

Go deeper: Gen Z is reinvigorating thrift stores "Some items are completely booked out until next February." "Every item is one of a kind," says Alphons of Wardrobe. "Person-to-person" fashion rental, in which ordinary folks consign their clothes to intermediaries like Wardrobe, is one possible iteration. The bottom line: A Bain & Company report predicts that "sustainable luxury" will be a trend that evolves over the next decade, with the current crop of clothing rental services as a building block. Stitching gets fresh From on-trend motifs to quirky expressions to artistic experiments in thread, Urban Threads brings you. How it works: Most fashion rental companies pay for shipping and dry cleaning. The typical customer enjoys the fun of wearing an item without committing to it, and may appreciate the sustainable aspect of reusing clothing, Hayne said. Taking global inspiration from the streets of East London to the beaches of Ibiza. "We don’t see apparel rental as a replacement for purchase," he said. At Urban Threads we arent afraid to put a stamp on urban streetwear. Nuuly shifted to more casual clothes when the pandemic struck, but "this past spring, we’ve seen a big transition back to dresses and formal occasion wear," Hayne said. Some customers quit during the depths of COVID-19 but have since come back, Dave Hayne, CTO of URBN and president of Nuuly, tells Axios. It's a subscription service that lets customers rent six items a month for a flat $88.
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Larger competitors to Wardrobe include Nuuly, which also opened in 2019 and is owned by URBN, parent to Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, etc. "They used to feel less comfortable with items that are not fresh off the rack," Alphons says. This gets used on messageboards / forums to signify that the previous post (or a post that has been quoted) is either of such high standard / very useful and answers the question of the original post / owns someone that the thread cannot possibly contain any post thats better. It also takes away the "ickiness" that some consumers feel about clothing that has been worn. When you borrow a garment that a star has worn on a red carpet, "it becomes a conversation piece right away, as opposed to that dress from Macy’s," Adarsh Alphons, the founder and CEO of Wardrobe, tells Axios. Wardrobe, which launched in 2019, lets you rent items from celebrities' closets.īoldface names who have rented out their clothes include Sports Illustrated model Marquita Pring, Grammy winner Leon Bridges, "Queer Eye" star Antoni Porowski and former Miss Universe Olivia Culpo. Driving the news: The number of companies that will rent you a suit, shirt, handbag or pair of shoes - either as a one-off or on a subscription basis - is growing quickly, with new entrants putting their own twist on the business model, like adding plus-size clothing and other categories.
