Understanding the Booming Rental Fashion Phenomenon

Graphic by Quynh-Nhi Tran. Images via Rent the Runway

I think most of the people reading this can look back and remember a moment where they really wanted (or needed) to buy a very expensive item of clothing. Whether what comes to mind is a tuxedo you brought for prom or a gala dress you bought for a relative’s wedding, mostly everyone can remember that one moment of spending a seemingly ridiculous amount of money on something you’ve probably only worn a handful of times since then. 

That item for me is the long red gala dress I bought for my high school graduation. I wanted an orange long, flowy dress - I know, not the easiest to find. So I started early. My family and I spent the winter break in New York and that’s when I started looking, almost a year before I actually needed it. After an endless search in the hopes of spending the least amount of money possible, I found a BCBG outlet store with huge sales with dresses that had a somewhat reasonable price. It wasn’t orange though, it was red - the scarcity of choice made me venture out from my plans.

Image via Giovana Gelhoren

Pretty, right? Unfortunately, I’ve only worn it once since then.

That’s kind of how expensive, special occasion clothes usually work for college students like us: we struggle to find them and to afford them and only get to use them a couple times before you’ve grown out of it and begin the search for something else. 

That is, I believe, where the whole renting phenomenon comes into play. This renting business, started by Rent The Runway many years ago, has now become an ever-growing movement of companies offering their clients to rent their clothes, accessories, shoes and more, for a limited amount of time for a fraction of what the items would actually cost in retail. 

Putting this in context to my dilemma a couple of years ago, I could’ve rented a dress from Rent the Runway, like this Colorblock Halter Gown from Jill Jill Stuart, for around 50 dollars and then never have to worry about it again. It wouldn’t accumulate dust in my closet, I’d never feel pressured to use it again, and I wouldn’t even need to stress about dry cleaning it. A complete win-win situation if you ask me.

Image via Rent the Runway

Because of this growing consumer market for renting, many companies have opened up in this unique way of lending clothing.  To understand more about the business, I talked to Olivia Corderi, a Communication Studies sophomore at Northwestern University and the newest Fashion Marketing Intern at Janet Mandell’s high-fashion luxury rental service company in Chicago.

Though Janet Mandel’s service is high-end and therefore different to Rent the Runway’s, it’s underlying features are the same. “The two main ideas behind the company is affordability and sustainability,” she says, explaining that the founder, a former fashion vlogger named Janet Mandell, has two main objectives with her brand: to motivate a more sustainable way to consume clothes by not letting clothes go to waste and to provide access of high-end luxury items to people who wouldn’t be able to access them at their original retail prices.

In Janet’s showroom, you can get dressed from head-to-toe in the biggest fashion houses such as Prada, Fenti, Balmain, Gucci, Chanel and, “rather than spending 4,000 dollars on a dress, you can rent an evening gown for like $400 for the week or Manolo Blahniks for $175.” Much like a fashionista’s dream, Janet’s showroom helps you choose your items with a stylist, forming the brand’s “Showroom Experience”. Sure, this branch of rental service isn’t accessible to everyone, but it’s definitely a more accessible way to reach those designer pieces you never even imagined affording. In fact, Mendell’s price are around 10-15% of the piece’s original retail price — crazy right?

Image via Janet Mandell

All-in-all, this new trend of fashion rentals seems to be a perfect solution to fashion’s status in the world we live in today. I say this first of all because of the companies’ main motivation of sustainability. By slowing down further retail consumption and allowing the recycling of clothes, the enormous clientele reduces their overall impact on the environment. In addition, this new market goes hand-in-hand with the younger generation’s need to be seen and posted on social media. According to Corderi, “we live in a day and age where people want to wear a nice dress to an event that they’re seen, but they only want to be seen in it once, because God forbid they wear it again to another event.” Therefore, my prediction is that companies like Rent the Runway, Janet Mandell, and many others, are only going to continue growing in the upcoming years, causing a noticeable impact on the retail market and in the way people see clothing. In the words of Jennifer Hyman, the COO of Rent the Runway, the main difference will be on people’s mentality: “access is the new ownership,” she said on The Today Show.