Feature Photo Credit: The Business of Fashion
Millennials are the ‘Generation Rent’, currently living and growing into adults in an age where no one is buying properties anymore but instead, renting them. Living in an age of virtual libraries where everyone streams music and films online, without needing to own any of them, it was only a matter of time until this generation would covet the same concept for wardrobes too.
Furthermore, with 66% more searches for ‘sustainable fashion’ occurring since 2018, renting ‘pieces’ has become a concept no longer reserved for the rich and famous, that are used to receiving haute couture attire on loan for a shoot or a red carpet event. Nowadays, there are plenty of rental fashion sites offering everyone the chance to ‘hire’ a piece of clothing for a fraction of the retail price, before returning it a few days or weeks later.
THE IMPACT OF FASHION ON CLIMATE CHANGE
When it comes to the fashion industry, and its impact on climate change, and dubious practices there are no simple answers and no perfect ones. There are so many parts to every supply chain, and often so many participants involved, that every choice we make is a choice about priorities. The only way to begin to tackle this issue is to understand that every action and purchase is going to have an impact; you just have to decide what is, on balance, the least damaging choice.
According to Traid, the charity working to stop people from throwing their clothes away and encouraging re-use, fashion pollution is having enormous detrimental effects on the planet.
Clothing generates its own carbon and water footprint, with the fashion industry’s CO2 emissions are expected to rise to nearly 2.8 billion tonnes per year by 2030. Equally, UK adults reportedly only wear 44% of the clothing they own; the value of unused clothing in wardrobes has been estimated at around £30 billion.
Sadly, more than half of the fast fashion produced is incinerated or ends up in landfill within a year of being produced – that’s around 350,000 tons of clothes, at an estimated value of £140 million, which go to landfill every year in the UK alone.
Related – NO TIME TO WASTE – WHY BUY PRE-LOVED AND REMADE FASHION?
WHAT IS RENTAL FASHION?
The “wear once and throw away” approach to fashion is extremely expensive and wasteful, a definite affront to our sharing economy where accessibility is more important than ownership. By renting and returning a piece of clothing, these platforms seem to be offering the option of having an ever-changing wardrobe at our disposal (pun intended!). Whilst that’s partly true, the aim of the rental fashion industry is actually to help consumers put a stop to the buying habits that lead to overconsumption, by offering an option that is both less expensive and wasteful. By returning an item of clothing when you’re done with it, you’re allowing someone else to make the most of it. So, it’s pretty much like donating items to your local charity shop, but when those pieces are still trending.
Alyss Bowen, social media editor of Who What Wear UK, is a loyal customer of UK-based Hurr Collective, which is a peer-to-peer service renting items over £150 RRP, with rental prices ranging from 10 to 20% of the original retail price. She says:
“I’m totally on board with the idea of renting for special events – I have 5 weddings this year.”
Fashion journalist and model Sara Semic describes renting as a guilt-free way of shopping for a new look, knowing it will have a second lease of life and won’t just gather dust in your wardrobe.
THE PROS
Buying fewer clothes surely frees up space in our wardrobes, an important consideration for anyone moving around a lot or living in shared accommodation. Plus, the money saved from renting instead of buying new, can even be used to buy classic, slow fashion pieces like quality coats and suits that will last for years to come. On top of that, renting saves you time as instead of visiting dozens of stores on the high street, you can take advantage of one-stop shopping online and browse through outfits for every occasion. It allows everyone to experiment with trends without the added expense and without having to feel guilty about throwing away an accessory that is just not working for you.
the benefits of sharing over owning
According to an interview for Fashion Revolution with Eshita Kabra-Davies, founder of ByRotation, the benefits of sharing over owning are:
Utilization: Boosting the use of existing items.
Waste: Reducing impulsive shopping and borrowing for one-time events such as weddings or birthdays.
Space: Cultivating an optimal wardrobe that prioritizes quality and standout pieces.
Community: Engaging with the By Rotation community and forging new connections with fellow Rotators. Notably, renters and lenders have built friendships by sharing items through the app.
Passive Income: A great way to make some extra money.
Behaviour change: Rotators can track their own positive carbon footprint
fashion rentals are a slow fashion approach
That’s not all though, we also need to take into account the environmental savings from clothes not being produced as a result of rental. For example, if the same dress is rented 50 times, instead of 50 people buying that dress brand new, there is a much lower use of virgin material and a lesser carbon footprint from the industry.
