Make your personalized sign-up page for clothing rental companies

Consumers are also dissuaded from buying and holding on to items they may only wear once. Rent The Runway highlights 24% less water, 6% less energy, and 3% less emissions on average for each garment rented through the platform instead of purchased new.

Rent the Runway just raised $125m, making the clothing rental subscription company a new unicorn.

Rental fashion allows a person to borrow clothes for a fixed amount of time, returning the items to the company once theyve finished wearing them. Historically, people used early fashion rental companies to rent high-end garments for special occasions, such as bridal dress hire or luxury designer clothes.

The idea being that by encouraging people to choose renting instead of buying, less clothing will end up being discarded in landfill. This, Im afraid, is greenwashing. The problem of overconsumption of clothing is not a physical one but instead a social one, perpetuated by both consumers and producers of fashion.

The clothing rental service has struggled in recent years. CEO Jennifer Hyman says the restructuring is meant to pave the way to profitability in 2024. Rent the Runway, the 14-year-old fashion rental company, is restructuring, cutting 10% of its corporate jobs, which is equivalent to 37 employees.

Rent the Runway is an e-commerce platform that allows users to rent, subscribe, or buy designer apparel and accessories. It was founded by Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss, who launched the company in November 2009.

Fashion renting, in particular, consists in the rental of clothes or accessories usually of high quality and price. Since this is a rental, the company providing the garment is responsible for maintaining, inspecting, and sanitizing the product when it is returned and retains possession of it.

Rent the Runways competitors and similar companies include One Kings Lane, Le Tote, Stitch Fix, Swap.com, thredUP and Letgo. Rent the Runway is a company that provides designer dresses, clothing, and accessories rental services through its stores and online.

Following the launch of the first fashion rental service in 2018, the market for rented haute couture has exploded in popularity. The market is estimated to be worth 2.3 billion by 2029.

Rent the Runway has gone on to be a major player in the reshaping of the fashion industry. Designers get experimental marketing to their target audience of women mostly in their mid-twenties, and those women get access to high-end clothing they might not otherwise have the opportunity to afford.