For weddings, vacations or other special occasions, more consumers are turning to clothing rental services instead of buying something new.
These subscription-based services, often marketed as a sustainable alternative to fast fashion, ship straight to customers everything from everyday and workwear to dresses, handbags and formalwear. Then, the items are returned for someone else to use.
“I haven’t bought anything for a big occasion since 2019,” said Sasha Eck, a user of clothing rental services.
Along with giving her continuous and affordable access to newer, trendier clothes, she said renting formalwear made more sense than spending the equivalent of a month’s rent on a dress she would only wear once. A recent survey from ThredUp suggests others face the same predicament, with the resale platform finding 87% of wedding guests said they had purchased at least one outfit they wore only once.
Clothing rental services appear to be an environmentally ethical alternative: One garment can be worn by multiple people instead of being tethered to a single closet. But fashion and logistics experts say the reality of rental subscriptions is more complicated, especially once shipping, returns and consumer habits are factored in.
Kate Fletcher, a professor of sustainability, design and fashion systems at Manchester Metropolitan University, said rental services can sometimes encourage the same mindset that drives fast fashion.
“In theory, the embodied resources within that garment get a chance to be worked harder by having that many more people wear it. And so that’s the sort of compelling argument of it,” she said.
But Fletcher said many of those environmental benefits can be undermined by repeated shipping, returns and cleaning.
Aja Barber, a sustainability consultant and writer, said people often overlook the footprint of those processes.
