SAN FRANCISCO, CA (TIP): EthnicThread, a mobile app platform to trade your preloved ethnic fashion, recently launched on the iPhone and Android markets globally. This user-friendly app gives women a chance to exchange, sell or rent personally owned/designed clothing, accessories and home decor. In this social media era where women are hesitant to repeat outfits once the pictures go out, EthnicThread was a much needed responsible fashion platform where women can monetize their closets by selling new and gently used party wear outfits, and buy different ones from other women in the community at great prices.

A primarily women run company, EthnicThread knows and understands the needs and challenges of today’s modern woman. Ethnic Thread founder, Sailee Raje, a Silicon Valley techie, wanted to create an easy and guilt-free way to keep her closet simple and organized, without compromising the shopaholic in her. It wasn’t long before she was joined by her equally passionate friends across USA and India to create a mobile friendly solution for it. As the app started taking shape, her research and surveys led to the discovery of tremendous hidden talent in the South Asian community – homemakers, students and hobbyists with expertise in designing, tailoring, embroidering, painting, henna, photography, makeup artistry, rangoli, and more. These talented individuals were eager to help the community by offering their expertise in their spare time. Until now they mostly relied on word of mouth to get work. Sailee realized that she had to create a trusted community platform for fashion and talent exchange, and not just a typical marketplace. EthnicThread was born to serve this purpose of connecting talent to opportunities. Sailee quit her well-paying hi-tech job to pursue this venture, where ethnic threads are used to bind the communities together.

EthnicThread provides its users a major advantage by not charging any transaction fees. Ethnic Thread is unique in that it directly connects people globally as well as locally. The app allows you to chat with talented fashionistas across the world, and can also help you find local people or products based on your current location, on the go.

Ethnic fashion is going strong in South Asian culture and has a multi-billion dollar market in India alone. Following the footsteps of dozens of fortune 500 companies, such as Uber, Facebook, Alibaba and Airbnb, EthnicThread chooses not to carry any internal inventory to sell, but rather provide a platform for people to connect with each other to share their products and talent. In addition to the app a physical platform for fashion and talent exchange is also being offered through their meetups currently held monthly in Delhi, Pune and Mumbai. Ethnic Thread is the first of its kind to give its users a complete ecosystem to repurpose their used ethnic clothing through community exchange, and be environmentally friendly through this responsible fashion concept. The impact of the app has been immediate. Thousands of women have started to not only trade their closets but also make great new connections along the way. New and used traditional Indian and Pakistani kids clothing has also been a popular category on the app. Medha Deshmukh, from Mumbai, says she has finally found an easy way to sell her daughter’s expensive Indian outfits. She is equally thrilled about being able to connect with like-minded moms she came across on the app who eagerly wait to see what she is uploading next. Talented individuals have started to list their work on EthnicThread to get broader visibility within the community.

Through EthnicThread’s #RealPeopleRealModels movement for self-acceptance users are encouraged to post their personal style, embracing their own body shape and size, as opposed to catalog or magazine pictures. Unlike other marketplaces EthnicThread intentionally uses social network interface where you can follow, like, and comment through a thread of colorful images. Users can post images for making serious money through selling, renting or exchanging. However, similar to the appeal of Instagram, Pinterest, and Flickr, many users post pictures to showcase their personal style and provide inspiration for their followers. Apart from traditional ethnic fashion such as saree, salwar, lehenga, kurti, you can find trending fusion such as henna strokes on the shoe or candles, Indo-western outfits and fusion accessories. The EthnicThread women’s team has expanded the company in the largely untapped South Asian market throughout USA and India, and plan to expand to other ethnicities in the future.

EthnicThread is available on iPhone 7.0 or later, and Android. The app is free to download for early adopters and will be available at a small subscription fee later, with Premium experience for paid users.

To learn more about EthnicThread visit them on Facebook at EthnicThread.com/fb, or on Twitter @EthnicThread. To download the app, visit their website at www.ethnicthread.com.