Are Clothing Rental Services a Sustainable Dream Come True?
Seeking new stories to change consumer habits
Reading time: About 7 minutes.
We are all storytellers, aren’t we? Maybe not in book form or around an open fire, but when it comes to clothing, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t tell some story to themselves with hopes that it may come true.
Even if I’m not totally aware of it, I tell myself these kinds of stories all the time. There is still a part of me that equates getting dressed with playing dress-up; if I dress the part, I will magically become the person I want to be. I mean, I built my entire blog around dressing up in iconic fashions to see how they feel.
There’s nothing wrong with playing dress-up or wanting to feel a certain way, but let’s face it, most of the time, once we get the thing home, that story we told ourselves when purchasing it disappears in a poof, like a fairy godmother who lost interest. If a piece of clothing doesn’t actually line up with who I am, it’s not going to magically make me into someone I’m not. In fact, seeing the truth of that is often depressing because some part of me would really, really like to be a rockstar sometimes. Or maybe royalty. Or just super cool, like Lauren Hutton.
I know I’m not alone in this, even if you, dear readers, define your relationship to your closets differently. It’s those little reality checks, those papercuts of disappointment that add up to overflowing closets. Whether we clean them out ourselves or our relatives come along and do it after we’ve passed away, that’s how Goodwill ends up with a mountain of brand-new clothing, some with tags still on them.
Wouldn’t it be better for our psyches and the planet if we had a different way to do this? Maybe we could take things out for a test drive and then pass them along to someone else if they don’t work out? Wouldn’t that be more sustainable than buying clothes we only wear once, if we wear them at all?
As it turns out, such a thing already exists in the form of clothing rental services. Depending on the company, for a monthly fee, you can choose from an endless supply of outfits. (Think of all the characters I could play!) And since it’s a rental service, the environmentalist in me reasons, the clothes don’t just get worn once and tossed. Lots of people wear them until they wear out. That has to be more sustainable than buying new. Right?
Turns out it’s a little more complicated than that.
Weighing the Balance in Conversation
According to several articles on various eco-conscious websites, clothing rental services are a bit of a double-edged sword. Currently, an average garment purchased new is worn by an individual only ten times before being discarded. Rental services, though, require the creation of fewer new garments because one piece is worn hundreds of times by dozens of people before being put up for sale in a thrift scenario or recycled in some way.
On the other hand, there are still real concerns about transporting garments back and forth. In addition, many of these rental companies only offer fast fashion as an option, so companies with toxic environmental and workers’ rights practices still benefit.
As I sorted through articles and worked to develop my thoughts around the sustainability of rental subscriptions, I reached out to all of you through Instagram and email. The results of my small sample are similar to what I discovered in my research—this industry is not a sustainable dream come true, but it does have its benefits.
Jackie (@Jaxstitch) and Sue (@AColourfulCanvas) echoed some of the articles I came across with concerns about the use of fossil fuels needed to ship so much clothing back and forth multiple times. They, along with sustainable fashion designer Bea of BEATA Design Studio (@beatadesignstudio), went on to say that, even if shipping wasn’t an issue, cleaning all those garments is.
“It increases the number of times washed/dry cleaned,” Jackie said, “which could be bad for the environment depending on what the clothing is made out of or what kind of detergent is used.”
Sue agreed. “I would assume that conventional cleaning products are being used, and there would be a higher concentration of chemicals in the wastewater” in the regions where all that cleaning occurs.
Surprisingly, most of the articles I read barely touched on the issue of washing the clothes that are rented, although longtime rental company Rent the Runway was quoted in Vogue UK estimating “a 24 percent reduction in water usage, a six percent reduction in energy usage, and a three percent reduction in CO2 emissions, in comparison to buying new.”
The concerns of Jackie, Sue, and Bea are important to consider, and they shouldn’t be dismissed if you are striving to live a more sustainable lifestyle and considering clothing rental. Before signing up for a subscription, it might be worth reading the policies a company has for dealing with these concerns. Nuuly, for instance, has gotten rid of cardboard boxes and plastic envelopes to ship their items. Instead, they use a heavy-duty reusable tote that subscribers then use to return the clothes. According to their website, most of Nuuly’s clothing is cleaned using non-alkaline and phosphate-free cleaning solutions. Any dry cleaning is done with a PERC-free solution.
On the other side of the issue was Sophia (@foxysofa), an optician in Illinois, who pointed out the value of renting for special occasions. “A lot of times, we may need a special outfit for an event, but it's not something you’d use all the time. Better to rent than buy new and only wear once.”
Across the panel of people I spoke to, renting for special occasions did seem to get more support than renting through a monthly subscription. But Sophia felt like subscriptions get short shrift, especially considering how much we already shop online, which uses fossil fuels to ship purchases. “Fast fashion like Shein, Amazon, etc., is all exclusively online,” she said, “and this requires shipping. The hard thing right now is that everyone is used to buying online and getting everything shipped to your home. Even thrift stores sell their best items online. But fast, cheap, and still cute is hard to fight against.”
It’s this lure of fast fashion and the culture of disposability that nudges me toward clothing rentals as a more sustainable option. It’s at least a step in the right direction. We have to develop new habits if we’re going to change the industry. So, as we transition from the habits we have now (all new all the time!) to wherever it is we are heading (hopefully, toward a circular economy), it seems that renting clothing could be a "gateway drug" toward rethinking it all. It definitely helped reshape my views on consumption.
My Experience with Fashion Rental
As part of my research for this article, I signed up with two rental companies for a month. I chose Nuuly and Armoire. Nuuly has petite options and is affiliated with Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters, two fast fashion companies known for seducing me in the past with their magical styles. Armoire does not offer petite clothing, but it is based in Seattle, so of course, I had to support the local team.
It was overwhelming to sort through each website and choose my picks. Size and measurements are still an issue, especially for those of us on the extremes of the size spectrum, so I took time to read reviews and filter my searches. While picking the beautiful clothing I saw on the screen and waiting for their arrival, I was extremely excited by where I saw myself wearing these things, how I would feel in them, and who I would be! (A fashionista on fire!) But when I received them, I was underwhelmed, just like before. None of the items really suited me, and most of them didn’t fit, even though I had done all that research to find the best fit. Before the month of my subscription ended, I shipped everything back, having worn a few pieces out in the wild but never really feeling like myself. I immediately canceled my accounts with both companies.
My friend Patti (@NotDeadYetStyle) rented from Nuuly for seven months and had a similar experience. She loved that she could try new colors and shapes, but she said out of six items she received each month, only about half were doable. And on several occasions, some of the items she received either stunk of body odor or were in bad shape. So, it wasn’t a magic fix for either of us. Still, I think it’s important to point out that we weren’t stuck with any of those items. We were able to ship them back to the company and let someone else give them a try (after getting rid of the B.O.), which is a far better option than having them hang in our closets for years before being sent to a landfill.
As much as I wanted it to be, renting clothing is not the fairy godmother of sustainable fashion, but it did tweak my buying habits. Trying so many things at once in my home only to experience the same disappointment helped me learn how to sidestep my storyteller brain and focus on what actually works for me. Now, when I shop, I pass up things I know I won’t wear. I buy less. And less is more when it comes to sustainability.
That's a really cool feature. I can totally see myself falling in love with a piece . . . a week after letting it go. :)
Interesting idea! As someone who falls in love with pieces of my wardrobe - then wears them to rags - I'm wondering if you can keep a rented article that really speaks to you. It would be a bummer to have to send it back if it was, say, the best-fitting outfit I'd ever found.