SYDNEY — A new study due to be published Monday by Australian peer-to-peer fashion rental platform The Volte indicates that renting garments may reduce the environmental impact per wear of those pieces while expanding access to luxury fashion without requiring ownership.
According to “How Australian women bought less but had more,” the first major Australian academic study to assess the environmental and social impacts of peer-to-peer fashion rental, which was led by University of Technology Sydney researchers at the Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Fashion & Textiles, the climate change impact reduction of a rented-versus-owned garment ranges from 44 percent to 78 percent, depending on the rental frequency of the garment.
Using life cycle assessment methodology, which is based on ISO 14040 and 14044 standards, the study examined clothing from 908 renters from The Volte’s community of 300,000 monthly active users, who rent from almost 15,000 Australian lenders. They include more than 270 “Super Lenders” — those with six or more orders in the last 60 days, who earn from 50,000 to 200,000 Australian dollars, or $32,937 to $131,746 at current exchange, a year. Rental prices range from 50 to 3,500 Australian dollars, or $33 to $2,306, depending the value of the garment. The most expensive garment stocked at time of writing was a 28,000 Australian dollar, or $18,444, wedding dress. Users are primarily women ages 20 to 40.
“This research confirms what industry innovators have long believed — rental is no longer niche. It’s essential,” said Bernadette Olivier, cofounder and chief executive officer of The Volte, in a statement. “If we’re serious about reducing fashion’s environmental footprint, increasing clothing utilization through rental must be front and center of the solution.”
Added associate professor Timo Rissanen, lead researcher at UTS, “If consumers shift from ownership to access, we can drastically cut production, waste and emissions across the supply chain.”
Founded in 2017 by Olivier, Genevieve Hohnen, and former Harper’s Bazaar Australia editor in chief Kellie Hush, The Volte claims to be not just Australia’s largest circular wardrobe provider, but the world’s largest peer-to-peer fashion rental platform. Specializing in occasion wear, it hosts more than 70,000 designer pieces. In June, the company made its first international foray, expanding into the U.K.
According to Seamless, Australia’s national clothing product stewardship scheme, Australians are among the world’s highest consumers of clothing, with the average person buying 53 garments each year.
Launched in July 2024, Seamless aims by July 2027 to divert 120,000 of the current 200,000 tonnes of clothing that currently goes to Australian landfills every year by promoting an array of circular business models, such as rental.
There are now 56 Seamless members, which include retailers such as David Jones, R.M. Williams, BigW and The Iconic, and more than 120 organizations as supporters.