Now you can rent if you only want to wear an outfit once
FOR years, the fast fashion industry has dominated the market of occasion wear.
Millions of consumers visit high street stores or online sites to buy clothes for nights out and special occasions. Many of these items are only worn once before being thrown away.
Now, a South Wales company is part of a solution to this wasteful industry.
Rhi Thomas and Tiggy Turnbull, both from the Vale of Glamorgan, are making money by renting out their clothes via Instagram.
The friends, both aged 23, decided to set up their business after noticing how many people only wear outfits once, creating a lot of waste.
Tiggy said: “We decided to start the company because we noticed amongst our friends and ourselves included that we were buying so many items of clothing and only wearing them once.
“When we were in university we lived in a house of five girls, and we would always swap clothes for nights out. When we then left uni and discovered a gap in the market for clothing hire, it could not have been more fitting because we were the audience we wanted to reach.
“We wanted to contribute to the end of masses of clothes that go in the bin and one-time wear culture. It’s so lovely that our inspiration came from ourselves and our friends; it gives us that extra motivation because we know that the service we provide is actually wanted by people our age.”
The business is based on Instagram, where potential customers can look at outfits on offer and speak to the friends directly via DM.
They also use the platform to share information on the climate crisis and fast fashion.
Tiggy and Rhi hope to fill a gap in the market for people looking for clothes for one-time wear. This way, the clothes do not go to waste after the occasion.
They currently offer clothes in sizes 6-14 and deliver across Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. Moving forward, the pair want to expand their business to cover more areas.
Rhi said: “In the future we would love to be hiring outfits over the whole of Wales. We would love to expand and to have a physical presence on the high street.
“As fashion graduates ourselves, in the future it would be great to talk to other students about our experience of building a business from scratch and keep the conversation going about fashion sustainability.”
Rhi and Tiggy both work in REISS alongside their new venture.
Their Instagram page is slowly gaining followers despite some challenges.
Tiggy said: “The main challenge we had to face was what our customers wanted to see from us in terms or stock. What brands, styles and sizes they wanted us to offer.
“We did a lot of research into seasonal trends and styles that were popular and tried to begin expanding our stock from there. We know how important customer input is to a business so we do a lot of polls and inspiration to allow our customers to communicate with us.
“Another challenge is that this is the first business we are running, so we are trying to navigate the process. We know there will be hiccups but we are constantly learning and growing with our business which is actually one of the most rewarding parts.”
Tiggy and Rhi knew that their venture was something their peers would be interested in.
Over the last few years, second-hand fashion has lost much of the stigma it once had. Apps like Depop, Vinted and eBay are popular ways to find pre-owned garments, as well as local charity shops.
Each year, traffic on the resale app Depop is up by around 200%, and a third of 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK are now registered users.
These apps are a part of the “circular economy”, a term which describes a system of reusing and recycling items to discourage waste.
eBay is also a big part of this economy in the UK. Last year, 81% of eBay sellers also purchased a pre-owned item on the site.
For Tiggy and Rhi, this culture is a big part of their lives.
Rhi said: “As a business we want to keep the cycle of re-wearing clothes going, and the outfits we stock are not directly purchased through brands.
“We buy items which are new with tags or nearly new. We also reuse dust bags instead of carrier bags when outfits are hired.
“In our personal lives, we absolutely love thrift shopping and using Depop and Vinted.”