Fast fashion is outdated, and therefore more and more people have been choosing brands that support sustainability over the last decade. However, one of the most significant issues we face in the fast fashion industry is producing 10% of annual global carbon emissions. Every season, the consumer is pushed to buy new clothing, therefore disposing of the old, which sometimes has been worn only once or twice. This increases the carbon footprint and water usage worldwide.
Fortunately, a new trend of fashion consumption has emerged and is gaining momentum. As a result, rental fashion is becoming a popular way of supporting sustainability.
Today, a co-founder and CEO of Infinite Closet, Sarah Korich, shares the story about her sustainable rental fashion company.
Sarah previously worked across the US doing marketing and branding for several companies, including Warner Bros., Viacom, and Fox. She moved to London two years ago for her MBA program and that’s where the idea of Infinite Closet was born.
Alongside running a business, in her free time Sarah enjoys travelling to new countries, scouring the internet for vintage fashion finds and trying out new London restaurants.
What is the idea behind the Infinite Closet and how did you start this journey?
I moved to London from the US 2 years ago, where I regularly rented clothes from a service called “Rent the Runway.” I was shocked when I got here and couldn’t find a similar service. So during my MBA program, I pitched the idea of clothing rentals to my Enterprise and Innovation course, and all the women in the course loved the idea. I spoke with the course director who informed me that the university offers sponsorship opportunities to international students who want to begin a business in the UK, and it seemed like an awesome opportunity. I never saw myself as an entrepreneur, but I felt like it wasn’t an opportunity I could pass up. From there, I brought on my co-founder, Luisa Jimenez, to work with me and we’ve been working on our business ever since!
How does Infinite Closet make it easier for customers to rent clothes?
Our goal is not only to offer a rental platform for our customers but to offer a resource for them to discover and learn about new independent and sustainable/ethical brands. We do the research that customers often don’t have the time to do, making it easy for them to explore new brands that they wouldn’t find on the high street. Our platform is simple:
Discover: Explore our closet and look through tons of clothing options ready to be delivered right to your door with our 4 - or 8-day rentals. We have looks for all occasions, and you can easily search our platform based on size, colour, look, style, and more.
Rent: Our calendar allows customers to find looks for their selected dates and book them out anywhere from the day before their event to 3 months out, allowing them maximum flexibility. The check out process is no different than your regular online shopping experience and we’ll handle the delivery and cleaning charges.
Love: Our zero-emissions courier will deliver your rentals straight to your door in our reusable garment bag. Once you’re done with your rental, our courier service will pick it up from you in our garment bag, and we’ll handle the cleaning.
What are the environmental benefits of renting?
There are so many benefits! Let’s name just a couple:
Renting clothes offers the closet-flipping fun of fast fashion without waste. Renting one single garment from a service such as Infinite Closet increases its number of wears and reduces its carbon footprint by 30% over its lifetime.
Circular business models could enable the fashion industry to cut around 143 million tonnes of GHG emissions by 2030. To align with the 1.5-degree pathway [as targeted by the Paris Climate Change Agreement], by 2030 we need to live in a world in which one in five garments are traded through circular business models. This includes renting and re-commerce. The numbers are daunting, but there’s room for hope.
Overall, we know that renting, shopping second-hand, and reducing our overall consumption creates major environmental impact. So renting is just a portion of what we can do to decrease our footprints, but the benefits, environmental and otherwise, are huge. It also helps to allow people to be able to switch up their style and try new trends, without relying on fast fashion.
What are the advantages to switching up your style with rentable clothing?
The average person today buys 60% more items of clothing than they did 15 years ago – consumers keep that clothing for only half as long as they used to, and one in seven consider it a fashion faux-pas to be photographed in an outfit twice. So by renting, we allow customers to take advantage of the environmental, financial, and social benefits of renting. Advantages include:
Saving money -- consumers who rent generally save money because they get quality pieces for a fraction of the price, and have access to higher quality garments that may normally be out of the budget
Never having the same look twice - renting allows customers to constantly switch up their looks and wardrobe to fit their mood, style, and social needs. No more feeling like you have nothing to wear!
A bit of a commitment-phobe? Renting allows you to constantly swap your clothes, take bigger risks with your fashion, and feel confident in a new look, without the worry of buying something you’ll never wear again. So now, you can feel good wearing that sequin dress that you’ll only want to be photographed in once-- it’ll go on to the next person and you can avoid the guilt of leaving something stuck in the back of your closet.
Discover new brands -- renting allows you to find new brands to wear that you wouldn’t normally necessarily try. You have access to hundreds of new designers at your fingertips.
No more laundry! If that doesn’t encourage people to rent, I don’t know what else will, ha!
How can people be encouraged to rent their wardrobes?
It’s honestly something people just have to give a try and get to know the experience and benefits of what you get with renting. I was an avid renter in the US prior to launching Infinite Closet, but I was pretty sceptical on the concept originally. Why would I want to rent something when I can own it? This outdated idea was something I think we’ve all been through a number of times -- it started with music and movies, to cars, to now clothes! Once people wrap their heads around the idea that less ownership is not a bad thing, it’s a great opportunity to try something new. I can say from personal experience that I’ve rented some great pieces, but I certainly wouldn’t have needed to own them, nor do I miss them! There’s something to be said for being able to rent your wardrobe and find something that expresses who you are in that moment -- but without needing to know it's something you have to own. It gives you an opportunity to explore and feel confident to take risks. If it were up to me, I’d probably wear black every day, but with renting, I feel excited to break out a new fuschia dress I would have never dreamed of buying. So go on, give renting a try! Once you start, you get hooked (in the best way).
