Colette Sheridan: Your over-stocked wardrobe could be a really lucrative cash cow

WAS it the cost of refurbishing the flat next door to No 10, Downing Street, occupied by Boris Johnson and his new wife, Carrie Symonds, that made her money-conscious when it came to her wedding outfit?

This Tory wife, who in a blow for feminism, has taken her husband’s name, had her own twist on the tradition that brides wear something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue on their big day.

Carrie, who looked fab in a simple white dress with a wreath of flowers around her head, spent just £45 on the garment. That may sound parsimonious for the British prime minister’s wife, but Carrie can take a bow for being environmentally friendly. She rented the frock, which actually retails at £2,870.

Now, whether it really was a concern for Mother Earth on Carrie’s part is a moot point, but women everywhere can rejoice. We too can indulge our fantasy of dressing up in clobber that would break the bank if we were to pay the full price for it.

Renting is the new way to go. 

It’s a way of wearing a designer outfit — maybe for just one day — without having to renege on the mortgage, the car loan and the credit card debt. Welcome to celebrity land, where you too can wear Prada without guilt.

And what’s more, you could actually take a punt on purchasing an expensive dress and making a killing on it, renting it out several times to recoup the cost — and make a profit. What’s not to like?

Apparently, environmentally conscious young shoppers are increasingly turning to rental and resale sites to keep their wardrobes on trend — and their consciences clear. (Don’t you just love the idea of buying something and doing a quick maths equation to estimate how much you could make from it)?

Up to now, it was just men who rented uniform-type clothes when they needed to wear a tuxedo for a formal social occasion. Now, women have a much more interesting angle on dress hire.

As the chair of the rental service, ‘My Wardrobe HQ’ and former Topshop brand director, Jane Shepherdson, said: “If you use Airbnb and sleep in someone’s bed, why not wear something from their wardrobe too?”

A lot of us feel it’s a bit wasteful to keep on supporting the fast fashion industry which accelerates retail and trend cycles so that producers can produce more, retailers can sell more and people buy more.

Yes, we love buying new clothes but it’s really not sustainable. (Just look at your over-stocked wardrobe. What are you going to do with the stuff you don’t wear anymore?)

Globally, only 1% of our textiles are recycled. In this country alone, we are sending 63,000 tonnes of textiles to landfill every year. What a terrible waste. 

All that frantic shopping, which costs very little, is designed to keep ‘retail therapy’ going. But at what price for the people who produce the garments?

The shameful reality is that, to a large extent, fast fashion is produced and manufactured in parts of the world that ignore human rights. People — mostly women — are forced to work for subsistence wages. Exploitation is the name of the game. Environmental protection is not well regulated.

The inevitable consequences are shocking levels of pollution as well as the mistreatment of vulnerable workers. Is that new T-shirt, which you’ll dump in a couple of months, really worth it, given the collateral damage?

The fashion industry accounts for about 10% of the world’s carbon emissions — that is more than aviation and shipping combined.

The Government says it doesn’t want levies on fast fashion to be the primary driver of change. Instead, “it wants to make it easier for people to do the right thing by reusing and donating clothes. We also need to refine how we deal with end-of-life textiles.”

The Environmental Protection Agency is carrying out a study on the nature of post-consumer textiles. The ‘bring banks’ in use for textiles are being examined to make sure they’re in line with the sustainable development goals.

Can we really justify constant shopping for clothes given that the future of the planet is at stake? Even if your eyes glaze over when environmental issues are raised, you’ll surely see the sense (and the good business model) involved in renting clothes.

Top renters in the UK are said to be making thousands of pounds monthly. A typical charge for an eight day hire is 15% of the retail price. This means a few rentals will recoup the cost. A few more and you’re making money. Of course, there are cleaning and delivery costs. But it’s a great wheeze. If it’s good enough for a PM’s wife, then it’s good enough for you!