“Across various touchpoints, we create a community that goes beyond renting fashion.”

Clothesfriends lends out sustainable fashion via an app and now also via stationary points of contact. Users can borrow outfits from sustainable partner brands or directly from landlords in the community. At the same time, the Munich start-up, founded in 2020, supports other fashion companies in developing their circular fashion offering.

The founders Carmen Jenny and Sonja Wunderlich explain their business model in an interview and tell how they help fashion companies to make their way into the circular economy.

The idea of ​​rental fashion and a sharing economy has been considered the key to more sustainability in the fashion industry for several years. What is the concept of Clothesfriends?

Carmen Jennie: Clothesfriends is an everyday solution for circular fashion that is as personal as it is versatile. When selecting our partner brands, we focus specifically on brands with a sustainable focus and on an offer that corresponds to the current zeitgeist and trends. While other platforms are particularly geared towards occasional or high-end designer fashion, we see less demand for luxury or designer brands in our community – more for access to sustainable brands and a shopping alternative that offers a change and that Trying out trends in a sustainable, inexpensive way.

Trying things out seems to be important at Clothesfriends.

Sonja Wunderlich: This idea also corresponds to our rent-to-own feature, which sets us apart from other rental platforms in a certain way. Through the feedback from our community, we’ve noticed that when you’re renting, you often fall in love with certain pieces that you’d like to keep. With the rent-to-own feature, we offer the opportunity to buy individual products in the rental and thus enable conscious purchases as opposed to impulse purchases. If you notice after a while that you don’t wear the piece that often anymore, you can use the re-upload function to upload it back to the app with just a few clicks.

They met during their studies and decided to start a business in October 2020. What learnings would you recommend to prospective founders in the fashion industry?

Carmen Jennie: If you are passionate about an idea, a goal or a vision – go for it! From the first second we talked about Clothesfriends, it felt like there was no other topic and a few months later we suddenly founded it. One of the most important learnings for me is the willingness for feedback and the open exchange. In our initial phase, we often had the feeling that the idea wasn’t mature enough or that someone was better at implementing the idea. But the truth is, at least someone in this world will have had your idea – it depends on how and whether you pull it off and which people you can inspire to work on the vision together. Ultimately, success stands and falls with the strength, the complementary skills and the cohesion of the team. Sonja and I complemented each other very well at the beginning, but without our current team, we would never have gotten to where we are with Clothesfriends.

In addition to the app, you have so-called hubs in Munich, Hamburg, Berlin and Nuremberg, where users can borrow, pick up and return new pieces. What role does stationary retail and cooperation play in your business model?

Sonja Wunderlich: In order to establish circular fashion in everyday life, the combination of a digitally and locally linked solution was clear to us. Through the various touchpoints, we create a community that goes beyond renting fashion. The combination of our hubs reflects the values ​​on which we build Clothesfriends: enabling a conscious, sustainable lifestyle at all levels and pulling together. That’s why we really appreciate how our communities complement each other through the cooperation with the various hubs: From the own store of the sustainable knitwear brand Faible & Failure in Hamburg to the vegan pizzeria Doctor Drooly in Munich.

Is there a similar idea behind the cooperation with the concept store Staiy and the bag label Zamt in Berlin?

Carmen Jennie: After all, this motivation is also found in the cooperation with Zamt and Staiy in the concept store in Berlin, whereby our goal as partners was to connect all levels of circular fashion. By combining the complementary approaches, circular fashion is united in a local experience: from sustainable design and fair production by the Berlin brand Zamt, to the tested selection of brands from the Marketplace for Sustainable Fashion Staiy and the extension of the wearing time by renting new or Second hand pieces from Clothesfriends.

Which items of clothing or brands are particularly in demand among users and do fashion trends influence demand?

Carmen Jennie: From white thrift babydoll dresses to recycled cashmere crop tops by Jan ‘n June. We are always amazed at how much we learn from our community and how we can adapt the offer based on their feedback. The current trends and the selection of special pieces have just as much of an influence on this as the positioning of the partner brands. Here we primarily pay attention to the philosophy of a brand and to what extent they pursue sustainable, fair production and the expansion of their strategy for more circularity in the company. Precisely because our users don’t just rent fashion because of the variety, but also strive for conscious consumption, we feel an increasing demand to get to know brands via Clothesfriends and to be able to try them out either collectively via the app or directly from a brand in the online shop. store for hire.

Renting fashion instead of buying new is considered the most sustainable form of consumption. What would you advise fashion brands that want to become part of the circular and sharing economy?

Carmen Jennie: Time is now: Climate change, the current world situation and the circumstances that have changed as a result could not be having a clearer impact on society and the economy. As a young company, we are constantly reminded that crisis situations can be used as opportunities. This potential lies in the circular and sharing economy, especially for fashion brands. The obvious perspective lies in the reduction of CO2 emissions, the saving of waste and the long-term contribution to a circular fashion industry from production to recycling. The second chance is to reach and retain Generation Z early on with a circular offer such as renting.

But it’s not that easy yet…

Carmen Jennie: It’s clear that circular transformation for a brand is complex – and a key challenge is price. According to a Zalando study, just over half of consumers say that sustainability plays a decisive role in their purchasing decisions – when it comes to making a purchase, 35 percent say that they regularly prefer a cheap offer to a sustainable item. This attitude-behaviour gap can be closed with circular fashion offers such as renting.

How do you support your brand partners?

Sonja Wunderlich: Our experience shows that when entering a rental or second-hand model, it is not only the selection of possible partners or service providers that is important, but also communication. At Clothesfriends, we attach great importance to supporting brands in their communication. In principle, however, the first step should be to communicate your position as a fashion brand on circular fashion and to be transparent about the efforts being made or planned within the company.

And what else should brands do besides communication?

Sonja Wunderlich: The next step is to define the right offers and approaches for circular fashion for your company and to determine how these can be supplemented: Starting with production through to distribution and ensuring that the products stay in the cycle for as long as possible be used. Conversely, the best way to exploit the potential is to rely on a combination of different approaches – and since fashion rental also offers a chance. Although renting has not yet reached the masses, it is worth taking on a pioneering role right now, benefiting from the advantages and campaigning holistically for a circular fashion economy.