I wear a 2x in most brands (or around a 20W / mid fat). I've been thinking a lot about the "divest from Anthropologie" conversation. It certainly doesn't negate all of the unethical things that Anthropologie/URBN do, but it's truly one of the few companies that is doing interesting, mid-price plus size clothes IMO. Their number of plus size items is expanding from season to season rather than shrinking (looking at you Madewell and Athleta) and they are making the same styles in plus and straight sizes, not "special" options for plus. I also shop ethical, small, independent brands, and while I have several high-quality pieces I love, they don't have the range of styles that Anthro offers. Even size inclusive brands like Universal Standard don't have the colors, prints, etc. that I can find at Anthro. Some of the e-commerce fast fashion plus size companies have Anthro-esque colors and prints, but in much lower quality garments (which feels like a worse choice to me).
The way I've decided to navigate my personal choice around this is as follows: Because of my size, the clothing industry, capitalism, etc., I have fewer options available to me to shop than folks who wear smaller sizes (though admittedly more options than folks who wear larger sizes than I). I am avoiding Anthro for things I can get elsewhere from more ethical sources - candles and home goods, for instance. But for now I am continuing to shop their plus size clothing when other alternatives in similar styles/quality levels aren't available to me. I'm still thinking about whether this smacks of "but I like it, so I don't want to quit it" whining/privilege, but the bottom line is that I think straight size folks can can lead the way on divesting from Anthropologie and have access to a massive range of stylish clothing from a huge number of other sources.
Yes, I definitely hear and co-sign this perspective. It parallels the conversation around Amazon and how folks in rural areas/disabled folks/etc/etc can't always opt out. Divesting is a privilege and we have to name that, even while encouraging everyone to think creatively about what level of divestment is doable and sustainable for them.
That's very much how I feel, too. My options are already more limited than straight size folks, exponentially so, so saying "never again from X brand" is tough, especially since I grew up as a fat teen in the 80s when every option I had was at completely different stores/brands than my straight sized friends. I do love all the dedicated plus size brands that have come into existence since I was a teen/ young adult, and I'm happy to support them. But I still recall how nice it felt to be on a video call at work and to get a side chat from a straight sized coworker asking if I was wearing an Athleta top, which she also had and loved. Even though I was over 50 it was one of those fashion solidarity moments that I NEVER had when I was younger and craved them!
I find the offerings of so many ethical brands either don’t cover my size or don’t offer the colors and prints I find appealing. Or both. I find myself aiming to minimize consumption of the lowest quality fast fashion and am always seeking out secondhand options and new-to-me brands.
Just want to remind everyone about the Nuuly THRIFT SHOP! I'm in my early 50's, work in a school, and started doing Nuuly in January after realizing that's how all the young teachers with low clothing budgets dress adorably. I stumbled across the thrift shop on their website, but I find that most of my fellow Nuuly peeps don't know about this feature. I use it for staples I know I want to own - I've bought tops and dresses from $15-$30. There is a 5-item per month limit, you buy it right away (no returns), and it ships with your next box. One month I rented a blouse I absolutely adored, and my price to buy it was like $98, but I found it in the thrift store for $25. Nuuly has really scratched the itch for shopping for me, and I'm definitely spending less on clothes each month!
Yes and I want to note that Nuuly recently added a “rent instead” button to items in the thrift shop, so you can try it out as one of your 6 items before committing to a no-return purchase. In my experience, the buy prices for these during your rental have been the same as the thrift shop price!
I ended up cancelling it because I was so frustrated as a plus size person paying the same amount as a straight size person. My straight size wife had 1000s to choose from in each category and I would maybe 100 items in each category (and maybe 6 I actually would wear). I liked it for the same reason you did - fun extras, great bachelorette outfit I would never wear again, good for events in general! But ultimately I felt ripped off for the day-to-day items.
I agree with much of the pro-con content, but I think it’s worth pointing out that Nuuly is owned by URBN, the same parent company that owns Anthro, free people, urban outfitters. So while yes it’s true that renting the Anthro clothes through Nuuly is supporting Anthro, so is renting *any* of the clothes.
Yep. Another commenter alerted me to this earlier this morning. Feel VERY dumb I didn’t check into that and yes, def means this is less harm reduction than I hoped!!
(I still think for me personally, it’s compulsive shopping harm reduction. But it’s NOT “divest from evil billionaires” harm reduction.)
I find nuuly super helpful for ‘spicing up my wardrobe’ — adding patterns, colors, and prints that I wouldn’t want to buy forever because they’re distinctive and therefore would not necessarily wear on repeat. Also great for learning how different brands fit and trying new cuts (barrel jeans anyone?).
