The future of fashion will put the customer in control
There’s been a ‘wear only once’ rule around celebrity culture for a while now. You know, the celebrities-can-only-be-papped-wearing-a-£3000-dress-once rule? This ideology is decreasing the clothing lifecycle and encouraging people to throw out their old season clothing to make way for the new — only to be discarded months down the line. Not only is this not very green, it’s also very pricey.
“Annually we throw away almost 1 million tonnes of textiles.”
Rent your wardrobe
Recently, seemingly spawned from this mentality, websites have emerged allowing consumers to rent clothing for a short time, meaning that you can still look fantastic without actually having to buy the garment in the first place. Rent the Runway is a great example of this, allowing you to rent a high-end garment for a fraction of its retail price. Once you’re done, you just send the clothing back and never have to be seen embarrassingly re-wearing it to a future function.
“In 2016, Rent the Runway’s revenues are expected to surpass $100 million”
A feature that may improve this service is the ability to purchase a garment afterwards if you take a liking to it. At the moment, even if you fell head over heels in love with a beautiful blouse, you’d still have to send it back at the end of your agreed time period. But what if you wanted to keep it as a permanent piece in your wardrobe? Not possible.
Rent the Runway have also introduced a monthly subscription service — allowing consumers to rent their fashion by the month. Theoretically, customers don’t even need to own clothes if they’re using this service as the monthly order of clothes will always be bang on trend.
But there’s a problem with this too. If you rent all of your clothes on a revolving monthly basis, without any ownership — what happens to items of clothing that could have sentimental value? You can’t exactly pull out the velvet trouser suit you wore to Great Aunt Muriel’s 80th birthday bash and reminisce. You can’t wear your now vintage XTC T-shirt and educate millennials of the progression of new wave. A revolving wardrobe could rid of sentimental value for good.
So, with all that in mind: Will anyone actually own their clothes in the future?
For now, this idea seems a long way off. But with apps like Depop emerging, consumer buying and selling is a lot easier these days.
Power to the people
Depop gives the power to the people and allows them to sell their unwanted belongings (specifically fashion) between them. The app provides everyone with the tools to sell relatively new clothes in good condition onto their peers, placing them as the retailers. Not only is this empowering but it’s also incredibly green — as every unwanted item up for sale on Depop would have otherwise been destined for the bin.
Depop really values style and good taste. You’re pushed to follow the most fashionable and art directed of profiles with the biggest followings. The rise of the image conscious insta-blogger helps to drive traffic as consumers rush to buy the vintage Chanel socks they’ve seen in their latest post. Many vintage and independent stores also thrive on here as they would on Asos Marketplace, but there’s a mix of real people up there with them; stylish and self made power users.
Also, similarly to the mentality associated with rentable clothing, the fact that you can resell items at around 75% of their original value is a massive confidence boost to users with a normally strict shopping budget. I mean, why shop from the bargain rail when you could be reimbursed for a designer label? You’re practically paying a quarter of the retail price and can sell the garment at any time you please. You can get as much or little wear out of it as you want, no pressure or long term commitment — completely putting the power in your hands.
“Swap and resale gives Millennials the ability to extend the value”
Another question to ask is; is the retailer/consumer hierarchy shifting? With more and more Depop and Rent the Runway style services popping up, will high-street retailers fall victim to the unstoppable force of SIY? (Sell it yourself)
Well for now, no.
But who’s to say it’ll stay the same? 16–24 year olds are more socially conscious and far more likely to rent products and services than buying them. The future of fashion may change in their favour, wardrobes may be rented, and the wear-only-once mentality may well live on for a long time to come.
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