Why Don’t I Have Anything to Wear by Andrea Cheong

Author:Andrea Cheong
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lagom

Is this really sustainable?

Some of the same problems that plague the retail industry carry forward to rental businesses too. These include the issue of logistics, dry cleaning and of course, size inclusivity. I’m hoping that some of these hurdles are more teething pains than long-term problems that will go ignored. Interestingly, these are also points of critique for those keen to pick at its sustainability credentials, but I believe we should be hopeful.

Picture this: you have an event coming up and you’ve decided that you’re going to try out fashion rental. There are several concerns that arise as you fill in your payment details and await an email confirmation. Firstly, there’s the thought of whether it’ll arrive in time. Secondly, will it fit? Thirdly, what if I spill wine all over this?

Unfortunately, rental businesses can’t do too much to help you when accidents happen, but there are safeguards in place. After all, it’s a relatively new concept and people can be nervous to mail their favourite jacket to a stranger’s address. Whenever friends express this to me, I imagine them waiting by a window, forlornly counting down the days for their items to come back in one piece (and preferably not wrapped in a plastic grocery bag, which I have experienced before. The item was returned OK, though, and I found it kind of funny). Many say that they will pay up to full RRP of items if they’re damaged beyond repair or proven to be stolen, although this isn’t widely advertised and is more something I’ve found out through collaborating with a few of these businesses for my job. Whether or not they uphold it and how they fulfil it is another story.

As to the concern about sizing – well, this seems to be the biggest cited reason for normal refunds, why wouldn’t it plague the rental system too? GANNI, a fashion brand that also offers rental, addressed the topic of sizing via its Instagram page @ganni.lab. The Danish brand’s bio cites its goal as ‘working on becoming a more responsible version of ourselves’. GANNI calculated that only 8 per cent or 61 out of a whopping 780 options in its online collection (in March 2023) could be found in extended sizing.xv It’s an interesting example because very few brands would publicise these sorts of statistics, but information such as this can really help us to visualise the extent of challenges when driving forward the sustainable fashion agenda. However, it demonstrates a pervasive problem that is echoed in rental companies too. If brands that own their own stock don’t do enough to create an inclusive size range, how can rental businesses that rely on said brands and peer-to-peer wardrobes be able to offer inclusivity in their inventory?

Another echo of a problem in the wider fashion industry that we see in rental businesses is a reluctance to represent curvy bodies in marketing and social media visuals. Fashion and lifestyle creator Charlotte Jacklin is based in the UK and before her influencer days, she worked for several of the largest British fashion brands.

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