The idea behind it is that this positive impact will hopefully help cut down on overconsumption and production, which in the end will lead to a more sustainable fashion industry and a happier planet. By prolonging the life cycle of quality items already in circulation, this will avoid the £140 million worth of textile waste that goes to landfill every year according to the climate action NGO WRAP. Ultimately, this is why fashion rental services can be seen as one of the ‘slow fashion’ practices out there.
THE CONS
Even though there are a lot of benefits associated with clothing rental seen from a sustainable fashion perspective, there are also some downsides worth paying attention to. These types of services are under a lot of scrutiny also because of the transportation, packaging, washing techniques, garment care and garment afterlife involved with every single piece of clothing and accessory that is rented.
THE RESEARCH
There has been some research published in Finland that threw doubt on whether renting is a more sustainable option or not, with the study going as far as to suggest that buying and throwing away a pair of jeans might be better for the planet than renting some.
- One of these sustainable downsides is that some companies still use shipping boxes with shockingly low recycling rates. The rental clothes may arrive wrapped in either plastic or something else, which isn’t recycled either. On top of that, shipping all those clothes back and forth is costing the environment a lot of emissions too. As we know, transport, whether private or public, is one of the world’s biggest sources of greenhouse gases, with emissions rising year after year.
- Secondly, a lot of rental services still try to follow fashion trends to keep their customers happy. We already know the fashion industry’s biggest problem is overproduction. And by following the newest trends, the services are partly taking part in creating this problem.
- Thirdly, at most clothing rental services free laundry and dry cleaning are part of the price. All items are being sent to professional drycleaners after use, and while it is good knowing you are renting clean clothes, the cleaning process – depending on how these are cleaned, can have a major impact on the environment.
Of course, it is almost impossible to have a truly sustainable wardrobe if you want to follow the fashion trends and have new clothes on a regular basis.
MY THOUGHTS ON RENTAL FASHION
As described above, clothing rental services are not considered an entirely sustainable practice, and the short answer to whether it is better to rent clothes than buy them would be – it depends.
If you are one of those people who rarely buy new clothes and only buy vintage, pre-loved or from sustainable brands, a monthly membership at a fashion rental service probably isn’t better than buying. Although, renting an outfit for a special occasion that you know you might only wear that one time, would definitely be better than buying it.
But if you tend to try out a lot of different trends that you might end up not wearing or if you tend to shop for clothes in fast fashion chains, renting clothes is definitely the better choice.
Ask yourself, how many times have you worn all those pieces in the back of your wardrobe, and you’ll have your answer. My advice would be to be to consider changing your buying habits and you can start doing so with rental platforms.
When it comes to the impact that rental fashion sites have on the environment, be sure to do your research on their transparency and their sustainability efforts before you rent from them. And I mean it, don’t be afraid to contact them and ask for more information!
With this in mind, I’ve put together a small list of some very well-rated rental fashion platforms for you to try out for your next special occasion outfits or if you want to make changes to your shopping habits.
DESIGNER RENTAL FASHION RECOMMENDATIONS
By Rotation
Founded by Eshita Kabra, it’s the first peer-to-peer social fashion rental app in the world that has taken Britain by storm and counts influencers, tv personalities and even members of the Royal Family among its users. Very similar to Airbnb, but for designer fashion.
The goal is to get people to share what they already own with each other and therefore do good for the planet, their wallet and their wardrobe at the same time.
As part of their commitment to becoming a fully sustainable business By Rotation have partnered with the aftercare specialist BLANC, which has replaced the toxic solvents used by conventional dry cleaners with eco-technologies which are the most sustainable and health-friendly methods of cleaning currently available.
By Rotation have also been awarded the Eco-Age Brandmark “in recognition of championing the sharing economy with the UK’s first peer-to-peer fashion rental service, discouraging over-consumption and encouraging us to love the garments in our wardrobes”.
My Wardrobe HQ
This company is the UK’s first fashion rental marketplace and a leading destination for renting and buying contemporary and luxury womenswear fashion, with clothing and accessories that are sourced from their brand partners as well as items from the wardrobes of celebrities and influencers including Arizona Muse, Poppy and Chloe Delevingne, Olivia Buckingham, Roxie Nafousi and Caroline Fleming and features 500 designers including Stella McCartney, Gucci, Prada, Anya Hindmarch, Chanel, Mulberry, Givenchy and Rixo and it also has a kids’ rental section. Their unique model means that you can either rent it or buy it. Then, when you want to share it and earn some money from it, list it back on the platform.
The unique buy and rent model allows consumers to ‘try before they buy’, with no hidden catches and allows them to monetise on their wardrobes!
On some of their products you will find a calculator which shows you exactly the savings that you have made to the planet by buying resale or renting.
