Last Friday’s Evening Standard wrote about Girl Meets Dress as an alternative to buying a brand new wedding dress.  Read the full article below:

“As London’s first second-hand wedding dress shop opens in Fulham, Chloe Street asks, should we always say “I do” in something new?

It’s no secret now that overconsumption and waste in the fashion industry is destroying the planet.

Around £140 million worth of clothing is sent to landfill each year, while the value of unused clothing in wardrobes has been estimated at around £30 billion.

Responding to the crisis, a crop of second-hand clothing sites and dress rental platforms have launched with the intent of reducing consumption and prolonging the lifespan of clothing.

And yet the one item that most women still buy new (typically at significant expense), wear once and hold onto forever? Their wedding dress.

The reasons for this are largely sentimental (who wants to wear someone else’s wedding dress, right?) and also down to the fact that brides on a budget can now find myriad affordable options on the high street.

Yet given we are facing a climate emergency, might it be time to change the narrative around wedding dress ownership? Could there in fact be some magic in foregoing fast fashion options and instead wearing something fabulous and pre-loved on your big day?

Hamish Shephard, founder of leading wedding planning app Bridebook.co.uk, certainly thinks so. He predicts 2020 will be the year of the eco-wedding and expects a surge in brides choosing to rent their wedding dresses.

“We are definitely starting to see more of the 100,000 brides currently using our app around the world searching for wedding dress rental companies. There is a clear appetite, but with so many affordable wedding dresses out there for them too it’s a slow transition,” says Shephard.

“After Princess Eugenie’s plastic-free wedding late last year, we are seeing a lot of couples finding ways to make their wedding more green and renting wedding dresses is just one of the many ways we see traditional habits changing.”

For Anna Bance, founder of dress rental platform Girl Meets Dress, which has had a wedding dress category on the site since it launched back in 2009, weddings are “big business,” with brides, bridesmaids, wedding guests and mothers of both the bride and groom using the service.

“Our millennial customers especially prove an anti-materialism shift, and don’t want to carry the load of owning more things, including their wedding dress,” says Bance. “They want the quality of luxury, but their relatively lower incomes compared to older generations have put luxury goods largely out-of-bounds. So they’ve turned toward rental as well as pre-owned luxury goods to satisfy their need. They also tend to live in urban areas, where space and storage is at a premium.” 

Bance says some brides rent on Girl Meets Dress “because it means they can wear a high end brand that otherwise would be over their budget. Other brides renting for their wedding are already high spenders at Net a Porter or Harvey Nichols, with wardrobes full of expensive clothing. But they use Girl Meets Dress for convenience, for variety and for the sustainability angle.”  

For eco brides that prefer to own not rent their dress, a pre-loved purchase is an excellent option.

Brides do Good is a sustainable wedding dress shop (London’s first) that opened in Fulham last month. It sells new, sample, and pre-loved designer wedding gowns from 61 leading international wedding gown designers, including Vera Wang, Charlie Brear, Caroline Castigliano, Temperley, and Pronovias. The stock is a combination of donations of out of season styles from bridal retailers and designers, and also wedding dresses donated by past brides.

Not only are the gowns, which range from sizes 4-30, significantly more affordable than if you were to buy them new, but Brides do Good also donate 100 per cent of their £30 appointment fees and up to two thirds of sale profits to charity projects which empower young girls, educate communities and strive to end child marriage, so there’s even more to feel good about when buying your dress of dreams.

“Brides do Good is so much more than a wedding boutique. We are a movement that connects women from all over the world, harnessing the power of the bridal industry to create long-term change,” says founder Chantal Khoueiry. “Every dress that is donated, bought or sold takes us one step closer to ending child marriage, by empowering vulnerable young girls and educating communities around the world.”

For some, nothing will compare to saying “I do” in something new, but for those open to something borrowed, there’s an increasingly attractive array of sustainable alternatives.

“Of course there are women who would rather own their wedding dress and keep it forever to pass onto daughters etc. But it is about having greater options,” says Bance. “We want women to rethink how they build a wardrobe around smarter choices.”

This week we were feature in a Euro news about fashion rental.

