In August 2023, friends Veena Jayadeva and Sucheta Sachdev were commiserating over cocktails about how quickly their children outgrew new clothes. They soon turned to another expensive problem and its distinctly South Asian version: the way multiday affairs like weddings call for elaborate outfits for specific events, often worn only once.
Seeing these outfits on social media has only amplified the pressure to show up in something new and special, Jayadeva said.
“There are a bazillion Diwali celebrations that are happening, at least here in New York City. I have the same set of saris I’ve had for decades,” Jayadeva said. “At some point everybody’s going to see everything I have.”
That conversation became Kareena’s Closet, a rental and resale platform for South Asian formal wear that now connects customers with peers and designers in New York and beyond.
A blind date and a close partnership
Jayadeva had long wanted to build a community-rooted business. In her years at a Fortune 250 company, building programs to make it more environmentally and socially responsible, she had watched corporate social-impact programs treated as add-ons instead of foundations. If she left her corporate nine-to-five job to start her own sustainability-centered company, she wondered, who could she partner with?
She immediately thought of Sachdev, a music producer and editor and fellow corporate veteran on a similar wavelength. Sachdev ran the NYC office for Warner Bros. Discovery and had built and managed a team of composers, executive producers and industry leaders.
They had been introduced a decade earlier after Sachdev’s mother struck up a conversation in a neighborhood park with Jayadeva after hearing her speaking Kannada, the main language of Karnataka state in southern India, where the Jayadeva family had its roots. Here was a mother of young children who was about the same age as her daughter, also worked in corporate America, lived in Jackson Heights and came from the same community.
“I like to say that this is the only blind date in my life that’s ever worked out,” Jayadeva said.
She made the leap to leave the corporate world in 2024 to start Kareena’s Closet. With Jayadeva’s experience with operations, systems and financial modeling, and Sachdev’s big-picture thinking, networking and negotiating skills, they complemented each other.
Jayadeva developed the peer-to-peer rental concept, while Sachdev expanded it by forging partnerships with South Asian designers, giving the marketplace inventory beyond clothes that individuals were offering from their closets. They chose “Kareena” for its diasporic roots and universality: it’s a name that’s recognizably South Asian but exists in different forms in cultures around the world.
While there are companies already offering South Asian outfit rentals, their peer-to-peer and designer-direct rental and resale platform is what sets them apart. They begin with garments that had already been owned or designed for rental and resale, distinguishing them from other traditional retailers.
They’re part of what Jayadeva describes as a growing movement, fueled by rising consumer interest in rental and resale since the pandemic, sustainability’s shift from a niche concern to a mainstream one, and an evolving South Asian diaspora.
Listening to their people
The pair spent much of 2024 holding listening sessions in their homes or friends’ homes. There, people shared frustrations spending $500 to $1,000 on an outfit they would wear only once. Many brought garments to the sessions that they hoped to rent out.
The duo also learned what was missing from their plans. “The people spoke: They want accessories to go with their outfit, especially with a South Asian outfit,” Sachdev said. “The blue has to match the blue in your outfit, which has to match the blue in the necklace and the earrings, and it’s a whole thing.”
That feedback led them to add jewelry, then expand beyond women’s clothing into men’s and children’s wear. They began partnering with jewelry designers in September 2025.
Styling and educating
After soft-launching Kareena’s Closet via Instagram in May 2024, they hosted a sustainable fashion panel at a Diwali event. They have since styled high-profile actors such as Sheetal Sheth and Sendhil Ramamurthy for events. They also featured clients and supporters in their debut fashion show last month at Fashion Week Queens. Despite their models being everyday people instead of professional models, “we were the most glam of everybody there,” Sachdev said.
Some customers remain hesitant about wearing secondhand formal wear. For some, the concern is spiritual: They worry garments may carry karma from previous owners. Others see secondhand clothing as detracting from the spirit of special occasions. “You realize we can’t be everything to everyone,” Jayadeva said.
That’s part of why the founders say Kareena’s Closet is as much about helping customers find their style as it is about renting specific garments. And why along with promoting the reuse of garments through rentals, they encourage clients to rewear what they already own, repair garments instead of replacing them and support neighborhood alteration businesses whenever possible.
They also estimate 40% of their business comes from non-South Asians. They guide non-South Asian customers on cultural norms, such as recommending that wedding guests avoid white, red or black – colors traditionally tied to bridal wear, mourning and bad luck, respectively.luck. It’s the kind of cultural bridge they hope Kareena’s Closet will build.
The future of Kareena’s Closet
The co-founders launched an online platform in May. Since then, the inventory handled by Kareena’s Closet has grown to more than 300 items. The startup has gained recognition as a finalist in the Queens Economic Development Corporation’s Tech + Innovation Challenge.
Next, they hope to open a permanent Jackson Heights showroom while continuing pop-ups throughout the city. They’re also planning a fashion show this fall to raise money for a nonprofit supporting South Asian survivors of domestic and gender-based violence. It’s an event Sachdev sees as less about clothing than supporting neighbors.
“We’ve never had an event that says, ‘Hey world, we’re here’ — we just quietly started doing things,” Sachdev said. “So this is a way to, yes, celebrate us, but also to celebrate the survivors.”
She said the event would meet a goal of being “able to support other women. Because at the end of the day, this is about community building.”
Three lessons from the founders of Kareena’s Closet
• Bet on yourself. “I never thought of myself as a CEO. Everything is figure-out-able, and nothing is rocket science except for rocket science.” – Jayadeva
• Stay open. “Don’t be so laser-focused on only solving one thing that maybe affects you. Maybe it’s a problem for your friend or your parents or somebody that you know.” – Sachdev
• Different personalities make stronger co-founders. “If Veena was like me, more laid-back, I don’t think we would get anywhere. But if we were both like Veena, we wouldn’t agree on anything. You have to figure out a way to talk to each other; it’s just like any close relationship.” – Sachdev
This post has been updated.
