Special occasions call for show stopping outfits, but sometimes the designer brands that we’ve come to love, are not always the friendliest to the bank account. Especially when such big events don’t always come around too often. Renting your wardrobe is the solution to having your very own revolving wardrobe for a fraction of the price.

Throw away the coat hangers, because not only are we saving you money, we’re saving you precious wardrobe space – and best of all, we’re helping save the planet by reducing fashion’s impact too.

DID YOU KNOW THAT THE RETAIL INDUSTRY IS THE SECOND LARGEST POLLUTER IN THE WORLD?

Fashion accounts for around 4% of New Zealand’s waste, and globally, the average woman throws away almost 40kgs of clothing each and every year! To put that into perspective, that’s about one rubbish truck full of clothing being thrown away EVERY SECOND, and around 240 million garments ending up in the world’s landfills.

We’re all a bit guilty of it. 

HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU BOUGHT A GORGEOUS DESIGNER DRESS ONLY TO PULL IT OUT FOR ONE NIGHT AND THEN LEFT IT TO COLLECT DUST IN YOUR CLOSET?

Or you’ve saved up for months to buy the outfit of your dreams, and then have struggled to find enough events to wear it to in order to get your money’s worth? You’re not alone!

Over the past 15 years, the amount of times that people actually wear a single item of clothing in their wardrobe has actually dropped by 36%! We live in a social media age, where the idea of being photographed more than once in the same outfit is becoming less and less appealing to many people, and the want for ‘new’ and ‘on trend’ is ever growing. What’s ‘in’ today, may be ‘out’ tomorrow, and as a result, of the 100 billion items of clothing made each year, 50% of fast fashion pieces are disposed of within the same year.

By renting, you get to rock your own designer style and favourite brands – but once your event is over, you can send it back to us and someone else can then enjoy the same dress. By sharing clothing in this way, this reduces the amount of clothing that needs to be made. It means a dress that would usually only get 1 or 2 wears, can then be worn maybe 50 times by different people, meaning less waste and reducing the environmental impact by 95%.

We all know that designer clothing comes with a heftier price tag. This is largely due to the better quality, the notoriety of the label itself, and because the people that actually sew designer clothes are getting paid a decent wage. 

DID YOU KNOW THAT FAST FASHION & CHAIN STORES WITH CHEAPER CLOTHING ARE OFTEN FULL OF CLOTHES THAT ARE MADE IN SWEATSHOPS OVERSEAS? 

The clothing is cheap because the working conditions in those sweatshops are poor, and some workers are paid less than $20 a month!

By stocking designer brands, we’re supporting businesses with ethical work practices – and even if you don’t generally have the financial income to be able to afford high quality, designer brands – because we’re able to rent our dresses out various times, we can give you the opportunity to rent the same dresses at half the price. This way you don’t have to sacrifice your style and you can still have luxury items – without buying up big on fast fashion and supporting poor working conditions.

Here at The Borrowed Collective, we do our best to be as sustainable as possible, however we do have to factor in transportation emissions. To help neutralise the carbon emissions of your rental, we have introduced carbon offset which you can add to your order for $2. Your contribution helps fund forest restoration, tree planting, and renewable energy projects that help to fight climate change.

We also work hard to keep up with trends, getting new products in throughout the year to give you a fantastic collection of clothing to choose from. We not only stock dresses for every occasion, but we also have jumpsuits and mix n match sets, so you have the freedom to style them how YOU want and to make them your own, giving you your very own revolving wardrobe.

IT’S SUSTAINABLE. IT’S ETHICAL. IT’S AFFORDABLE. AND WE’RE EXCITED FOR YOU TO TRY IT FOR YOURSELF.