RESPONSIBLE fashion While some of the clothes purchased end up in the back of the closet, a start-up offers men the rental of clothing that puts fashion in the spotlight accessible to all, but also helps to limit overconsumption and compulsive purchases
men (illustration). — Kai Pilger Pexels
- In recent years, the French have increased their purchases of clothing, contributing to the increased environmental consequences of textile production.< /li>
- After the second hand, renting clothes is perhaps one of the solutions to stay fashionable while limiting the impact of your purchases.
- It is in this spirit that two Toulousains launched the start-up Menone, which allows you to rent your rather high-end garment for thirty days, and then to return it or extend the rental which can turn into a purchase.
The French buy 60% more clothes than fifteen years ago and keep half of them. less time according to the Ecological Transition Agency, which coordinates the European Week for the Reduction of Waste, devoted this year to textiles. While “fast fashion” has a deleterious social and environmental impact, initiatives are taking the opposite view of this fashion based on overconsumption.
This is the case of the Toulouse start-up Menone, created by two former students of the business school of the Pink City. Laurianne Aune and Maxence Lenoir have decided; to embark on a clothing rental service, rather high-end, dedicated to to men. “A lot of the time, some clothes sit in the back of the closet. There, it’s a way to pool it, to also be able to wear a piece of good quality. if you’t necessarily have the means to buy it or if you’t have a store that sells it at home side from home. And this gives the possibility to limit its impact on the environment”, explain the two entrepreneurs who offer several solutions to their customers.
Laurianne Aune and Maxence Lenoir from the start-up Menone – DR
The latter can rent a jacket, jeans or even an alpaca sweater from trendy brands for a month for an amount equivalent to around 10% of its retail price. If they get tired of the latest fashion shirt that ultimately doesn’t fit. their style, they can send it back after thirty days. It will then be washed by a laundry that respects ecological standards and newly rented. A guarantee of hygiene for those who are fussy about cleanliness.
Being able to buy a piece of clothing in installments
If, on the other hand, they think it suits them , they can continue to rent it from month to month. And after seven months, it will be theirs. A way to pay in seven instalments for a garment that you would not have had the desire or the possibility of buying. to pay in one go.
To be able to test without having to buying a piece of clothing is what attracted Corentin Fuchs, one of the young start-up’s clients. “Five or six years ago, I was buying from anything goes. I had an ecological awareness and it started with me. to bother to put 10 euros in poor quality t-shirts which did not last long. This system allows me to have quality clothes. that I couldn’t have been able to afford all at once,” assures this Strasbourg man.
While a major inexpensive textile brand has just launched into the rental of clothes, the co-founders of Menone hope to answer on their side; to the needs of young urban dwellers; trademark research. To go to the end of the environmental approach, once the clothes can no longer be rented on their site because they are too worn, they enter the second-hand circuit.