By Beatrice Tridimas
On a picturesque corner of Elizabeth Street, Belgravia, the dark outside makes the cool, mauve-tinged interior of Hurr Collective’s pop-up glow. It’s a quiet Wednesday evening, but there is an air of anticipation as the store prepares for the first of many events that will bring together Hurr’s community of elite clothing renters and lenders.
A light, airy space with high ceilings and big windows, the store emanates aesthetic grandeur. The shop floor is a work of art, radiating ethereal elegance with its sophisticated minimalism and calm colour co-ordination. Two Giambattista Valli x H&M dresses, modelled by Kendall Jenner at the AmFar Gala in Cannes, subtly hang on one end of a rack of dresses (a treat for those awaiting the collection’s public release on November 7th).
Hurr are UK innovators of wardrobe rental services, their Elizabeth Street pop-up being the first ever UK store dedicated to renting. Their website works on a peer-to-peer basis, where lenders upload clothes they want to rent, set their own prices and arrange directly with renters the rental time and duration (up to 14 days).
The pop-up show cases some of the collective’s favourites and allows customers to actually come and try pieces on. Un-like other online services, Hurr doesn’t cater only for big events, but has a range of holiday-wear from ski suits to summer dresses to Sunday brunch outfits, transforming the rental wardrobe to an every-day phenomenon.
Clothing rental services are already successful in the US, Rent the Runway, the leading retailer for clothing rental, now valued at over a billion dollars. Rental fashion is an emerging phenomenon of the now prominent sharing economy. ‘People are valuing ownership less and they just want access to things,’ says Victoria Prew, co-founder of Hurr Collective. PWC found that the majority of people agree that sharing services make life more affordable, convenient and efficient. Think about how many sharing platforms you use: Spotify, Netflix, Airbnb, Uber?
Whilst the preference for accessibility over ownership suggests an almost insatiable or constant desire for more, it also reveals a certain consciousness of consumerism. Consumers are adapting their habits to satisfy this need for newness and variety, without generating waste or disregard for the old. Prew sees this growth in her customers who, avoiding last-minute splurges on holiday-wear are turning instead to Hurr, holidays becoming the ‘number one reason‘ for renting. ‘What’s really fascinating is that people are more conscious of their consumption,’ says Prew, ‘they’re now thinking about, you know, how can I consume better.’
‘The most sustainable garment is the one that you already have in your wardrobe,’ says Prew. ‘We don’t need to be buying more, so what we are trying to do is expand the lifespan of the items already in people’s wardrobes.’
Renting provides both an environmentally and economically sustainable solution to fast fashion. For lenders, the wardrobe essentially becomes an investment. ‘People should be buying less and buying better,’ says Prew, ‘and rather than investing in a fast fashion knock off, actually invest in the higher quality item knowing that they can monetize it.’ And it’s not just about investing in better quality new clothes, but also profiting from items that have been left untouched for years. Lenders will reduce the amount of clothing they waste, sharing instead of throwing away, and buying only that which will become a long-term investment.
The renter likewise benefits, no longer needing to spend on (and throw away) one-wear items and saving money by wearing designer clothing at a hugely discounted price. To Victoria, the economics of rental fashion is double-sided: ‘one is knowing that you can buy something knowing that you can actually make money from it, and the second is that you can rent amazing designer pieces for […] 10, 15, 20% of the RRP, which is, you know, pretty compelling.’
Whilst you might argue that rental fashion concedes to a culture that encourages that you never be photographed in the same outfit twice, it shows us that consumer culture is changing. The very way we spend money is evolving to adapt to the eco-consciousness of the present, whilst gratifying the materialist drive for more.
A picture of elegance, passers-by wouldn’t necessarily think Hurr’s pop-up a glimpse into the future. Hurr’s success, however, represents a drive towards securing a more sustainable future. A future that is characterised by making the most of what we already have.
Beatrice Tridimas
Beatrice is an ethicist and book-lover, pursuing her passion for writing at KeiSei whilst studying for a masters degree at UCL. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh earlier this year.
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