Loanhood

Loanhood hosts a number of pop-ups, swap shops, rental studios, and workshops / Source: Loanhood

EuropeTextiles

6 MINUTE READ

Jennifer Hahn

WHAT WE SAY:

Loanhood offers a radical new "bottom-up" approach to fashion rental. It puts power in the hands of everyday consumers and emerging designers across the UK, providing them with a platform to rent out their clothes and borrow from others.

Although the app is only in its early stages – and postage and packaging still pose problems – the company offers a case study for how social and environmental benefits can coincide to create systems-level change.

KEY FACTS:

Described by founders as a "cross between Airbnb and Depop", Loanhood is an app that allows users to rent out their wardrobes and borrow clothes from others. The hope is to create a circular sharing economy, where clothes are continually reused rather than discarded.
In the app, borrowers can request to rent an item for up to seven days, paying around 10% to 20% of the original retail price. Once the loaner accepts the request, Loanhood encourages users to meet up in person to exchange the piece, saving money and emissions. Alternatively, good old home delivery is also an option.
The marketplace was founded by model Jade McSorely, graphic designer Jen Charon, and model booker Lucy Hall, who wanted to develop an alternative to toxic fast fashion practices that still allowed users to have fun and experiment with clothes. "We need solutions that don’t just tell people to stop consuming, but give them alternative methods to consume fashion in a more sustainable way," Hall told Bricks Magazine.
Among the users loaning out clothes are not just everyday fashion lovers, but also a huge roster of emerging designers and independent brands from beyond the London bubble, who the founders recruit via Instagram. This gives young designers a way to monetise and market their work, while making their unique, one-off pieces accessible for everyday people.
In this way, the platform hopes to take a systemic approach to sustainability that doesn't just reduce waste but also uplifts the communities it serves. "Instead of putting our money in the hands of billionaires at the top of conglomerates, why not put our money into communities, into small brands, into our friends in different cities, and actually lift people up," Hall told Dazed.
The app launched in July 2022, with more than 80 emerging designers joining in the first few months. By November 2022, the platform had grown by 103%.

The app offers garments at a fraction of the retail price / Source: Loanhood

Loanhood is looking to drive positive change through customer-facing events / Source: Loanhood

DIVE DEEPER:

Today, the fashion industry produces twice as many clothes as it did in the early 2000s. Meanwhile, the number of times each of these garments is worn has steadily decreased, with some discarded after just seven to ten uses. Almost none of this clothing waste is recycled or reused – roughly 87% of all the textiles used to make clothing end up incinerated or in landfill.
Rental platforms such as Rent the Runway have been around since 2009, aiming to make expensive occasionwear and designer pieces more attainable for everyday consumers. Since then, huge household names from Selfridges to Ganni have launched their own platforms, with the UK fashion rental market alone now valued at GBP 142 million (USD 186 million) and set to grow by 164% come 2026.
Brands are now increasingly exploring rental as a way to reduce their impact. But anecdotal evidence suggests that consumer adoption has so far been slow. "It's harder to make the behaviour [change]," Ganni CEO Andrea Baldo told Vogue Business. "So the customers need to be continuously retold about rental. That's why all rental [platforms] are moving into subscription-based [models] because that's the only way they can have a stable cash flow. Otherwise, it's very hard to make it scale."
Loanhood stands slightly apart from many existing platforms in that it doesn't have a centralised "store" from which items are rented. Instead, the company provides a marketplace for others to rent out their clothes, providing a far broader range – from vintage finds to niche brands – at a lower price point, and appealing to a younger Gen Z audience as a result. The platform is also focused on being gender-inclusive, providing an option for items to be listed as "ungendered".
The company's approach to behaviour change is focused on community engagement, so the app is designed more like a social network than an online shop. Users can comment, message, and follow loaners whose style they admire, as well as wishlist their favourite items. "We know that to get people to change behaviour, we have to make it fun and appealing," Hall said.
Loanhood is also working to forge IRL communities by hosting clothes swaps in collaboration with councils; universities from Glasgow to Liverpool; and, most recently, department store Selfridges. "As we grow, we’re building hyper-local communities," Hall said. "We’re working with universities that have the campus as a central location where you can pick up and drop off [rented garments]. It reduces carbon emissions and keeps the price down because of postage."
When in-person swaps aren't an option, Loanhood encourages the use of recycled and repurposed packaging. "Let’s reuse whatever we’ve got," the founders told ASBO. "It doesn’t have to be beautiful, it just has to get there." However, the success of this strategy is hard to judge.
The platform has received Ethy accreditation for its "responsible resource usage" and support of "thriving communities". "The brand is also using its business as a force for good in the community through a contract with Hackney Council to host clothes swaps, which are free events for people to circulate their clothes," it said.
To ensure rented items can remain in circulation for as long as possible, loaners can select preferences in the app for how their clothes should be cared for. Loanhood also hosts workshops on how to mend garments and offers rental protection of up to GBP 50 (USD 64). "We would love to have insurance to cover everything, but this is a new concept, and insurance companies don’t move as quickly as we’d like them to," Hall told Bricks. "We’re in talks with lots of other people in the sharing economy to get this implemented so we can cover items."
Beyond introducing emerging designers to everyday consumers, Loanhood also brings them to the attention of established stylists by displaying their work in dedicated clothes rails at its PR agency Rich London. "We can create these opportunities for our community of designers that wouldn’t have the money to pay for a PR agency in London or have celebrity stylists and top fashion media see their work."
In the future, Loanhood is hoping to expand into resale and "become a one-stop shop for the circular fashion economy".

"Loanhood ... is creating an income for up-and-coming designers who normally would only have their stuff loaned for free by stylists."

Ethan Leyland – Liverpool-based fashion designer

Key Design Considerations:

Cut out the junk (mail)

If rental is adopted at scale, constantly shipping clothes back-and-forth would ultimately result in an outsized environmental impact. How can you integrate the use of alternative, plastic-free packaging and low-carbon delivery into the rental process?

Hassle-free renting

Fear of the hassle involved in renting and returning clothes could stand in the way of fashion rental becoming mainstream. Are subscriptions the way forward? Or are there other ways you could improve the user experience to ensure everything works quickly and seamlessly - without sacrificing sustainability?