Renting clothing has been all about being able to wear luxury designer brands for a fraction of the cost to buy. But now this trend has filtered down and you can also rent high street labels.
I am a big fan of renting clothing and have talked about it numerous times on Life’s a Catwalk including my post on six reasons to rent clothes. In the past I’ve mainly rented designer handbags (and an amazing Giambattista Valli dress) but what about high street pieces? Once I started to research if renting high street was an option one name kept coming came up.
Fashion has never moved faster. Trends flicker in and out of style in weeks, not seasons. But our wardrobes are still full of clothes we barely wear. In the UK, the average person wears only about half of what’s in their wardrobe each year and a huge chunk of new purchases are only worn once or twice before being shelved or thrown out.
That disconnect between impulse buys, fast fashion and real wear is exactly what’s driving a shift toward renting instead of buying.
The Hidden Cost of Buying
There are two big issues with the traditional buying model:
1. Real cost to wardrobe and wallet. Most of us buy pieces hoping they’ll become wardrobe staples, and too often they don’t. A recent UK survey showed about a third of people spend over £300 a year on new clothes that almost never get worn past one or two outings.
2. Real cost to the planet. Clothes are worn an average of just 7–10 times before they’re discarded. Every piece has an environmental footprint from production alone, and with fashion responsible for a significant slice of global emissions and waste, buying more stuff only deepens that impact.
Why Renting Makes Sense
Renting flips that model on its head. Instead of ownership for a handful of wears, you share the life of clothes with others. Sites like Hirestreet are designed for everyday wear from recognisable high street brands, not just special occasions.
Here’s why that matters:
Stretching use and value. Rental items, when circulated multiple times, spread the environmental cost of production across many wears. Industry research shows that extending the life of a garment by nine months via reuse or rental can reduce its carbon, waste and water footprints by roughly 20–30%.
Accessible style without commitment. Hirestreet lets customers rent high street favourites like River Island, French Connection and M&S styles, and many pieces get booked again and again.
A growing demand for alternatives. Hirestreet reports that its most frequent users now rent around 30 products per year, and customers are increasingly looking to hire outfits for not just one-off events but everyday life.
The Sustainable Argument (With Nuance)
Let’s be clear: renting isn’t a free pass to claim you’re automatically saving the planet. Like anything in fashion, the details matter.
Positive side:
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Renting reduces the need for brand new purchases and can keep items in circulation for dozens of wears instead of a handful.
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Circular models like Hirestreet’s help cut down landfill waste and shift how consumers think about use and ownership.
Challenges:
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Transport, cleaning and packaging do add emissions. Rental only delivers environmental benefit if items are worn enough times to counterbalance those costs.
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Not all rental fashion is created equal. Frequency of wear and efficient logistics make a big difference to the overall impact.
But that nuance is exactly what makes renting a smarter choice for many people right now. If a new dress is only going to be worn once, renting it at a fraction of the cost and keeping production impact lower is a smarter move for your bank balance and the planet.
The Human Side of Renting
Beyond stats and sustainability speak, renting changes how we think about fashion. Instead of building wardrobes around impulse purchases, renting encourages curation and reuse. It lets style evolve without the real cost of ownership weighing you down.
With platforms like Hirestreet making rental accessible, affordable and fun, the conversation isn’t just about buying less — it’s about wearing more and wasting less.
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