Let’s face it, Covid has changed the world. It has been a hard 2 year slog to get through what felt like a never ending cascade of bad news. Who remembers the daily case updates, and changing restrictions? My hand is firmly up and my PTSD is kicking in.
However, it would be amiss to make the assumption that it was all bad, if anything, maybe humanity discovered how to be, well, human again. Fashion is always a teller of the mood of the world, it’s like a doctors prognosis on how we feel about ourselves and each other.
This brings me to the point of this article for Mr Fierze, Australia’s leading suit hire and styling business (shameless plug), and that is that something about Covid has brought people, and in particular men to appreciate hire over purchase when it comes to luxury. The rental market globally has seen a major uptick, with iconic department stores such as Selfridges (shrieks inside - it’s definitely this writers favourite place to shop) launching its Project Earth initiative, which includes its own rental service in collaboration with the platform Hurr, founded by Victoria Prew. In our own neck of the global woods, David Jones now has GlamCorner as a permanent fixture in their flagship Elizabeth Street store in Sydney.
Now, clothing hire businesses have come a long way from their prior reputation of fancy dress, and it is important to understand that we are not just talking about event wear. At Mr. Fierze, the client is a red carpet attendee, a groom, groomsman, a black tie attendee, or executive just heading to an important business engagement. Clients also come in to be styled for the week, in order to have a rotating wardrobe that speaks to the job they want, and the doors in the corporate world that they would like to have opened. In a post-Covid world, it makes sense that access is valued over ownership, and that something new can be a part of your look, without that something new taking up precious space and becoming, easily, something old.
But why else is suit hire in particular a fast growing, and effective method of “owning” a look? Eshita Kabra-Davies, the Founder and CEO of fast growing peer-to-peer clothing hire business By Rotation says that “a lot of people have noticed how small their space is and how much stuff they’ve amassed, and realised they don’t need that much.” This is a sort of Marie-Kondo approach to life – we keep what strikes happiness, discard what doesn’t, and for everything else, there is hire.
Speaking of Marie-Kondo, this new approach to fashion has also had us all re-assessing our relationship to fast fashion and its impact, not only on the environment, but on people. The human cost of clothing production at mass level is huge. We have realised that there is something wrong with the way we are consuming, and acknowledge that it is within our power to be kinder, and one of the ways to do that is to re-look at the way we consume. In doing so, there is an active search to an alternative to fast fashion.
This also leads us to understand that circular nature of hire, as opposed to wear once consumption, is just generally the right thing to do to keep our planet healthy and well. According to Greenpeace, global production of clothing has doubled in the last 15 years alone! Imagine how much of that ends up in landfill?
Beyond it being good for your pocket, good for your soul, and good for the environment, suit hire is just fun. As men, it can be difficult to put together a wardrobe, and as a stylist myself, I cannot stress enough how important it is to dress to impress. Dressing well opens doors, and gets you into conversations you need to be in for progress. Mr Fierze offers that option, without the hefty price tag, or the human and environmental impact.
Need a $5000 Dolce and Gabanna dinner jacket and pants? No problem! You’ve got it for the night for $250. Got an important week of board meetings and need to look fire for every one? Get everyone around you talking by being fully styled up with a weeks wardrobe, to be returned the following Monday. No idea how to put a look together? Book a fitting with us, walk on in and let a Style Consultant do it for you. And all of this, without the hassle of preparing the garment and the dry cleaning bill.
There’s really nothing not to love about this method of access to excellent quality, striking, conversation starting, clothing. Suit hire is bringing sexy back, sustainably, and with kindness.
Written By Faraz Ali.