Hauteline's hybrid rental-retail model fuels rapid growth and profitability

Kristie Chow and Michelle Li, former software engineer and banker, founded Hauteline in 2023 to address a gap they saw in fashion rentals for young urban women. After starting with a modest rack of sourced garments, they opened a storefront at 95 Orchard Street, which shifted the business into a rental-retail hybrid. From May 2025 to May 2026 the store’s revenue grew 645%, while the monthly returning-customer rate rose above 25%.

The company became profitable early in 2026 and projects nearly threefold profit growth for the following year, leveraging tens of thousands of social-media followers and word-of-mouth traffic. All items are new when received, complemented by vintage pieces, and are offered for both rent and sale, balancing unit economics. Hauteline has raised only a small friends-and-family angel round and remains cautious about further institutional funding, emphasizing sustainability through multiple garment lifecycles.