The fashion industry is a multibillion-dollar business, and it keeps growing each year. However, the traditional way of consuming fashion has some drawbacks: it's expensive, it has a heavy environmental impact, and it can be difficult to keep up with the latest trends. In such a context fashion rental is becoming more and more so popular.
What is fashion renting?
Fashion renting is a peer-to-peer fashion-sharing service, where users can rent fashion items from other users or brands. It's usually done through an online platform or app, and it works in a similar way to subscription services: people often pay a monthly fee that gives them access to a library of fashion items. These fashion items are either sent directly to them or available for pickup in a fashion store. Customers can use them for as long as they want and then return them when finished.
There are already numerous active fashion renting services on the market, such as Rent the Runway or Le Tote. Some of them, like Nuuly, are both renting and reselling platforms. All these companies offer fashion rentals for a wide selection of items, including dresses, tops, accessories, and more.
Benefits of fashion renting
One of the positive sides of fashion renting is that it benefits everyone involved: consumers, companies and even the planet!
1) Benefits for Consumers:
Renting offers consumers a convenient and cost-effective way to get access to designer items, luxury fashion and latest trend without breaking the bank. It also allows them to experiment with different fashion styles without having to commit financially. All of this is particularly advantageous when they are looking for a dress for special occasions, which they would otherwise buy to use only once and then abandon in the closet or throw away. So, consumers not only have an economic benefit but also become more sustainable as they can rent fashion items and return them after they're done, thus reducing clothing waste.
2) Benefits for Companies:
By offering access to stylish fashion items at a fraction of the cost, fashion brands can increase their customer base, brand visibility and even their sales without increasing prices. Plus, companies can reduce their inventory costs -since they don't need to produce a large number of items at once - and still offer a wide selection of them. Obviously, having to produce less, the ecological footprint and waste production are also reduced. This means that the brand image improves and that companies are able to penetrate more easily that part of the market populated by consumers who are particularly sensitive to the issue of sustainability.
It also helps to capture new data about customer preferences and trends in the fashion industry.
3) Benefits for the Planet:
Considering what we have said, it is clear that renting is one of the best ways to reduce the environmental impact of fashion. By reusing clothes, we can see a reduction in damage caused by production processes in terms of waste, dispersion of pollutants, consumption of new resources, and greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, renting pushes companies to become more responsible for the end of the product production cycle, by considering further sustainable practices such as recycling, reuse, and reselling.
