In today's era, fashion trends keep changing every day. Every nanosecond the trend changes and people do spend a lot of money on clothes. Many shoppers live with approach of “one and done” to outfits. For them wear a look a single time and then follow the changing fashion trend. They move on to the next every day. Off course nothing comes like peanuts, either born with a silver spoon in mouth or need to be financially strong.
In order to help middle class people who are fashion lovers but can't follow the trend, the H& M come to the rescue of these people. Some mid-range retailers like H & M have extended help to shoppers who want to look good in selfies and don’t want to spend much money. This will help them to follow fashion with less of money and they don't have to find apace for everything at home.
If we talk about “wardrobing”, the practice is a big and expensive problem. It not only empty your pockets but also contributes to online retailers’ returns rates. To tackle this problem, H&M has come up with a new idea of renting clothes by taking a subscription.
H & M subscribe and rent offer
If you suffering from month end cash crunch and you need to buy clothes, then H & M has come to your rescue as it will now let you actually rent clothes by taking a subscription.
Recently, H & M has started clothes rental initiative in its flagship store - Sergels Torg store opened in Stockholm which will offer its customers clothes on rent. Now the members/our customer who are a aprt of loyalty program, they can possibility take clothes on rent from selected party dresses and skirts options. These clothes will range from fashion era of 2012-2019 conscious exclusive collections. In addition, it will offer its subscribers a few unique pieces designed with inspiration from this fall’s conscious exclusive collection. All clothes are recurring collections at the forefront of H&M’s sustainability work.
It will help to combat the effects of fast fashion and also help middle class people to save money and space. The idea came to H & M due to the retailers who are contributing to climate change with its cheap, mass-made clothing. It included brands Cos, Cheap Monday, Monki, ARKET and Weekday.
Now the alternative option of shop is rental service which will allow customers to take the subscription to rent clothes. The service will be available for 30 days, after which point clothes must be returned or purchased. The amount of items shoppers can borrow is limited to50 curated garments a month and 3 articles at a time. It’s is also currently available to members of H&M’s loyalty programme, at a price of 350 kroner (£29.36) a week. Also the rental space will have stylists who'll treat the members to a personalised experience.
If members want to opt for stylists services, then they have to book a time at the rental space. The stylist will cater to their personalised needs. It will help them in the selection of good clothes on rent for a week. The subscribers will get store services of repair and alteration also.
United Nations report on pollution
As per reports of United Nations, it is found that fashion is the second most polluting industry in the world. Enough water to meet the needs of a million people is used by the fashion industry every year. Fast fashion in particular has been criticised for the exacerbation of unethical and unsustainable clothing production that also encourages consumers to dispose of clothing frequently. This helps contribute to half a million tons of microfibre - equivalent to three million barrels of oil - being dumped in the ocean every year.
The report has made H&M to take the initiative to tackle damaging consumption cycles they’ve contributed too. Similarly, other retailers like Urban Outfitters and Banana Republic both have launched similar rental services earlier this year. H&M has also announced it intends for greenhouse gas emissions produced by the business to be negative - meaning offset more than it produces - by 2040.
As per sources, the following move by H & m and other retailers will help in reduction of the world’s carbon footprint. H&M with their rental service is trying motivate others to be more environmentally conscious.
Daniel Claesson-- the head of H&M's Business Development revealed," We have a huge belief in rental, but we still want to test and learn quite a lot and do tweak changes."
Pascal Brun, Head of Sustainability at H&M said, "We have looked at clothing rental for quite some time and are so happy to for the first time soon offer fashion fans the possibility to rent some stunning pieces from our Conscious Exclusive collections. We look forward to evaluating this as we are dedicated to change the way fashion is made and consumed today.”
He further added,“We are really excited to try out rentals for the first time and inspire our customers to look on fashion in a circular way,” the retailer said in a press release. “Our Conscious Exclusive collections are made from sustainably sourced materials, so we feel they are perfect to kick off this trial with.”
As per sources, recently H&M also announced its plans to ramp up its investment in fashion resale platform Sellpy. It will help company to increase sustainability in its supply chain.