Podcast #53 · Tamsin Chislett · In With The Old, In With The New @ Onloan
“This is an era of reckoning for fashion and people are really ready for doing it in a different way”
Tamsin Chislett
Tamsin is the co-founder of Onloan, a UK based fashion rental company. Having always been passionate about doing something meaningful, Tamsin has had several impactful roles in her career including volunteering for Technoserve at a coffee mill in Zimbabwe, working for impact investor Acumen as the Executive Operating Officer of a Cotton Ginnery in Uganda and helping social entrepreneurs get funding while at ClearlySo. Tamsin has also refined her business skills while working as a Management Consultant in London and is energised by combining business with social impact – a passion that led her to Onloan!
Onloan believes that great clothes should be enjoyed, not consumed. So they loan women clothes, for work and the weekend, from the best contemporary brands, on a monthly subscription.
In this episode, there is a lot of laughter and fun – and some pretty awesome business advice! We discuss the following:
- Tamsin’s background growing up in a Hamlet in the English countryside (~01:30)
- Tamsin’s “squiggly career” volunteering and working in Asia and Africa, working in consulting and impact investing (~02:20)
- Why Tamsin cares about doing something meaningful and her inspiration (~07:00)
- How the idea for Onloan came about and how Tamsin and her co-founder got started (~08:15)
- What exactly is Onloan and how does it work?(~11:30)
- Why now is the time for fashion rental (~12:40)
- Who are the customers of Onloan and how are behaviours changing? (~15:00)
- Onloan’s emphasis on curation and what Onloan looks for in a brand (~15:55)
- How Onloan works as a marketing channel for their brands (~21:00)
- Thoughts on new doesn’t = best (~22:30)
- Onloan’s growth so far and tapping into different sets of customers (~26:30)
- Thoughts on fashion rental at scale and wearing second hand clothes (~29:40)
- The Onloan team(~32:30)
- Tamsin’s thoughts on keeping assets in use for longer as a key business trend (~33:10)
- The impact of coronavirus on Onloan (~34:20)
- Thoughts on men’s interest in fashion rental (~37:50)
- Sustainability vs Coronavirus (~40:10)
- What is the most appealing aspect of a socially oriented business? (~46:28)
- Further thoughts on inspiration… “what would Charles do?” (~48:00)
- Advice for aspiring mission based entrepreneurs (~40:30)
- What’s next for Onloan? (~53:20)
- One message for humanity (~56:00)
“It’s [no longer] about cropped wide leg trousers being THE thing to have, actually it’s about finding what looks great on you, what you find fun right now, taking inspiration from all kinds of different places and piecing your wardrobe together based on that – and that’s a really good thing for sustainable fashion”
Tamsin Chislett
