fashion rental: the future of sustainable fashion or just another subscription service?

taking things way too far and deciding to start a series trying as many fashion rental services as possible for the plot (until i get bored or broke)

if you’re a fashion gremlin looking to spice up your wardrobe while trying to not piss off the turtles when they team up with the orcas, you’ve probably considered or at the very least, have been advertised to about fashion rental at some point in the past few years.

i’ve hesitated to try fashion rental because:
1. if I’m patient enough, i generally can find what i’m looking for thrifting or can figure out how to make something similar for myself.
2. what if i love everything and want to keep it all and bankrupt myself?
3. i probably don’t need more clothes and need to purge my closet rather than adding pieces to it.
4. what if i accidentally completely ruin an expensive designer piece i truly cannot afford? 

so up until relatively recently, I’ve been an observer.

*Enter my friend Edgard’s piece that briefly mentions extreme renters and fashion rental*

(you can read that by clicking here)

this piqued my curiosity once again and made me think. then I was like, maybe i should write a piece about the sustainability and accessibility of fashion rental. then i procrastinated by starting a pair of granny square crochet overalls. then, i procrastinated putting away my doom pile of laundry that my cat olive has made into her throne, and started to write. 

as i started to flesh out my hot takes about why fashion rental is not the only solution, but can be a handy tool in your tool box as a sustainabl(ish) fashion consumer, the little adhd gremlin in my brain that decides to take things way too far and make this piece be way more complicated, time consuming, and expensive than it needed to be started to whisper:

”why not try as many fashion rental services as i can ✨for science✨ while addressing the actual sustainability of fashion rental and the nuances of how it can make sustainable fashion more accessible, especially during transitional periods of life while also addressing its shortfalls?”

so, i’ve decided that over the next few months to year(s)? (or until I get bored and move onto something else) to try as many fashion rental services as humanly possible while sharing how inclusive and accessible they are (size, price, gender, etc.) and rating each service so that if you decide to add fashion rental to your proverbial slow fashion toolbox, you don’t have to waste time or money on a service that isn’t built for you. 

questions i aim to answer in this series:

is fashion rental sustainable? how could it be more sustainable?

where can fashion rental fill gaps in your wardrobe during transitional periods of life?

what happens to clothes that are no longer rentable? what is the lifecycle of rentable clothes? 

is fashion rental merely a symptom of the late stage capitalist hellscape we live in?

and probably more questions that I will come up with as I find answers to these. 

what questions do you have about fashion rental? what fashion rental companies or platforms would you like me to review? please share them in the comments below and I will try my best to answer them or review them during this series.

here are the fashion rental companies I plan to perhaps test based on my preliminary research:

Rent the Runway
Nuuly
Fashion Pass
Pickle
Haverdash
ModLuxRent
Stitch Fix
Switch
Gwynnie Bee (plus size, will need to partner with another creator on this)
Vince Unfold
Tulerie
Nova Octo
The Strand (local to San Diego!)
By Rotation
CoDressing
The Devout
Maje Forward
Cloud Closet
The PS Collective

*note - I am a “straight-sized” afab gender-fluid non-binary person that is often perceived as “femme”, so when reviewing, i will also look for reviews by folks with different body types, gender expressions, ability etc to feature because fashion is generally made to be inclusive of my body at this time in my life. i also may need to partner with other creators for brands not catered to me, or see what recommendations are out there because obviously my experience will not be the same as everyone else’s. i even saw baby and children’s clothes for rental which kinda makes sense bc they grow out of it quickly? idk. i do not have a baby or a child, maybe i can find dog or cat clothes for rental? lol

(also, this series will not be cheap, and in order to do an honest review, i will be paying for fashion rental myself unless one these companies decides to compensate me while still writing honestly which i highly doubt (but i can dream!!! and if i am compensated in any way shape or form, i will disclose it!!!) that being said, if you can afford to upgrade your subscription to paid, i would sincerely appreciate it. if you can’t, please share my Substack with your rich friends or sugar daddy - thanks in advance!!!) 

in the meantime - if you would like to learn more about the fashion rental industry, i highly recommend listening to this episode of Clotheshorse, a podcast i credit a considerable amount of my sustainable fashion knowledge to. (this episode answers some of the questions i have above, but being a curious little gremlin, i’ve got to dig deeper)