FWIW, Nuuly is owned by URBN which also owns Anthro, Free People, Urban Outfitters, etc. so not sure that it feels like divesting from those brands to me. I also have to keep a taxonomy of brand evilness in my head and Anthro/URBN are toward the middle.
AGHHH I did not know they were owned by URBN. Well fuck, then this isn’t harm reduction at all! (And also explains the Anthro domination of their plus sizes!) 🤦🏻♀️
Would love to know your personal taxonomy of brand evilness if you are up for sharing it. I do something similar these days when everyday it seems like there is a new company that is doing something that doesn't align with my values, but it's hard to keep track.
Thank you for this. I've tried clothing rental and or style box type things before (like remember Gwynnie Bee? I was on that the year it came out) and I always wind up canceling them because they are about Fashion, CURRENT Fashion, and I am very much not 😂 So I appreciate the confirmation that Nuuly is not for me!
I've tried Nuuly twice and both times I cancelled it within a few hours because I couldn't find 6 things I liked in my size. It seems like most of the available mid-sized to plus options are very casual, and I just don't need to rent casual clothes. I wear casual items so much it makes more sense just to buy them. I want to rent statement items and they just don't have enough available.
I’ve been doing nuuly for maybe 6 months (started when you first mentioned it as a sneak peek) and I’m a XL straight sized person, and I find that fully 75% of the items don’t fit or are worn out and don’t ever get worn by me in a month. So obviously I should stop soon lol, but the hope is always there that *this month* everything will look on me like it does on the model.
I did do a last run through of the thrift options, which will come with my next bag. So I’ve got at least one more month in me.
Pro: I’ve discovered a couple new brands that I’ll keep purchasing from directly maybe? Or looking out for in thrift.
Yikes, I didn't know Anthro was such a slimy company. I've been off them for a little while mainly because the customer service is so terrible, but this calls out another reason to avoid them.
I feel like I never have any idea what to wear. I'll buy jeans that I'm convinced are perfect, then I'll wear them for a month, catch my reflection in the mirror, and wonder what I was thinking. Anthro was my go-to for cute, colorful, offbeat clothes (especially tops), but they aren't really that cute anymore. I guess Nordstrom has many of the same brands but the selection seems more limited.
I follow a few influencers whose style I like on LTK (and you on ShopMy!) to see what they're wearing. It helps, but nothing is as helpful as shopping in person. The issue there is that so many of the stores in malls or shopping centers carry the same sort of stuff, so it's tough to find unique pieces.
That was an interesting point made by another commenter about the Nuuly thrift shop. I might check that out.
I love Nuuly for vacations or special events. I love the idea of buying new clothes for a vacation but don’t want the cost, returns, or random items I end up with. Nuuly is the perfect fix- bright Farm Rio dress for the beach? Yes. In my closet? Not needed for my WFH, mom life. I also love that you can buy secondhand from them.
This is exactly what I do! I’ll do one box for a vacation or a work trip and then I pause or cancel because I just don’t need 6 new things a month for my life. Plus the last box I tried out, only 1 of the dresses worked out for me and only with fashion tape securing it in place. This is after reading all the reviews so I don’t know what was happening there. If I lived in a colder climate I would be trying out all those fun coats though!
This, I think, is going to be my Nuuly strategy going forward -- pause it unless I have a specific use for it. I agree with what others have said that otherwise getting six random items every month just keeps you in a shopping mindset (and I know for myself that is...often unhelpful).
Omg, thank you for writing about this. I started Nuuly in December and have many of the same feelings as you. I learned about it from a thinner friend and was very hesitant (I’m a tweener, at the high end of straight sizes/low end of plus sizes). So far, I have liked it but not loved it. There is at least one item each time that I can’t wear, and while one of my main reasons for signing up was to shop less, I have bought one item from almost every haul I’ve had. Another reason I don’t particularly love it is that I find it overwhelming to go through their inventory to select things for my closet/box. I’m a completionist who has to see all options available to me before a I make a decision. And sometime the sheer number of things they have is paralysis-inducing. I use the filters to make the numbers smaller, but it is sometimes a bit much and takes the “fun” out of the shopping process.
I have been waffling about trying Nuuly, and now I am still waffling??? I did do RTR for a bit, but my main problem was that whoever they use for dry cleaning uses such powerful stuff that the smell irritated me (like actually because I am a very allergic person, but also emotionally because why did it need to be so strong?). BUT this isn't the point. The point is that the Bennet button down is a main feature of my wardrobe. I have it in so many colors and stripeways. I also have it in good old white and classic blue. It just looks so polished and also feels casual at the same time. Love that you've discovered it.
