Fashion rental has been on a growing trend in the last few years and we can think of a few reasons why consumers are willing to rent instead of buy their clothes. 

Sustainability

Renting clothes instead of buying them can be considered as a sustainable act. Renting is like recycling in the sense that you get already made clothes (from a company or a person) and then put them back on the market for someone else to use. 

Minimalism 

Having a closet full to the brim is not aspirational anymore. Younger generations are more sensitive to minimalism and prefer to have fewer possessions. So renting items rather than buying them, help them achieve a more minimalist lifestyle.  

Pleasurable

However, minimalism doesn’t equal austerity. And once again, the concept of fashion rental is aligned with the idea of pleasure shopping. People like the idea of changing clothes regularly and have new items to wear. Plus, receiving something new by post every now and then is like receiving a gift (that you made to yourself yes, but a gift nonetheless). 

Even with the pandemic, where people have less option to socialize and hence to need new clothes, fashion rental companies thrived. For instance, Eshita Kabra-Davies founded the rental platform By Rotation, which launched in October 2019 and quickly became a favorite thanks to its roster of cult brands and influencer-approved items. She says the number of users on her app has grown from 12,000 to 25,000 since 23 March 2020, the day the UK went into lockdown, while the number of items listed by lenders grew by 120%.