Dubai has a social calendar that never really stops: weddings, brunches, launches, galas, work dinners. For a lot of women that means a steady stream of outfits bought for one night and rarely worn again. Rosie Gunn built Endless to change that habit, with a platform where women can rent, buy and sell designer pieces in one place.
Endless started in the UK in 2019 and was rebuilt from scratch for the UAE in 2023. Today it carries more than 450 brands, from contemporary labels to luxury houses, with same-day delivery in Dubai and a paid community, The Endless Club, alongside the platform. Rosie describes the ambition simply: to become the Net-a-Porter of circular fashion.
Renting and reselling someone else’s brand raises questions that selling new never does. How do you use a luxury house’s name and images without implying a partnership? Who checks a bag is real before it reaches a customer? What happens when a dress comes back damaged, or doesn’t come back at all? I sat down with Rosie to ask how Endless handles all of it.
In this conversation:
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- Why rental and resale in the UAE needed a luxe, joined-up platform
- How Endless uses brand names and images when renting and reselling
- Authentication, damage protection and what renters are charged when things go wrong
- The rules for people who list with Endless, and the managed listing service
- What UAE customers actually do when they shop circular
Rosie Gunn is the Founder & CEO of Endless, the UAE’s leading circular fashion platform offering luxe rental and resale for women. With over a decade of experience in the fashion industry, Rosie worked as a womenswear buyer at M&S HQ in London before launching Endless in the UK in 2019. She then brought Endless to the UAE in 2023, with a mission to make circular fashion as luxe and easy as shopping new. Through circular fashion she is redefining the way women shop, championing a more conscious and affordable approach to fashion without compromising on style.
Read the conversation between Anuj and Rosie
Anuj: Take us back to the start of Endless. What was missing in the UAE that made renting and reselling designer pieces worth building a business around?
Rosie: I’ve worked in fashion since I was 15, and I’ve always loved it. But I also saw firsthand how much we buy and how little we actually wear. In my twenties in London, I was constantly buying outfits for events I’d only wear once. I didn’t feel aligned with fast fashion, and I couldn’t always justify investing in luxury either. I couldn’t believe a better way didn’t exist, so I built the platform I wished existed.
When I came to Dubai, I saw an even bigger opportunity. Luxe fashion is such a big part of the culture here, and the social calendar never stops: weddings, brunches, launches, work events. Women here value newness and style, but buying something new for every occasion just doesn’t make sense.
Rental and resale existed in pockets, but nothing felt luxe, trusted and joined up. Circular fashion felt like the compromise rather than the better option, and I wanted to change that. The ambition has always been to become the Net-a-Porter of circular fashion. One place to rent, buy and sell designer pieces, with same-day delivery in Dubai and a community behind it. Circular fashion done a way that feels luxe and easy to shop (just like shopping new), the Endless way.
Anuj: “Own Less, Wear More” is a clean promise. Which part of it is hardest to deliver once you have real inventory and real customers?
Rosie: Making it feel effortless. “Own Less, Wear More” sounds simple, but behind the scenes there are so many moving parts: condition, cleaning, delivery, returns, customer service, and making sure the right piece is available in the right size on the right date.
When a woman rents from us, she’s trusting us with what she’ll wear to an important moment in her life. There’s no room for that to feel complicated or unreliable. That’s probably the biggest thing building Endless has taught me. Circular fashion can’t feel like a compromise. If we want women to change the way they shop, it has to feel at least as good as buying new, and ideally better.
Anuj: You work with 450+ brands on the platform. How did you work out what Endless can and cannot do with a luxury brand’s name, images and products when you are renting and reselling rather than selling new?
Rosie: For me, it has always come down to respect. These brands are the reason women come to Endless, so how we represent them really matters.
Every piece on Endless is genuine and has already been bought, so we use a brand’s name to describe exactly what it is, never to suggest a partnership that doesn’t exist. However, in some cases it does – we have lots of brand partners, powering the rental for them via Endless. We’re so selective about which brands we accept in the first place. Everything is premium, contemporary or luxury. We don’t take fast fashion.
