Low-impact fashion: the boom of online renting

A cosy little living room, tastefully furnished. Between a forest-green sofa and a 1950s brass lamp, there is room for a stand of evening dresses, glittering accessories and designer bags. It is the Milan headquarters of Revest, a high-fashion rental service with a mission encapsulated in the motto 'Why buy. Why sell. Rent'. The promise is that of an 'infinite wardrobe' with a low environmental impact. Revest is just one of the platforms and apps that, in Italy and around the world, rent clothes and accessories according to a business model that aims to extend the life of garments by sharing them. Kate Middleton, who programmatically repeats her evening outfits, raised the bar when, in December last year, for the final evening of the Earthshot Prize, she borrowed a long grass-green dress by Solace London on Hurr, a sort of Airbnb of fashion. Priyanka Chopra is a regular customer of American luxury rental designer pioneer Janet Mandell. Her archive of clothes and accessories is worth more than two million dollars and includes major fashion houses and emerging brands, from Chanel to Versace, Jean Paul Gaultier to 16Arlington. Celebrities who could take every wish away when it comes to looks choose to rent. The aim is to arrive perfect on the red carpet by circumventing the 'buy once, wear once' mentality responsible for the now unsustainable accumulation of discarded garments. In the G20 countries, each of us would have to buy a maximum of five new garments per year to keep the temperature rise within 1.5 degrees of pre-industrial levels (the 2015 Paris Agreement target). According to the Hot or Cool Institute, a Berlin think tank, we are well over this threshold, with 25-27 items per head. Impressive figures that non-profit organisations such as Global Fashion Agenda and Ellen McArthur Foundation seek to counter, pointing to good alternative practices: buy less and better, recycle and above all rent. Because, besides being a sustainable habit, fashion renting on the right platforms is just as rewarding an experience as buying. Front Row, My Wardrobe HQ in London, Une robe un soir in Paris, DressYouCan and DrexCode in Milan make choosing and trying on an outfit a unique and personalised experience. First you browse the site among hundreds of designer labels - from Dior to Saint Laurent, from Prada to Antonio Marras - indicating the size and the occasion, and then you proceed with the fitting in the atelier (the advantage is that you can see more garments) or at home. The chosen dress is delivered and returned by hand or by courier. Other platforms such as Revest, Rites and the By Rotation app, on the other hand, are shared, peer-to-peer wardrobes: garments travel as in a cloud from who owns them to who rents them without being stored in a warehouse. It is the individuals who earn money every time the clothes 'go out', while logistics, business transactions and maintenance are the responsibility of the sites, which keep a commission for themselves. There are also differences in payment: one can pay for a single rental, or pay fees for monthly subscriptions. Depending on the amount, one is entitled to borrow a certain number of garments per month. Thirty days to wear three to ten pieces is the offer of the English The Devout, which mixes clothes for special occasions and everyday outfits (with brands such as Hugo Boss, Armani Jeans but also Adidas). In Italy, Hesse, which only selects high-end brands, from Prada to Jacquemus, and Drip, which specialises in designer street style (Off-White, Heron Preston, GCDS, among others), work on a subscription basis. The shopping cart often also includes glasses, scarves, jewellery, shoes. If only the bag is missing, one goes hunting for designer models on specialised platforms. For example, Bag It Milano, which ships Chanel matelassé, saddles by Dior and Bamboo by Gucci throughout Europe, or Rent Fashion Bag, which also works on a subscription basis. Crowded and dynamic, the rental fashion and second hand market will grow up to 23 per cent by 2030 (Bloomberg Intelligence data). Shorter-term projections predict it could grow fivefold by 2025, surpassing the growth rate of first-hand clothing. Websites and apps insist on the inherent sustainability of a circular model that facilitates access to luxury by limiting excess, but if renting is a way to avoid compulsive shopping, it involves an endless cycle of packaging, transport and cleaning. In other words, 'nothing we do is climate neutral, not even renting a dress for a party. It's certainly one more piece in the transition to a greener mindset," says Silvia Gambi, an expert and lecturer on sustainable fashion who helps brands go greener. "Always on the condition that we move towards more advanced renting models such as shared wardrobes. And to reward those who care about sustainability, including social sustainability: Dream Rent's clothes, for example, are handmade by the atelier's seamstresses. "And for every ten rentals we plant a tree," says founder Sofia Provera. Small gestures that, together, make a difference.

JOIN THE AGENDA  BAG IT MILANO . BY ROTATION . DREAM RENT by Sofia Provera. DRESSYOUCAN . DREXCODE . DRIP, wear-drip.com. FRONT ROW . HESSE, hesse.it. HURR, hurrcollective.com. JANET MANDELL . MY WARDROBE HQ . RENT FASHION BAG . REVEST . RITES . THE DEVOUT . UNE ROBE UN SOIR .