Renting fashion: goodbye property?

To get out of ultra-consumerism, e-entrepreneurs see the Net or applications as a way to renew and modernize rental, democratized by the forerunners Vestiaire Collective or Vide-Dressing. With their innovations, renting appears as a desirable solution.

“All models of recycling and non-possession are progressing”, says Valérie Moatti, ESCP, specialized in fashion and innovation. Ralph Mansour, a young entrepreneur, also made this observation. Facing the huge waste of fast fashion, he came to consider the concept of rental, but tailored to the needs and tastes of its customers: LeCloset was born. This website offers unlimited boxes of clothes through a subscription fee, allowing a monthly selection of three clothes and an accessory for the sum of 49 euros, but the equivalent of 1,000 euros of shopping. “For our clients, it’s quite comfortable, since we take care of washing and ironing. We give them the possibility to shop more, but in a more responsible way, and finally, the change can be permanent “. But it is also a way to “dematerialize fashion”, as has already been done in music with Spotify. Are new technologies definitely changing the game? The audience – essentially female for the moment – is in any case conquered: the Closet can boast a community of 5000 fashionistas. They appreciate the freedom of the concept, the possibility of acquiring the garment if they wish, and at preferential rates, from 30% to at least 80% discount for “end-of-life” clothing. To reach a large audience, “we are looking for fashion pieces without being too sharp, with a touch of originality, and we prefer regular selections rather than sticking to the calendar with two collections per year.”

For Ralph Mansour, it is clear that the renting model “allows to give a second life to clothes already worn, and to offer these clothes to a community”. In this vein of consuming less, he already plans to offer services to pregnant women, whose morphology changes a lot, and who will with no doubt be delighted to rent clothes temporarily.

These three main arguments – more responsible consumption patterns, more shopping and regular change “- Delphina Tomaszewska, founder of Dresswing, adheres completely to it. The 30-year-old used her personal experience to create Dresswing. She has a click when she gets a designer dress from a Sao Polo friend: why not allow fashionistas to rent their designer clothes to those who need them for an occasion? Inspired by the success story of Rent The Runway in the United States, which raised $ 100 million and was recently valued at $ 1 billion, Delphina is working on its project, which initially takes the form of a website, and since January is now an application. One way to meet the need for instantaneity in the management of rentals. “Our motto is ” The most beautiful dressings in Paris … In your pocket ””. Enticing, when you know that “a woman wears on average only 20% of her dressing room” … How many treasures that sleep are made accessible for an evening! To monetize these luxury pieces, the only criteria is that the clothes have a value of at least 200 euros in shop. Once the item selected, the owner takes a picture or if it puts more than ten items for rent, has a photo shoot to better showcase his clothes.

Delphina is full of new ideas for the future: newsletters, portraits of community members, and finer algorithms to make dressings even smarter, based on criteria of size and likeness of looks. Now, the rental is smart, chic and digital! And she recognizes it since she launched Dresswing, Delphina does not go so often in fast fashion stores: her consumption habits have evolved. And even if, for her customers, the idea of ​​economy is perhaps not the number one argument, consume less but enjoy infinitely new looks sounds like a promise of tomorrow that sing.

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