Fashion goesZen

If you are the business type, you've surely read about Bag Borrow or Steal, a rental business for handbags, bags, purses, clutches. The idea is similar to Netflix': register, pay a monthly fee of $20 to $100 and order the handbag of your choice. Send it bag and get a new one or keep it as long as you like. Depending on your subscription you can have a basic handbag or the luxury types from Versace, Fendi etc. Actually, the company focuses on designer bags - they are more rigidly built and thus can better survive the daily "abuse" by their changing owners.

Recently, the company also added jewelry to their line of for-rent products, offering brands like Tiffany & Co. or Chanel.

As usual, a good idea as this one from Seattle, can't be out for long without clones popping up all around. In Germany alone two startups are recycling the idea: Luxusbabe and RunAwayBag.  We'll see if this model will be the YouTube of Fashion...

2014 Update

The idea of renting stuff, as a variation on the second hand idea, is still going strong. In Germany, two fashionistas are operating a small shop where you can rent stuff, like from a local library. You pay a monthly fee, and for that, in best Netflix tradition, you are allowed to rent four pieces, dresses, shoes, bags, jumpers, whatever. As soon as you bring an item back, you can rent another/new one. Although the idea is probably not scaling well (according to the Lions of Germany's Lions Den/Shark Tank), the overall appeal of the idea seems to be bio/eco/green/responsible enough to have Google feature it in a print cross-media campaign (www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iCCoTv-EDY). Let's just hope the two dudettes find the time to operate at constant quality, so you won't find old chewing-gum in clothes - as we all remember from the local library. Mhh...