SHARING IS CARING

Fashion industry paves its road to sharing economy

We all have heard in some point in our careers in fashion that our industry is one of the most harmful to our environment and we dispose an unsustainable amount of garbage that the Earth simply cannot bear. I take the responsibility in having my part on this system, as I vibrated few years ago with the opening of the first Forever 21 in my home country and being disappointed with the news that H&M was not expanding to South America. The access to the latest runway trends in an inviting price point was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for avid young fashion consumers on a budget.

After the collapse of Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh, where more than one thousand of workers tragically lost their lives while manufacturing our affordable and never-ending fast-fashion garments, the true ugly beauty of fashion lies in this illusion of fashion industry is only about glamourous glossy magazines and beautiful clothes and ignoring the social and environmental side effects of it. The eye-opening documentary Blackfish that triggered a society reaction against SeaWorld has a correspondent in fashion world that is The True Cost, directed by Andrew Morgan and released in 2015 exposing the real conditions of how the industry exploits overseas manufacturers that offers low labour costs and no safety conditions just to satisfy our insatiable wants and needs of new additions to our closets.

A turning point for this dilemma could be the point that the most sustainable piece of clothing is the one that already exists, and it is being shared with the community. At first it may sound weird and impractical, but it is also true that when Airbnb was launched, many have thought in how weird would be staying in a stranger’s house or who would accept having a driver that could be anyone in Uber, and not a professional licensed cab by the government. Now we all know that sharing economy like these companies and many others like Spotify, Turo and WeWork, are not only a reality but also a pool of infinite business opportunities. In fact, we do not need to own all the stuff that we need, specially the ones that we just use a few times like a drilling machine to hang frames on the wall once you moved to a new apartment, or a car for a trip once a year since you ride the subway every single day of your life. The minimalist movement is happening in newer generations as the Baby Boomer mentality moves away from the society.

So, if our desire is to have new outfits every once in a while, but also we do not want to keep contributing to the fast-fashion production system, as well as we have a tight income being students or newly graduates, what should we do? Give up on fashion and pray for the end of our industry? This is not what a fashion student would want for their life and career, right? What if we apply the creativity and sharing economy principles to fashion? For many years the rental of designer gowns is a common practice, because it makes sense to rent for a special occasion a high-end expensive dress that you would wear only once (by the way, we need to stop judging people that wears clothing on repeat and start following them) for a wedding or a graduation party. Rent the Runway started in this formula years ago and after being the most prominent website of party outfits, now offers a broader selection of items and styles with three subscription plans for you to receive pieces for every occasion and possibly stop buying for a long period of time.

The Toronto based startup FreshRents recently went to the same transformation, from occasion wear rentals to an everyday solution for your wardrobe, like you have unlimited access to that fashion friend that have all the pieces you want to borrow. They also rely in the community, as the members of the fashion library (how they call their selection) can contribute with clothes that they do not use frequently toward winning library points to rent other member’s and the founder’s, Zoey Wen and Samia Syed, pieces of a great range of brands, from Forever 21 to Valentino, sizes and styles. Their main goal is to offer a sustainable solution that involves sharing between members and that people uses on a regular basis, not just for parties once in a while. You might be questioning why you would want to rent something that is not expensive as a Zara top and you could easily have in your home, but the answer from Zoey could surprise and might change your mind as she says “I think partly the long term effect of people adopting a rental model is that manufacturers will be forced to focus on producing better quality garments. The other consideration is as more people will be willing to rent affordable items that will not be used often as the sustainability movement grows. The last factor why people might be willing to rent affordable things is the rising of housing prices and rent. Living space will become smaller, and so will people’s closets. People will simply not have enough room to store everything they own.”. With higher rental prices and smaller units, Zoey’s words sound familiar for a Torontonian, right? It is about time to make a real change in the way we buy clothes, and maybe the answer is in not buying at all.