Hirestreet, who works with over 50 brands at the moment, partners with them in a traditional way. West’s buying team; who work closely with these brands and handle all of their brand relationships, purchase from each of them at wholesale. Within this process, styles are chosen, orders are placed in advance and then delivered within the month that they hit the shop floors. The rental platform usually receives new stock every week.

A topic that isn’t often spoken about by brands but often incurs a large area of waste within the fashion industry - particularly in retail, is returns. Unfortunately, many brands do receive returns that have been worn, which is a percentage that only grows when the likes of Klarna and other ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ technology are in place. Particularly within the area of occasion-wear, some brands experience a returns rate of over 50 percent and within that number, 30 percent of those returns are deemed ‘wardrobe’ which is a term used to describe pieces that are worn and then returned. So given those numbers, brands that send out thousands of items a week still have a large number of returned items that cannot be resold, but the question is, what are brands doing with these items? Whilst some retailers have implemented spot cleaning facilities within their warehouses, others will place them straight into their sample sale pile. West states that there are many other solutions retailers can be presented with instead. Hirestreet’s rental services have opened a door to provide retailers with in-house dry-cleaning facilities and therefore are able to take their return stock off their hands for what they would have sold it for at sample sale price and rent it for them.

Hirestreet have already begun conversations with their current retailers and brands on how best they can help and what are the areas of waste, particularly during this time that they are able to minimise. “That’s something we’re massive on. There are always going to be people who want to access this stock, who likely can’t afford to purchase it. So, one aspect is accessibility and the other side is sustainability. Everyone wins here; the brand introduces this sustainable aspect to their production by working with us and we then give access to customers who might have previously considered that brand as ‘out of their price range’.” West envisions Hirestreet as the introducer between the brand and the customer and closes the loop, reducing any waste in stock that already exists. “We’re always looking for anywhere we can make an existing process better.”.

Following the Coronavirus pandemic, the issue of waste has largely increased with many retailers, brands and designers currently being in possession of stock that may never be worn. During the early stages of the virus spread, Hirestreet experienced a large number of cancellations – a panic West more than understood. Plausibly, many brands care about the sales metric and have rushed discounts and sales however, Isabella advises that brands don’t often understand or consider the damage this does to their image. Brands often opt to take the risk now because of the short-term gain and instead overlook the long-term brand damage. “We look at the aftermath of the 2008 Great Recession. That was when discounting culture really began in the UK and to be honest, that was the rise of fast fashion, because people became so addicted to getting pieces cheaper than they were used to. So, the message we are trying to portray to brands is 'look, you don’t need to get rid of that stock for 60 percent off. We can work on it with you’ so the brand can continue to own the stock. We rent it, and power it for them, but they’ll continue to own it.” Essentially, each brand will make money every time their dress is worn by the next 30 people who wear it through Hirestreet and, in the end, they are still able to own the piece.

So, whether they then decide to place it in their sample sale or perhaps donate it charity, the choice will be theirs. “I think the chance for people to be able to take a little bit of a step back and slow down and think about consumption has done wonders for a lot of people’s sustainability objectives.”

West knows what it’s like for designers, especially during this time, that have poured a lot of creativity into their dresses for them to be worn. They spend months, some even years thinking about the pattern, the fit. So, for those pieces to then never be worn, Hirestreet wants to be the solution. “There’s nothing better – it becomes their baby, and the biggest satisfaction is seeing customers in it. So, for us, it’s seeing girls that have tagged our Instagram page, wearing our dresses, having the best time and looking incredible at 100 different events. We will see a couple of people at a wedding, a couple of people graduating and that’s such an amazing thing.” The brands that have a story, who care about making their customers happy and also about where their stock ends up, are the kinds of brands that Hirestreet love to work with. West comments that the brands that feel casual about putting a lot of stock up for discount probably are not as aligned as others are with Hirestreet.