Rental and resale are a real opportunity for brands. This way our customer can be introduced a brand they may not otherwise know, have experienced – giving more people a way to experience or fall in love with a new brand or piece.
Anuj: Walk us through authentication. What happens between a piece arriving with you and it going out to a renter or buyer?
Rosie: Trust is everything at Endless, especially with luxury fashion.
Every piece is reviewed by our team before it’s approved for the platform. We check the brand, the condition and the listing, so customers know exactly what they’re receiving. Anything that doesn’t meet our standard goes back with feedback. Luxury bags need proof of authenticity before they go live, we work with our trusted authentication partner.
Our goal is that a customer never has to think about any of this. She should simply open the bag and feel the same confidence she would buying new.
Anuj: Rental creates problems resale does not: damage, late returns, pieces that never come back. How does that sit in your terms, and what did you have to rewrite after experience?
Rosie: Interestingly, we don’t experience these issues as people assume. We have spent a lot of time ensuring a slick process managed totally in-house. As the whole process is managed and operated by us, there is little room for error. Our aim is to protect the Endless users, setting us apart from other circular platforms out there.
Damage protection is included with every rental, so small mishaps are simply handled. Minor issues, like a loose seam or a small tear, we repair ourselves at no cost to the owner. Renters don’t even need to clean anything. We take care of that. For the rare serious case, where a piece is badly damaged or if it didn’t come back, the renter is charged the repair cost or current market value, and that goes to the woman who owns it. Our community needs to know their pieces are protected, or the whole model falls down.
Anuj: If a brand wrote to you tomorrow objecting to its pieces being listed on Endless, what is your process?
Rosie: We’re not interested in creating conflict and have many long-standing relationships with brands and designers. Every piece on Endless is genuine, already owned and carefully checked. We know a trusted resale market adds to a brand’s value in this era, rather than taking from it.
Anuj: What rules do you set for the people who consign or list with you, and which one did you learn the hard way?
Rosie: The biggest rule is simple: be completely honest about what you’re listing.
Condition, authenticity, description and imagery all matter. We accept premium, contemporary and luxury pieces in excellent condition and less than three years old. No fast fashion, nothing damaged. Luxury bags need proof of authenticity, bags and shoes need photos of the actual item, and every listing is reviewed before it goes live. We take misrepresentation very seriously.
For women who don’t have the time or prefer not to do any of it, we offer a fully managed listing service. We collect, list, store and ship, and they simply get paid. It just makes sense for the modern woman; it’s an easy additional revenue stream.
Anuj: The Endless Club sits alongside the platform. What does membership change, commercially and in the terms, compared with a one-off rental?
Rosie: A one-off rental is a transaction. The Endless Club is a relationship.
Community has always been the crux of Endless in this region. After so much success with our community, we made the decision to nurture and grow it into a paid membership. The Club brings together events, pop-ups, The Power Series IRL and real connection with like-minded women who want to do more and be more.
Anuj: Rental and resale are regulated differently market to market. What would need to change to take Endless beyond the UAE?
Rosie: I actually started Endless in the UK and rebuilt it from scratch when I moved to Dubai. That taught me expansion is never copy and paste. It’s about understanding the market, listening to the customer and adapting, while staying true to the vision.
We ship worldwide for purchases (not rental) and already have a strong Endless customer globally.
Anuj: Circular fashion gets talked about more than it gets bought. What does your own data show about how UAE customers actually behave?
Rosie: What I find most encouraging is that our customers don’t really think of it as “circular fashion”. They think: I want to wear this. That’s exactly how I hoped it would feel.
The UAE customer is incredibly fashion-led and loves newness, but she’s becoming much more intentional about what she buys. More women are asking, at the point of shopping, how many times will I actually wear this? If it’s once or twice, rent. If it’s endlessly, buy.
Circular fashion is perhaps talked about more than it’s bought because it’s often sold the wrong way (although it is growing x3 faster than traditional retail). Women don’t change how they shop because they’re told to. They change because the experience is better. Our customers rate us 4.9 out of 5 on Trustpilot, and our return rate is over 40%, which shows we’re doing something right.
For more of my conversations with the people shaping the business of fashion, read our interviews.
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