looked into your wardrobe that’s full of clothes but felt like you have nothing to wear? Or dreaded going to a friend’s wedding because everyone there has already seen you in all the fancy dresses you own at previous weddings, and you just don’t have the budget to splurge on a new one? Well, that’s where Style Theory comes in.
Style Theory is a subscription service that gives you access to their expansive (and expensive) collection of apparel and luxury bags that can suit any occasion. Starting at S$69 a month, you can rent a box of three pieces selected from a repertoire of over 100 designer brands. The highest tier subscription, which is S$179 a month, will get you unlimited boxes and choices from over 200 designer brands. You never need to go shopping again.
But how did such a brilliant solution to our problems come to be? “Style Theory started with a simple idea of how we can change how women consume fashion, cause we always hear women complaining that they don’t have clothes to wear,” Raena Lim, the founder of Style Theory explained. “We wanted to create a new way for people to consume fashion, such that they would not face this issue.” And this new way is a clothing rental subscription service.
Plus, in this era of fast fashion, people are buying more clothes than they can wear. It’s not uncommon to hear of clothes being worn just once, never to be touched again. This has led to the fashion industry being the world’s second largest source of pollution, after oil. “The industry had very little concern about what they were doing to the environment… and one of the major reasons is that consumers are not aware and not pushing for change,” said Raena. This is why education is a key focus for Style Theory – if you are aware, you can make genuine changes to protect the environment. This has been a driving force behind the brand’s community projects and messaging – to look stunning sustainably.
But this push to change how we view fashion has not been easy. “At first it was quite challenging, but we worked with the initial women to change the messaging and the product, to create the next level of fashion,” Raena shared. Style Theory focused on access to unlimited clothes and educated women about sustainability along the way. “This meant our messages resonated well with the women and we can grow virally from there.”
And grow virally, they did. Starting out with just a small pool of 150 women in 2016, Style Theory has grown to have over 130,000 subscribers, with 50,000 dresses and 2,000 designer bags, plus an expansion to Indonesia.
Now to take things to the next level, they have decided to open a physical space for their members, to provide more than just a weekly box. The first major benefit is that you now can try on the clothes! Plus, they have a stylist on hand for fashion advice and to recommend pieces that suit your body best. The store has a swap desk, where you can swap your existing bags and dresses with the selection within the store.
This creates the feeling that the Style Theory shop is your “Infinite Wardrobe”. That’s the name of the art installation that sustainability activist Laura Francois created for the store. The installation uses mirrors to help create a sense of endless choices.
So what’s in-store for Style Theory? Well, they are still learning and planning for the future. Style Theory is incredibly data-driven, using information from the rental app to understand their subscribers. Now with the physical space, they are able to interact with them and learn so much more. “It gives us an opportunity to understand better, like what they are feeling and what they tell the stylist, so we can cater to them,” Raena said, “We live in this age of technological advances; we really get to leverage all these start-ups that are creating all this new technology to help with predictions…like algorithms and AI. We will be announcing a lot more in the months to come.”
Though she can’t announce future plans for Style Theory yet, it will be interesting to see the solutions they will create to cater to their subscribers’ needs while remaining sustainable and adaptable. Style Theory could very well be the future of fashion, providing every Singaporean woman access to an infinite wardrobe with a drastically decreased environmental impact.
You can check out their collection and subscription packages at Styletheory.co or follow their Instagram accounts, @styletheorysg and @styletheorysg.bags, for updates to their collection.
Text: Galcon
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