`Fiona Thompson-Shaw; Hirestreet; Isabella West`

Amid lockdown, Hirestreet introduced a ‘Try On’ service which allows customers to try on five items of any value on their website for just £15. Prior to the pandemic, the platform which often operates very close to capacity in terms of demand, did not have the stock base to introduce this service. Ironically, the epidemic provided a great opportunity to do so. “We had 4,000 dresses sitting there, so we began to think ‘how we make use of them’ and that’s why we decided to do the service. It’s been a way to get hundreds of people engaging with the platform again. They’re all getting 5 dresses to try on and they’re hopefully going to book them later in the year once events get going again.” As many retail stores re-opened their doors on the 15th June 2020 across England, it also came with strict return rules where each piece a customer returned would now have to be isolated for a 72-hour period – A method Hirestreet are now experts in. “For us, we used the techniques that stores are using now to clean their garments, for the last 2 years. We have been using full on dry cleaning and o-zone techniques for at least the last year. So, our garments naturally go through a cleaning process anyway.” Many people have questioned whether COVID-19 would be the death of rental due to hygiene reasons however, West ensures that it is quite the opposite commenting “If you buy something from a brand, there’s no guarantee firstly that it’s brand new. It could have been bought, returned and then sent back to you. Whereas if you rent something, you know it’s been through incredibly strict quality control processes. It’s been through an o-zone chamber, it’s been through probably a hot wash – there’s several different routes any garment will take before it's ready to be re-worn and as a rental brand, our whole reputation hinges on things going out incredibly clean. ‘As good as new’ is the term that we use so it’s something we have been doing for ages”. Hirestreet’s warehouse has helped to advise many brands and during this time, a number of retailers, on how to keep things clean and how to approach clothing being tried on in store.

Before partnering with brands, the Hirestreet buying team likes to check supply chain facts and what the brand’s take on sustainability is. “So, it will start with a conversation with our buyer and then we would review a look book and make sure we are super in line. Then we would start to place orders with that brand, and we would do that every season going forward.” West advises that brands can easily connect with them through their contact form on their website. “It’s a really easy process for the right brands.”

The leading online rental platform in the UK ensures it stays as just that – A leader, by knowing everything there is to know about their product, their customers and what they want. When buying, there are several pieces of information that the Hirestreet buying team takes into account. They factor in how many rentals each piece had the previous year, which sizes were the most and least popular, how long those garments lasted – was it 5 wears or 30?; 30 being the usual limit of rentals Hirestreet offers per piece and also if there were any brands that had several issues with fit. Returns and exchanges are ultimately what Hirestreet wants to reduce as much as possible and therefore their buying team spends half their time viewing look-books and the other half looking at data. “We are not looking for the next fashion fad. We’re looking for a garment that will have longevity. We use all the data and avoid all the trends. We look for timelessness. We are looking for a ball dress for the next five years.”

Hirestreet do not currently have plans to open brick-and-mortar retail spaces however, have explored the idea. West believes that Hirestreet has much more control online. “We are already at capacity with demand, and that was an important lesson for me – to stay true to who you are and understand what you’re best at doing. It doesn’t mean that it’s right for you but I’m pleased we didn’t open a store, especially post-COVID,” she laughs.

West is constantly changing her thoughts on what she believes the future of fashion looks like. She laughs as she shares a funny fashion story, she experienced 6-7 months ago. “So, I remember going to a ‘women in tech’ forum and there was a business there - a brilliant business, which was all about projecting clothes onto yourself. So, you just wear black and then using its app, you can basically project onto yourself your favourite pieces and I remember thinking, ‘that is never going to be a thing.’ From a sustainability and affordability perspective, I was on board but from a social side, I had issues because I would hate to think of a world that does not want to go out and meet each other anymore. I was torn but intrigued by it and then fast forward 3 months, and we’re all in the house and I’m thinking ‘imagine if I could virtually put on my outfit for today’.” West would love to see British fashion move increasingly towards where the US currently are; providing consumers with capsule wardrobe staples, and she would also love to see a UK clothing subscription rental service.

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Isabella West

WOTC Magazine