After spending the past two birthdays in a state of lockdown, with only a party hat from Tesco to signify
the occasion, this year was set to be big. Rolling my 24th, 25th and 26th celebrations all into one funk-filled night at Blue's Kitchen in Manchester, I knew I had to pull a look to fit the occasion.
Months can be spent planning, searching, scouring for a birthday outfit. The one that will make the 'gram, become the new profile picture, wow the ex, impress the friends. In previous years, I would have spent hours scrolling online, buying an outfit that I'd probably end up wearing a handful of times before discarding to the depths of my wardrobe.
As you might be able to tell, that just didn't feel right to me anymore. But it had been so long since going to any kind of big night out; I felt lost in this scarily familiar concept of *shudders* event shopping, whilst advocating sustainable/slow fashion. Enter—By Rotation.
Launched in October 2019, By Rotation has quickly become one of the most affordable and inclusive ways to enjoy "new" fashion. Their peer-to-peer rental app has catapulted rented clothing into the fashion industry's spotlight, so much so that they claimed the "Ones to Watch" award at the Drapers Sustainable Fashion Awards in 2020.
Naturally, I was curious. Here's a rundown of everything I experienced, from start to finish, as well as overall pros and cons for good measure.
Launching By Rotation *
- Free, quick and simple. Once you've downloaded the app, you'll be prompted to create a very high-level profile, then you're free to explore.
Finding an outfit
- The app's homepage is clearly laid out. Clothes are categorised as Trending Brands, Resale, Top Lenders By Sizes, then into seasonal edits (for example, at the moment one of them is The Spring Edit).
- I opted to search by size, then after being prompted by seeing a few different designers, I decided to stick with trying to find something from Peachy Den—a brand that's been on my radar for a while. To my delight, they had one of their signature pink jumpsuits available to rent.
Requesting to rent
- Peachy Den has its own brand account on By Rotation, so I was renting straight from the company in this instance. I messaged them with my proposed dates (a lot of renters have a minimum rental period) and submitted my request. The next day, my rental had been accepted and they took my payment.
Receiving and returning the item
- The jumpsuit arrived a day earlier than expected, which was fab. After my rental period was up, I paid for the jumpsuit to be returned to the sender (I did have to pay extra for the return P&P back, but the cleaning fees were included in the overall price which I thought was good).
Pros
- Did I love wearing a bright pink jumpsuit? Hell yes. Would I consider it an essential part of my wardrobe? Absolutely not. That's the beauty of rental apps like By Rotation, it offers a no-strings-attached promise which gives its users the chance to experiment with style, without having the responsibility of purchasing new items.
- The app was extremely easy to use*. Clothes are clearly categorised and offer inspiration for whatever occasion you're renting for. As mentioned, the Peachy Den jumpsuit I found was listed on the brand's account, through By Rotation. I thought it was a great idea, for fashion brands to have a rental account and be able to open up their reach to more customers, who like me, are interested in the brand but can't afford a jumpsuit that's £100 +. It also encourages people to buy into new fashion brands in a cyclical manner.
- The Peachy Den jumpsuit retails at £120. I rented mine for four days for a grand total of £34, making it significantly cheaper. I'd also say I re-learned a lesson from this—just because something is expensive doesn't mean it's going to be of great quality. I love Peachy Den's designs and think they're a really cool brand, but in all honesty, the jumpsuit did not feel like it was worth £120. There was loose thread around the pockets and the fabric was extremely lightweight. I was more than happy to rent it and would rent it again if the right occasion came up, but I wouldn't buy it.
Cons
- The pressure of making sure the jumpsuit fitted was ridiculous. This of course had nothing to do with the actual jumpsuit and more with the nature of the app (and me being a worrier). You're hiring clothes for a particular time and occasion, so they will arrive for that particular time and occasion. There's no safety blanket of "if it doesn't fit I'll send it back and get something else", you have that item for as long as you've agreed to have it.
- My jumpsuit was scheduled to arrive the day before my event. Luckily, it ended up arriving a day early, but if it didn't fit I would have been snookered. Postage is more of an external factor, but definitely one to consider. I did think of ordering it for a weekend in advance just to make sure it did fit, but that takes time and effort, and also puts an item in transit unnecessarily.
- As my event grew closer, I found myself saving clothes on Instagram and scrolling back through the rental app. The concept of getting a "backup" outfit is one that needs no introduction. We've all been there; the item is too small, too big, doesn't hang the right way, isn't the same colour in real life. This of course is where rental clothing will still endure hurdles. I held off in the end and trusted that I'd made the right decision, but the reality is that a lot more people would hit 'purchase' and order an heir and a spare.
Overall verdict:
My easy-peasy experience of By Rotation has now got me hooked on the concept of rentable fashion. It's such an old concept brought back to life in the modern era of social media and mobile apps, and is something I would urge everyone to try at least once—I'll definitely be renting again.
* I'd like to note that there are obvious privileges that come with being able to rent clothes. First of which is that I own a phone, and can access the app. I'm also able-bodied, which historically means fashion is way more accessible to me.
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