The fashion industry is currently at a crossroads. While most brands and influencers preach sustainable fashion, the prices are unrealistic for everyone, leaving them to purchase fast fashion items to keep up with current trends. However, fast fashion has an enormous environmental footprint for both its production and disposal. Clothing production requires a substantial amount of energy and resources, depending on toxic fabric dyes and other chemicals that contaminate fresh water. Fashion produces a tenth of the world's carbon emissions. So, there really is no affordable but environmentally conscious option… but there is: renting. 

In recent years, as the want for special event clothing has risen following the sweatpant-ridden Covid-19 quarantine, the fashion rental business has boomed. Why spend five hundred dollars on a great statement dress for your friend's wedding if you know you will never wear it again? Instead of buying a wrongly made dress of lesser quality and contributing to the climate crisis, why not rent the beautiful dress for less than a hundred dollars for the weekend? That sounds good to me. 

Clothing rental companies such as Rent The Runway have been around for years, but now we are taking fashion rental to the next level. Founded in September 2018 by newlyweds Blake and Wayne Geffen, Vivrelle is a novel membership club that supplies access to a shared closet of beloved designer handbags, jewelry, and diamonds for a monthly membership fee with the ability to borrow items with no return date. Vivrelle members can also purchase items they have fallen for from Vivrelle's closet at exclusive members-only discounted prices. Creating accessibility to luxury items, Vivrelle is expanding the ways in which consumers experience luxury in everyday life.

After an extremely successful few years, Vivrelle is expanding by partnering with the Four Seasons Hotel Houston. Now, hotel guests have complimentary access to Vivrelle’s on-site closet of luxury goods from brands including Chanel, Prada, Dior, and more. Guests can choose and swap out styles from the Hotel’s artistically curated exhibition during any part of their stay. While at the hotel, guests can also sign up for a membership, allowing them to borrow from the entire Vivrelle closet once home.

When speaking on the partnership, Tom Segesta, General Manager of Four Seasons Hotel Houston, says, “Offering our guests access to Vivrelle’s collection of luxury accessories is an exciting and innovative way for us to enhance our guest experience… this partnership further defines Four Seasons Hotel Houston as the place where urban elegance and southern charm collide.” In celebration of this partnership, the Four Seasons hotel is offering the Stay Longer – Third Night Free package, which rewards customers with a complimentary third night with every two consecutive paid nights. 

For the launch of the partnership, Vivirelle hosted a large group of primarily New York-based influencers at the hotel for a weekend trip, where they all created content for the brand, showing off their borrowed bags with their southern-themed, cowboy boot-adorned outfits at the Houston Rodeo. Influencers on the trip included Margo Oshry, Batsheva Haart, Carly Weinstein, Audrey Trullinger, Sophia LaCorte, and more. Through fashionable Instagram posts and trending TikToks with influencer crossovers, the trip did an impeccable job of drawing attention to the partnership and getting it on people’s radars.

Vivrelle and Four Seasons plan to expand the partnership to other locations, the next being Four Seasons Private Residences Los Angeles. This partnership will allow guests to take their outfits to the next level with numerous luxurious accessories. 

Fashion rental could answer the sustainable yet trendy fashion paradox for consumers. However, most rental brands exclusively sell luxury goods. For the fashion rental industry to expand, lower-end companies or membership options must be introduced so that the target audience expands to the average consumer. Can the fashion rental business minimize fast fashion? Only time will tell.