Company internship - A Norwegian fashion rental company

  Blog entry 3/3

Hi everyone, I hope you all are good and having a nice time at your internships still.

For me this has been an incredible journey, where as i have gotten to learn so much about the textile industry in relation to fashion rental...

- Did you know that it takes 2700 liters of water to produce one cotton t-shirt, and that approx. 150 million tons of textiles  are produced every year while 143 million tons ends up on landfills? 

The rental fashion industry provides an alternative solution to the use-and-throw society we live in and we can utilise the garments more, longer and even better if doing so. The fashion rental industry is at its beginning for everyday wear, more so there is an increased interest from consumer to rent or lend fashion items, which I predict will be the future of fashion. I believe that retailers and brands need to understand the benefits and opportunities there are with fashion rentals or even to invest in such circular business models to be able to survive the coming post pandemic world. 

"For example, if the number of times a garment is worn were doubled on average, GHG emissions would be 44% lower." - Ellen Macarthur Foundation (Check on the link at the end of the paper for reference, pp.73)

I have been focusing on observing how the rental company choose to work with suppliers, in this case suppliers are brands and retailers. There is a research phase, a selection phase and communication tooIs are the main observations my report will be about. Since I have been involved in the three mentioned gives me (the researcher) an opportunity to really provide insightful data to this industry, which I will analyse in the report. It is interesting to be a part of that and from my perspective, there is always room for potential for improvements. The norwegian rental business are only interested in unique brands that are small and stand out from the crowd and in some ways work with sustainability. The interesting aspect here is that retailers and brands who is interested in sustainability or to become more sustainable, are more likely to be interested in rental businesses in order to promote that. 

The internship is so much fun, and I have learned more than just having meeting with different nordic brands and retailers, I have learnt that to rent items, buy less, care and repair more indeed will help the environment. How facts are evident and why brands or retailers should invest in rental business.

However, my journey is not ending and i still have the internship until August, but I have been currently writing the report for the field study course and it is a puzzle to make time for everything! 

Hopefully we can meet each other later this year,
Until then - Have a nice summer! 

All the best.

https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/assets/downloads/publications/A-New-Textiles-Economy_Full-Report.pdf