Okonkwo Prelims

The most notable of these solutions is the provision of the temporary owner-

ship of luxury goods to consumers. This service includes borrowing, exchang-

ing or trading luxury goods between companies and consumers or among

consumers, in order to allow the consumers to maintain fashion trends. Several

independent companies in different parts of the world currently provide such

services. They have applied the same concept that luxury brands have used for

decades when ‘lending’ clothes and accessories to celebrities for special red

carpet events like the American Oscar Awards. The difference is that in this

case, consumers have to pay a fee to ‘borrow’ the goods. The companies that

offer these services have created a platform for one-day borrowing of clothes

and accessories to lending products that can be retained for weeks or months.

The services also extend to style consultancy and advice. Foremost among the

companies offering these services include Seattle-based Bag Borrow or Steal,

which operates a designer bag-rental service for a monthly subscription fee,

and Albright Inc. which specializes in weekly rentals of products from the top

strata of luxury brands. Others are London-based One Night Stand which rents

eveningwear, Paris’ Quidam de Revel which operates an appointment-only

luxury goods rental service, and Australia’s Mila and Eddie (Figure 7.1), which

operates a bag-loaning business based on private membership.

The second solution that luxury consumers have found to throwaway fash-

ion is the purchase of second-hand and vintage luxury goods. Although this

practice has been in existence for several decades, its commercial scope has

expanded. Accordingly, speciality stores have sprung up all over the world to

cater to customers that want authentic fairly-used luxury goods at low prices

that are sometimes up to 80 per cent lower than the original prices. For exam-

ple, several consignment stores on Rue Guisarde at the St Germain des Près

district and others in the Ile Saint Louis district of Paris retail second-hand

luxury products in excellent condition.

Also, websites that retail second-hand but authentic luxury goods have

232

luxury fashion branding

Figure 7.1 Mila and

Eddie provides

designer bag rental

services. This

addresses the

‘throwaway fashion’

attitude of consumers

(August 2006)