Renting clothes reduces the environmental impact on the fashion industry. What do you think other brands can do to reduce their environmental impact?
Reducing the overall amount of garments they produce is a huge part of reducing a brand's environmental impact. Pre-order, made-to-order, and more bespoke creations are becoming a fast favourite among shoppers, and I believe we’ll see a continued interest in customers looking for more custom pieces that are mass-produced. There are ways to use deadstock and more eco-friendly fabrics as well that help as well! Most small designers we work with are aware of these options and are looking at ways to make these changes -- it's now really up to the brand giants to hop on board and take a good look at their supply chain and practices to make changes that will have a radical impact on our planet.
In 2018, The Design Council reported that '78% of the UK's design workforce is male'. How do you help fight gender inequality in the fashion industry?
This is ingrained in our ethos and a huge part of our values as an organization. We ensure that we take a special interest in finding and supporting women and minority-owned brands, helping give them a space to share their designs and gain exposure to new customers. We take a special effort in understanding our brands’ supply chain and ethical/sustainable efforts. We understand it can’t be an immediate adjustment for every brand, but even being able to understand where our clothes are coming from helps us encourage our brand partners to be thoughtful about supporting gender equality and sustainable ethical business practices. We’re not all perfect, but we definitely work hard to bring in brands who are thoughtful about these things to ensure we offer our customers a chance to learn more about supporting brands and designers who are supporting these efforts.
Infinite Closet promotes independent designers and ethnic minorities. Do you think there is a correlation between sustainable fashion and equality?
To an extent, yes! A lot of the designers we’ve worked with in these backgrounds tend to be much more conscious of the environmental impact their brand has on the planet. They are also conscious about ethical labour practices, and really want people to understand who made their clothes and what’s in their clothes. We love and respect that immensely, and that’s why we feel so passionate to help these designers tell their stories. They care about their garment workers, the factories and suppliers they work with, equality in the workplace, and ensuring that their supply chain is thought through. Overall, it’s really hard to break out in the fashion industry, so our goal is to help these brands reach new customers and give them the platform they need to show their amazing designs.
Are there any stigmas behind renting clothing? If there are, how do we break them?
Oh of course! In the past, renting clothes was basically exclusively tied to menswear -- tuxedos primarily. While renting can be a common practice in other parts of the world, if you had told someone in London you were renting your clothes, I think a lot of people would think you’re nuts. Even as we conducted our research into beginning our company, we got a lot of pushback from potential customers who felt like it would be silly to rent their clothes when they could just buy them and keep them.
However, I think there is a shift that’s happening right now in people’s viewpoint of renting -- especially post-pandemic. As people realise they don’t actually need as much stuff as they’ve had in the past, they’re wrapping their heads around the idea that renting can still offer the “fun” of fast fashion, but still create an opportunity to save money, have access to higher quality garments, and reduce their carbon footprint. You’ll still have the ability to wear a statement piece for your social media pictures, but you’ll also be able to give that item back and increase its number of wears instead of chucking it in a bin or the back of your closet. The more we can encourage people to understand the benefits of renting and the sharing economy in general, the easier it will continue to be to get people comfortable with the concept. During our research, we found that 80% of women were comfortable with the idea of renting a dress for a formal occasion, so the shift around renting is definitely moving in the right direction.
What are the barriers that usually discourage people from renting clothes?
Two of the biggest barriers we hear are the concerns around sizing and quality. This is true for most of the fashion industry and why even in general customers are usually hesitant to buy clothes from brands they don’t know, and why we often end up going back to fast fashion brands that we know fit. If you only have a garment for a few days and need it right before a particular event, it can be quite stressful to end up getting an item that doesn't fit. This is why we have a policy in place to offer swaps on pieces that don’t fit and encourage our customers to give themselves a buffer of 1-2 days before their events to have their orders arrive so we can make sure we fix any issues that may pop up.
Why is it important we consider renting first then buying?
This is a difficult question because truth to be told, it may NOT always be the most logical option to consider renting over buying. It’s up to us as consumers to be more thoughtful about our spending and needs when it comes to clothes. That’s where the RRR (reduce/rent/recycle) comes into practice:
Reduce/Rewear:
Will I be able to wear this item at least 12 times while in my possession?
Is this a wardrobe piece I’ll know I’ll still love this time next year?
Is the quality of this garment something that will hold up and still look good a few years from now?
If I can answer all of these questions with a firm YES, then it probably makes more sense to buy.
Rent: Our obvious favourite! Renting is usually a much more logical option when it comes to statement pieces, discovering new brands, and for special occasion wear. Renting vs buying makes sense when you want to:
Test out a new brand
Wear something you’ll only wear once
Need clothes to travel (new climates, styles, cultural needs, etc.)
Need something last minute
Recycle: I’m a huge fan of secondhand and vintage shops. I’ve found some great pieces when searching various local shops and online, and if a garment is already made and out there, it’s definitely more eco-friendly to buy something in existence vs. get something new. If you are looking to buy instead of rent, secondhand is a great way to shop for something you’ll love, while still being mindful of your carbon footprint.
In addition, we sell our gently worn pieces at the end of their lifecycle, so customers also have the chance to buy from us if there is something they’ve fallen in love with. Otherwise, our clothes go to our non-profit partners to allow the clothes a second chance at life.
https://infinitecloset.co.uk/en-US
So if you want to save money, look good and help the planet - rental fashion is one of the best ways to go.
Rental fashion is a way forward towards a more sustainable future and companies such as Infinite Closet play a big part in it.