Read the whole article here or below >

“Want a chic new look for a special occasion but not keen on the environmental impact buying new clothes brings? Perhaps high-end clothes rental services could be the answer. Here, we round up the best services guaranteed to make you dazzle and improve your green credentials.

Fast fashion are dirty words nowadays. Where once we bought new outfits with impunity, today it’s all about buying less and crucially making more considered choices about where and who we buy from.

For those who love a new look, charity shops, vintage stalls and swap meets where fashionistas trade their old threads, offer a swift solution: for a fraction of the price of an off-the-peg outfit, you can support a worthwhile cause by picking up some preloved and potentially one-off pieces. And then there’s the environmental brownie points too; the reduction in waste and resourcefulness that repurposing old items brings.

Preloved and potentially one-off pieces

But that’s not the only way. ”

Not only does it cut down on wardrobe space, it provides the opportunity to try new looks from aspirational brands at a snip of the price of the full-priced product. Already a trend in the US and more and more so in China after social influencer Jiang Chacha fronted rental platform YCloset’s campaign to drive subscriber uptake, hiring clothes offers a refreshed wardrobe in a greener way.

If you want a silk wrap dress for an interview, there’ll be a site for it. A maxi dress for a summer wedding? It can be arranged. And even if you need a new casual look, more and more platforms are branching out into everyday wear.

So before you head to the high street, why not try one of these brands. Here, we look at four of the best brands offering a sustainable fashion fix.

Girl Meets Dress

A relative old-timer on the renting block, Girl Meets Dress was founded a decade ago by former Hermes publicist Anna Bance, who saw a gap in the market for a clothes hire service. Once on the site, take your pick from Victoria Beckham dresses, Alexander McQueen styles and Stella McCartney classics and then choose your subscription package.

Nothing to wear

Founded by Cyrine Allani Joaristi, Nothing to wear is passionate about sustainable fashion. Aghast with the disposable nature of fashion, Cyrine, who used to work for Christian Dior Couture, set up the designer rental service as an alternative to buying an outfit for a one-off occasion never to be worn again.

The result is her hiring service in which chic pieces can be loaned for four or eight days, giving just enough time to be worn and enjoyed at weddings, parties and gatherings.

Look out or Chanel classics, as well as pieces by Miu Miu and Christian Lacroix, as well as a whole host of other designers. You can even rent bridal gowns, as well as the usual evening dresses and bags. And for those with a bulging wardrobe full of outfits that no longer see the light of day, you can have your wardrobe assessed and start earning money loaning out your pieces on the site. The company will then pay the renter a percentage of the price of the outfit every time it is rented out. A win all round.

Front Row

A London-only service, Front Row is as high-end as it gets. Come here for pieces by up-and-coming designers before everyone starts coveting their threads or hunt out timeless looks from established houses including Chanel, Fendi, Jenny Packham and Roland Mouret. As well as picking out a capsule holiday wardrobe, you can also browse trending outfits and rent the site’s most popular items.

MUD Jeans

Finding a perfect pair of jeans can feel like a Herculean task at times but MUD Jeans could just win over eco-conscious fashionistas with their innovative leasing initiative.

Made from virgin organic cotton and the recycled cotton from old jeans, the company rent out their jeans for a one-off €29 fee, plus €7.50 a month for 12 months. Once the year is up, you can decide whether to keep the jeans or to trade them in for a new pair – in which case your previous pair will be repaired or recycled.

Another bonus is that MUD are part of the Fair Wear Foundation which seek to treat garment workers fairly and improve working standards. The company are transparent about their ambition to build on and better the conditions for the people who work on their products and encourage shoppers to learn more about the story behind their denims.”

Words: Keeley Bolger

For those who live in London, Girl Meets Dress offers same day delivery, for all orders placed before 1pm, so its not too late to hire dresses of your dreams!

For all our other UK and European customers, we offer next day delivery for all orders placed before 1pm.

With Girl Meets Dress, you can now rent the runway, as the dresses you see on the Girl Meets Dress website, are always fresh off the front row of the catwalk.

Do you have lots of events to attend each month and want to wear a new designer dress each time? Why not become a Girl Meets Dress member?

Oliver Smith has recently featured an article on Girl Meets Dress about how hiring dress is the greener and better option compared to the traditional buying economy.

Check out the full article on the Memo.