The Rental Revolution: Would You Rent Your Child’s Clothes?
In the fight for sustainable fashion, we often overlook the vast amount of children’s clothing heading to landfill each year. Just consider the fact that most children grow seven sizes in the first three years of their lives, it’s inevitable that childrenswear will constitute a substantial mound in the ever-growing pile up of textiles waste.
By default, children epitomise the fast fashion model. But unlike us, their rapid growth rate actually requires the constant flow of new clothing. Not only does it have a negative impact on the environment, this perpetual need to “buy new” puts continual financial strain on parents’ wallets. Taking into further account the fact that childrenswear is often outgrown and binned before the end of its natural lifespan, this is doubly wasteful. Surely the circular fashion model can offer childrenswear the eco-friendly makeover it so desperately needs?
This week My Wardrobe HQ — the UK's leading fashion rental marketplace — is making its move into the childrenswear market. This coincides with a recent report by GlobalData and ThredUp forecasting that the $24bn second hand clothing market is set to double in five years, surpassing the size of the fast-fashion market. Parents will now be able to rent their children’s clothing to maximise the life cycle of every garment and access high-quality clothing at a fraction of the retail price. “We listened to our customers who wanted their choices when shopping for their kids to be made as sustainably as when shopping for themselves” says My Wardrobe HQ Founder Sacha Newell. “They asked us to offer childrenswear and we are incredibly excited to be the first rental platform in Europe to provide this luxury offering”.
Anticipating customers’ concerns about the risks of sharing clothing during a pandemic, My Wardrobe HQ offers a fully managed service whereby every item is cleaned after rental. To ensure cleanliness of the clothing, they’ve adopted the pioneering, planet-friendly cleaning technology, Ozone. This uses oxidation to kill bacteria and viruses so that every item is disinfected, sanitised and deodorised in between rentals.
This latest venture follows the likes of John Lewis & Partners, who have promoted hand-me-down culture as part of their childrenswear offering. To help reduce waste, the British department store introduced new labelling to its own-brand clothing items with the slogan: ‘Wear it, love it, hand it down.’ Garments such as coats feature organic cotton labelling on the inside so the new owner can simply cross out the name of the last owner in pen and write their name.
“We’re really proud of the quality of our clothes and want them to have a really long life and be handed down again and again” said Caroline Bettis, head childrenswear buyer at John Lewis said in a statement earlier this year. “Our in-house design team create timeless designs so they don’t go out of fashion. We make them up in carefully selected good quality fabrics, and put our clothing through rigorous testing to ensure the colours stay bright, and they endure well under wear and tear. I hope these new labels will help to grow the culture of handing down clothes which can be worn again by other children.”
Likewise, new subscription-based companies such as Bundlee, Circos and Belles and Babes offer ethical-branded baby clothes to parents via post. Items like babygrows, rompers and vests are washed, ironed and sent back when the child has outgrown them, with another larger sized bundle arriving in its place. Considering that parents use a staggering 280 pieces of kids clothing in the first 2 years after their child is born (most of which are only worn for 2 or 3 months), this symbolises another important shift towards a more sustainable childrenswear model.