Rent The Runway goes mobile with first ever iOS app

The app comes with some killer features, like Dress Match and Shortlist

Rent the Runway is getting its mobile on. The company revealed its brand spanking new iOS app on Thursday, but it goes beyond your basic mobile shopping app. There are plenty of shopping apps out there. Rent The Runway kicked it up a notch to ask, how do women really shop with their phones? Answer: by scoping out other women’s outfits.

The new Rent The Runway app comes with a Dress Match feature, which allows users to snap photos of dresses they see when they’re out and about, and find the same dress or similar style on Rent The Runway. The app uses photo matching technology to identify identical or similar styles among Rent The Runway’s inventory, which features more than 175 designer brands.

Don’t act like you haven’t taken a picture of a stranger’s cute dress or shoes or haircut. WE’VE ALL DONE IT.

To use the Dress Match feature, a user can either take a picture or choose an existing photo from her camera roll. The rules aren’t hard and fast: the photo can be of a dress, or just a favorite pattern or print, and then the app will generate a list of similar dresses that the user can rent or save to her favorite items.

Another feature on the app is the Shortlist, which allows users to curate their own collections for specific events, such as weddings, birthday parties, galas, and so on. Users can manually create their own collections or they can take a style quiz that asks for the event’s dress code and the user’s particular style, and then presents a list of recommendations.

The app also comes with other social shopping features, like the ability to text or email a dress or accessory to a friend to get input, or to recommend styles to friends.

Currently, 25% of Rent The Runway’s users visit the site from a mobile device. The platform has 3.5 million members altogether.

Earlier this month, Rent The Runway announced the launch of Rent The Runway Plus, a category of plus-size dresses in sizes 14 to 22. 

"Our mission remains: to make dressing up as fun, accessible and convenient as possible," said CEO and co-founder Jennifer Hyman, in a statement. "Through our Dress Match feature, users can hone in on a dress or fabric they love and discover all the similar styles they can rent for a fraction of the retail price.”