My Wardrobe in the Cloud: An International Comparison of Fashion Rental

In response to the 2008 global financial crisis, a range of disruptive business model innovations emerged. The fashion industry saw the introduction of fashion rental platforms, aimed at appealing to price-conscious consumers still hungry for the latest styles. While these new business models filled a gap in the market and saw, in some cases, profit in the millions, the phenomenon remained rather niche. The recent pandemic, alongside other isomorphic pressures, have put further constraints on these fashion rental businesses and their entrepreneurs, leaving them struggling in the current economic climate. This chapter explores the entrepreneurial motivations behind rental platforms, the different platform models in operation, and the challenges these businesses face in the 21st century, including increased technological developments, environmental sustainability, and external pressures, such as the most recent pandemic, which saw economies shutting down. Empirically, the authors draw upon a novel dataset comprising six international case studies

Can rental platforms contribute to more sustainable fashion consumption? Evidence from a mixed-method study

This study presents a case study of fashion rental platforms in Canada, drawing upon two unique, yet complementary, datasets: a qualitative analysis based upon semi-structured interviews with the rental platform entrepreneurs and a life cycle assessment (LCA) of 11 garment designs simulating garments offered by the platforms. Fast fashion has not only made garments more accessible to all parts of society, but also made them more disposable. To counteract the sustainability issue of fashion, rental platforms are emerging as a potential solution. While fashion rental platforms are often described as being “sustainable alternatives”, their business practices and the quantitative impact remains largely untested. This study posed four research questions to address this gap: 1) How do fashion rental platform entrepreneurs see their contribution to enhance sustainability with their provided service?,2) What are the item purchase criteria of rental platforms and their relation to environmental sustainability of fashion consumption?, 3) How do factors such as garment type, season, fabric composition and style influence the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of a garment when owned versus rented?, 4) What are the research gaps between business practices and evidence of environmental impact? To answer these questions, we combined semi-structured interviews with rental entrepreneurs and an LCA. The interviews provided basic understanding in fashion rental operations and their reasons, which assisted in modeling the environmental impact of rented garments using LCA. As a result, qualitative findings indicate that rental entrepreneurs recognize provision of rental service itself contributes to sustainable fashion. From the LCA, the embodied GHG of garments varied significantly depending on the design and fiber content. When owning and renting were compared, rented garments had a greater life cycle GHG per piece when the garment is dry-cleaned. Also, the GHG emission per wear is tremendously reduced for garments that increase lifetime wear through renting such as dresses. Our mixed-method study suggests the need to further analyze the role of the garment category to consumer behavior, rebound effects, and garment design for rental platforms

For waste’s sake: Stakeholder mapping of circular economy approaches to address the growing issue of clothing textile waste

By now, it is well established that the fashion industry faces several social and environmental sustainability issues, including the growing problem of clothing textile waste. In recent years, the concept of circular economy (CE) has been put forth as a solution to drive the industry towards a more sustainable future, including as a strategy to reduce clothing textile waste. However, currently there is a gap in our understanding of how circular approaches are enacted by different stakeholders and if/how stakeholders are working together, especially when it comes to post-consumer clothing textile waste. To remedy this gap, this conceptual article draws on a wide range of secondary resources to propose a conceptual framework based on stakeholder mapping. The framework aims to help understand who is responsible for post-consumer textile waste and how they interact and work together, driven by three key questions: where do responsibility(ies) lie in addressing the growing challenge of textile waste, what actions are currently being taken across supply chains and stakeholders to address textile waste and what are the opportunities and challenges in conceptualizing CE practices through a stakeholder mapping approach? In exploring actions across four key stakeholder groups (policy-makers, fashion industry, clothing textile recyclers and actors from the not-for-profit sector), the need for engagement and collaboration across stakeholders, investment in recycling technology and infrastructure, and policy leadership are identified as key challenges facing the industry as it seeks to redress social and environmental challenges