By now, I’m a seasoned fashion renter, whether it’s a tulle Molly Goddard dress or a new-season Simone Rocha number. From a sustainability perspective, it makes sense to borrow rather than to buy something new, if you’re only going to wear it once or twice.
That’s why my renting habit has largely been limited to special occasions so far: parties, weddings and work events. But rental platform Hurr is now encouraging its users to borrow “elevated everyday” pieces to mix into their wardrobes, via its new Flex offering. Customers are able to purchase £170 worth of rental credit for £99 or £225 credit for £125, meaning you can now – quite literally – get more bang for your buck. “Five years into our journey, we can do occasionwear in our sleep; we’ve built that market,” founder and CEO Victoria Prew tells Vogue. “When we think about scale and mass adoption of rental, our work is only really just beginning.”
To test out the new Flex passes, I attempted to rent all my outfits for a week spent in Denmark for both work and pleasure. Typically, when borrowing for special occasions, there are specific brands I like to choose from (including those mentioned above) because I’m already familiar with the sizing. For day-to-day looks though, I had to venture out of my comfort zone a little – something that is encouraged by Hurr.
“Rental is 100 per cent the next form of discovery in fashion,” Prew says. “If someone wants to rent something for 30 days, and then falls in love with it, how great that they can [go on to] make a considered purchase, knowing that that piece fits them perfectly, that it’s a higher-quality garment, and they’re going to love that piece hopefully for many years.”
At first glance, I found it tricky to find pieces that ticked all the boxes when it came to my personal style, sizing and suitability for the different events I was going to in Copenhagen (plus, they had to be available at relatively short notice!) But after venturing beyond my tried-and-tested brands, I found some incredible pieces, including Christopher John Rogers’s striped knitted maxi dress featuring a cut-out back, which garnered several compliments when I wore it on the first day of the Global Fashion Summit. A pair of cropped monogrammed jeans from Loewe fit me perfectly – despite me usually struggling with trousers as I’m only 5ft 3in – and I would definitely consider purchasing the vintage Gucci bag I borrowed.
Still, flexibility is key. A black Loewe dress, which I had picked out to wear on stage at the summit, was sadly unavailable, but luckily I was able to rent a red shirt dress from Victoria Beckham instead from Hurr’s managed offering. A Chopova Lowena cardigan, which I had hoped to wear during my weekend away in northern Denmark, sadly didn’t arrive in time after the renter fell ill (Flex can be used on both managed items – which Hurr look after in-house – and peer-to-peer rentals, which are borrowed from other users on the site).
Price, too, is another barrier when it comes to fashion rental. While Flex undoubtedly makes it cheaper to rent (I could rent the Gucci bag, a Sea dress and Ganni dress for eight days for £125 with Flex Pro, or the Loewe Jeans and Ganni Dress for 16 days for the same price), most people still expect to be able to own something in their wardrobe if they’re paying £100 and up. The stand-out pieces on the site, which tend to be higher value items, are more expensive to rent: the Christopher John Rogers dress I borrowed (RRP £1,560) costs £240 to rent for eight days (or £140 if you purchase a Flex Pro pass), while the Victoria Beckham dress (RRP £1,490) costs £210 to rent for eight days (less than £125 with Flex Pro).