From shared wardrobes to peer-to-peer clothing rentals - fashion lovers are looking for innovative answers to virtual socializing

Back in 2017, New York entrepreneur Violet Gross and Merri Smith, who had worked in marketing at luxury department store Saks Fifth Avenue, co-founded Tulerie, a peer-to-peer clothing rental app that bills itself as a "closet sharing community."

The idea came from a friend of Mr Gross's who worked in fashion; Sometimes she couldn't afford to dress the way she wanted, so she often went to the high street or borrowed from friends.

Some time later, the friend asked Gross if she could pay for the items she lent her. Gross declined, believing it was just a normal thing between friends, but it prompted her to wonder: "Why only borrow clothes from friends?"

The global online clothing rental market has exploded in recent years and is expected to be worth more than $2 billion by 2025.

Business-to-consumer platforms like Rent The Runway offer clothing that often focuses on individual pieces; Meanwhile, peer-to-peer apps such as Tulerie, Dublin-based Nuw and UAe-based Designer 24 are also emerging, allowing users to rent clothing from each other.

Items on Tulerie, for example, retail from hundreds to thousands of dollars -- from luxurious Chanel knitwear, Phoebe Philo-era Celine cabas totes and monogrammed Dior purses to more mundane items, Examples include Vetements x Champion hoodies and Cecilie Bahnsen wrap tops.

The top rentals are dresses, followed closely by sweaters, "dresses that you would wear to brunch or dinner, not necessarily to a wedding," Gross explains.

"We hope people don't cling to stereotypes and think more about 'everyday' rather than 'special occasions'." You can wear it to a meeting or a friend's birthday."

Building community through clothing

For those seeking to join Tulerie, brightly coloured items are a hot item, with rolled Bottega Veneta bags and anything from Jacquemus currently the most popular.

But community spirit is just as important. "We FaceTime every applicant," Gross says. So we have an opportunity to say, 'Please, if you spill or tear something, you no longer belong to our community.' You may have the most expensive clothes, the most expensive things, but if you don't treat things with respect, then you have no value to us."

In the same way, this sense of community is crucial for By Rotation, the world's first social fashion rental app.

The app hit the 50,000 user mark this month. It only has an app interface, with user ratings and reviews, to let customers know about the user profile, while offering the benefit of unlocking high-priced items.

For example, new users need at least one positive review to get rental privileges for items over £1,000.

Eshita Kabra-Davies, founder of By Rotation and a former finance career, was recently named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 list. In her opinion, there are all kinds of people on the app, from students, professors, bankers and lawyers, To royals (Dame Amelia Windsor), actors (Karla-Simone Spence) and people of the hour (Camille Charriere, Hannah Strafford-Taylor).

"Everyone is very polite," she said. When renting items, you must communicate with the lender and explain the context, for example, 'I would love to borrow your Vampire's Wife dress for the wedding'. It is up to the lender to decide whether to accept the request. As a result, I made friends by meeting some of these women and renting them again and again. We have seen that friendships can form among members. It's a bit like having a wardrobe of people you know."

These apps created a virtual social space during the pandemic, but soon had to adapt their processes to The Times we live in.

Tulerie, for example, has implemented non-rescissive penalties and encourages users not to hide their health status; By Rotation publishes its Covid-19 safety guidelines, enforces strict "clean before delivery and return" rules, and partners with Oxwash to offer professional and environmentally friendly cleaning services at discounted rates. The exchange of goods by express delivery rather than in person is also encouraged.

Advantages of a shared wardrobe

In Europe alone, where an average of 40% of clothes hang in wardrobes unworn, P2P rentals offer an opportunity to reduce consumption and waste.

As Kabra-Davies explains, switching to a temporary shared wardrobe has influenced not only her style, but also her buying choices. "I can keep track of the items I list on my profile, and I list everything I buy; I've noticed that the quality of my purchases is much higher than before I used By Rotation. Now, on average, I buy two every six weeks - three or four times as many when I worked in finance. So, on a personal level, I'm a lot more conscious of what I'm doing. Do we all need to own exactly the same clothes? In other words, can we share?

Of course, there are financial benefits, too.

Kabra-Davies explains: "We just had a transaction where a user lent out a piece of clothing three times and got 85% of the retail price back.

I looked up the same clothes online and they were being sold at half the retail price; So if she sells, she will only get 35 percent of the retail price, including seller's fees."

With the possibility of renting one out in the future, this forces us to think not only about taking better care of the garment, but also about the quality of the garment purchased in the first place. By the same token, with clothing rentals, the likelihood of fashion reaching the 30-wear standard (a slow fashion initiative focused on sober consumption) is greatly increased.

"There's really been a shift in the way people spend their money," says Tulerie's Gross. They want experiences more than things, and people are becoming more accustomed to sharing rather than owning, whether it's an apartment, an office space, a car, or even a pet. We think clothing is the next way to show that."