My Wardrobe HQ plants a tree for every rental and sale places on My Wardrobe HQ, so every transaction has its carbon off-set, and they also support Arizona Muse and her charity DIRT, a charity that works to regenerate soil through supporting the biodynamic farming movement, a type of regenerative agriculture, which has been going almost 100 years.
Regenerating soil is one of the most important actions to be taken in the face of climate change and it works to transform the agricultural system into a healthy one, one that supports life on Earth. It uses no chemicals at all and makes its own compost on the farm to fertilise the soil, omitting the need to purchase chemical fertilisers which are harming soil microorganisms. With each passing season, the life under the soil of a biodynamic farm becomes healthier and nutrient rich.
If you would like to buy vouchers to plant trees as gifts. Please click here, or check out their website here.
Rent The Runway
If you are looking for a place where you can rent thousands of different items of designer clothes. Here you will find everything from wedding clothes, party clothes, vacation items, workwear, and much more. Founded in 2009 by Jenn Hyman and Jenny Fleiss, this platform started as a pop-up shop on Havard’s campus where students could try on and rent dresses on the spot. After testing their idea, they launched their website and after a few years, their first brick-a-mortar shop and subscriptions.
Today you can rent dresses, tops, jeans, handbags and accessories and their edits are really helpful in enabling you to curate your own wardrobe; they also have an assortment of plus size items ranging from 14-22+. Their latest rentable, exclusive collection of one-of-a-kind pieces made from upcycled garments comes from Nigel Xavier, the sustainable streetwear visionary, and winner of the latest Next in Fashion.
Rent the Runway are committed to their sustainability goals, which include displacing the need for new production of at least half a million garments through the next five years, minimizing waste, and offsetting 100% of carbon emissions from shipments to and from customers, and are very transparent about their impact and the progress they are making.
Rent the Runway are also collaborating with thredUP and their Revive by Rent the Runway, designer clothing that is exclusively shoppable on thredUP. You can also use the thredUP Fashion Footprint Calculator, which is a personalised tool that offers insights on the carbon footprint associated with your fashion habits and provides simple and easy to action steps to follow to help reduce your carbon footprint.
“RESALE AND RENTAL ARE POWERING A RISING WAVE OF CONSCIOUS CONSUMPTION. EXTENDING THE LIFE OF CLOTHING THROUGH REUSE REDUCES FASHION’S IMPACT ON THE PLANET AND DELIVERS INCREDIBLE VALUE TO CONSUMERS. AT threadUP, WE’RE THRILLED TO PARTNER WITH ANOTHER CIRCULAR FASHION POWERHOUSE TO START A CONVERSATION ABOUT HOW BRANDS CAN UNITE TO CREATE CHANGE.”
JAMES REINHART, THREadUP CO-FOUNDER & CEO
At Rent the Runway you can choose whether you want to join the monthly membership options or whether you just want to use the one-time rentals option. Check out their website here.
HURR
Founded in 2017 by CEO Victoria Prew, HURR’s mission is to build a circular fashion system, by educating and empowering women to extend the lifestyle of their wardrobe. How? By renting it. The company is also a member of Ecologi, which helps keep them climate positive. By calculating the footprint of each transaction and offsetting this through monetary donations, they’re working towards reducing their CO2 emissions.
HURR have also joined forces with the charity Malaika that was founded by Noella Coursaris Musunka, one of HURR lenders. It’s a charity whose mission is to create a community of highly educated female leaders who can advocate for themselves and their country – the Democratic Republic of Congo, so it can realise a future of stability, peace and equal opportunity.
You can support the charity through their Wear To Care initiative and rent pieces from the most stylish celebrities, such as Thandie Newton.
100% of proceeds go towards Malaika’s school for girls. You can find HURR on their website here, or visit their boutique pop-up at Selfridges on the third floor of Womenswear.
Wear The Walk
On a more local level, Zoe Partridge founded Wear The Walk back in 2017 but what the company is today didn’t officially start until the following year. Based in Hackney Central, their mission is all about providing a more sustainable and conscious way to consume clothing.
“I think our customer is a social kind of a girl, the girl that’s really striving to be the best she can be, someone that has an open-minded attitude and probably wants to consume a bit more responsibly.”
Zoe Partridge
You can rent out luxury designer items on a monthly subscription basis, most of whom are emerging designers seeking sustainable alternatives for the materials that they’re using to produce their collections. So double points on their ‘slow fashion’ concept!
The benefit of choosing Wear The Walk is that you can just walk into their shop in Hackney and try out the pieces without the surprise of doing it at home the day before your special occasion!
While Wear the Walk attracts lots of stylists, the target customer could be anyone. The shop can be found at Unit 3, Hackney Walk, Morning Ln, London E9 6LH. You can also find them on Facebook.
FRONT ROW
Front Row offers a selection of over 1,500 designer garments from the likes of Fendi, Chanel, Gucci, Armani and Miu Miu. Pieces are from private owners, but Front Row manages the process, including cleaning and delivery. The items tend to be on the small side though as there are only a limited number of larger sizes.
FASHION RENTALS FROM THE HIGH STREET
The Devout
While many brands focus on occasion wear, The Devout offers fashion rentals for the everyday. Founded in 2020 by Steve Bryan, it’s a rental platform offering a monthly subscription of women- and menswear alike.
Once you have subscribed, their delivery boxes, made from recycled, compostable cardboard and water-based ink, (the carbon emissions from delivery are offset), will arrive at your door every month with five gorgeous items ready for you to look and feel amazing in. Then you return them and your next box arrives. So of course, it’s a way to stay on trend without having to buy the pieces but giving them another owner instead.
The Devout use the latest Electrolux Lagoon wetware technology to wash and dry the clothing, which is a form of wet dry-cleaning, that produces fantastic cleaning results, without using harmful chemicals and solvents and uses significantly less energy than a standard wash/dry cycle.
When the clothes are unable to be rented anymore, they are donated to the homeless charity Shelter’s charity shops. Shelter exists to defend everyone’s right to a safe and secure home through its frontline services and campaigning work, and The Devout is helping to raise vital funds in the fight against homelessness. Check out their website here.
HireSTREET
If you’re looking for more high-end high street, rather than designer fashion, then Hirestreet might be for you – it can give you more affordable options and keeps the rental costs low. It has 9,000 outfits from brands such as Asos, M&S, Ghost, Whistles and Zara. Here, you’re borrowing from the company rather than people’s wardrobes, so the advantage is that more sizes are available.
ROTARO
Rotaro is a female-led, mission driven fashion rental platform that has over 2,000 items available to rent from contemporary designers such as Shrimps, Ghost, Reformation, Stine Goya and Cecilie Bahnsen. Items are from the site’s own inventory, so are available in more sizes than some other sites.
Rotaro have partnered with Ecologi, a leading social enterprise for their reforestation initiative, to plant trees and offset carbon. For each rental, they plant one tree; for every gift card they plant two trees, and for every new brand they partner with they plant a thicket.
GIRL MEETS DRESS
Girl Meets Dress specialises in frocks, with 4,000 gowns from biggies such as Victoria Beckham, Self-Portrait, See by Chloé and Needle & Thread. It also has a ‘borrow as many dresses as you like‘ option for £99 a month.
JOHN LEWIS
John Lewis has launched a rental service, where you can hire outfits from brands including Olivia Rubin, Seraphina and Molby the Label.
DESIGNER RENTALS ACROSS THE POND
OpenClosit
For those of you across the pond there is also Open Closit, which gives you rental access to curated closets from celebrities, stylists, business owners, models, influencers and creatives that have listed their designer investments and eveningwear. There’s a long A-Z list of designers you can select from, and you can list and manage your wardrobe from home with a DIY Closet or have OpenClosit keep and manage your rentals for you with a Managed Closet.
One of the featured collaborators, Australian actress and activist, Nat Kelley, has launched a charity initiative, whereby if you rent pieces from her you can help to give back 100% of her closet earnings to Native Conservancy, empowering American Native peoples to protect and preserve endangered habitats.
Tulerie
Tulerie is a peer-to-peer luxury clothing rental app allowing users to rent out the full spectrum of their wardrobes from each other. Each new community member is vetted via a FaceTime interview process and once accepted, you have access to thousands of curated designer pieces from designers including Bottega Veneta, Christian Dior, Gucci, Zimmermann and Khaite.
Tulerie also work in collaboration with RewearAble, who aim to keep unwanted clothing and fabric materials out of landfills by sorting and preparing everything they collect for reuse or repurposing.
This is particularly good if you are unsure where your clothing donations end up if they’re not sold, when you donate them to charity shops.
Vetements window at Saks, Fifth Avenue, displaying a pile of clothes. All the clothing was donated by Saks employees or was out-of-date merchandise that was given to RewearABLE.
RewearAble is a New York based recycling and job creation programme committed to helping people with learning and developmental disabilities the opportunity to obtain steady, secure employment, where they can earn an income and live more independently Created by non-profit Adults and Children with Learning and Developmental Disabilities (ACLD). Tulerie will send you a pre-paid shipping label if you email them at [email protected] and they will send your donations directly to RewearAble.