The clothes are really cute but I just can’t get behind paying $100/mo to not own clothes. And then paying more money if I want to own used clothes from the same people I’m already paying $100 to every month. Do they offer rentals without membership like (I think) Rent the Runway does?
Hmm good question. It’s not really a membership — you can skip a month anytime and not get charged. Well I guess it is a membership because you will get charged if you don’t remember to go into your account and pause. But there’s no specific membership fee and you can def cancel whenever? Haven’t done Rent the Runway (last time I looked they had zero plus sizes) so can’t compare!
Ahaha yes it’s not not a membership. I am answering comments before the coffee has kicked in! I just meant, there’s no additional membership fee.
I will say — I think it’s worth examining the idea that we don’t want to pay $100 to not own clothes. I had the same initial reaction. But clothes are not an investment. Why do we have a need to own them? So much of what we buy only has a few months of usefulness in it anyway thanks to fast fashion, crappy retail practices and the way bodies change. It’s been good for me personally to reframe that — I can enjoy the fun and beauty of an outfit without needing to have it be MINE. (There is maybe another essay about consumerism in here!)
I would argue that clothes are an investment. At least they are for me. I wear certain outfits to project a certain image in certain situations. The right outfit is the difference between someone thinking I’m qualified for my job or not or the difference between being perceived as belonging to the space I’m in or not. Clothing may not be the same as a mutual fund in terms of an investment but it’s far from toilet paper.
The clothing I buy I tend to wear and rewear for several years and I take my time choosing items to add to my wardrobe. I have the privilege of not having to have dealt with many size fluctuations in my life so my clothes tend to fit me for longer. In that light $100 not to own clothes seems a waste of $100 for me. I can see where it would work for someone figuring out their sense of style or how to dress a body that has recently changed but these subscription clothing/make up/undies companies just seem to want us to shop more not less.
To be clear: I'm not saying clothes aren't important. (I'd also never say toilet paper isn't important!) They are essential and projecting the right image is a necessary strategy for employment, safety -- all sorts of things.
When I say they aren't an investment, I mean it literally. Most items of clothing will not increase in monetary value (unless we're talking about super rare designer pieces) or get better with age. Retail clothing, especially, tends to be cheaply made and wear out quickly. Renting those kinds of pieces instead of owning them saves me closet space and money, making it MORE accessible to have the outfit I need to project the right image at a work event or be perceived as belonging to the space I'm in.
While I'd love to only ever buy very high quality clothes I can rewear for years on end—that's just not available to me as someone who wears plus sizes and experiences regular body size fluctuations. So I guess another way of framing this is: It's a privilege to be able to treat clothing as an investment and more fully opt out of consumerism in that way. Which doesn't mean it's not worth doing! Just that there are a lot of different ways to make clothes work for us.
I was actually thinking more about the body fluctuation issue since it’s not something that I experience all that often. I have fast fashion pieces that are 5+ years old that I still wear and look just fine. If I lived with the fact that in a year or two all or most of the clothes I wear regularly weren’t going to fit or at least not fit as well then I probably would pay money not to own clothes. Or at least to own fewer clothes since there’s no reason to own something that isn’t going to last.
Shelling out for a new wardrobe every 1-2 years looks and feels different than having to do so every 5-10 years. And if you’re someone who likes to play with trends, a subscription like this can make even more sense. Thank you for helping me see the other side of the issue. I don’t think I’m likely to pay a monthly fee to not own clothes that I love but I can see more clearly why someone might.
Okay I hope this does not come across as tone policing at all and it's truly just related to the title of this piece, but I worry about asking if a cooperation can be harm reduction. Of course a questions are valid but I don't want to co-opt this movement that was started by low income BIack queer people during the AID epidemic. I love this definition of harm reduction by mariame kaba, "Harm reduction is a philosophy and set of empowerment-based practices that teach us how to accompany each other as we transform the root causes of harm in our lives.
We put our values into action using real-life strategies to reduce the negative health, legal, and social consequences that result from criminalized and stigmatized life experiences such as drug use, sex, the sex trade / sex work, surviving intimate partner violence, self-injury, eating disorders, and any other survival strategies deemed morally or socially unacceptable.
Liberatory Harm Reductionists support each other and our communities without judgment, stigma, or coercion, and we do not force others to change. We envision a world without racism, capitalism, patriarchy, misogyny, ableism, transphobia, policing, surveillance, and other systems of violence. Liberatory Harm Reduction is true self-determination and total body autonomy.."
Completely valid! I did use the term casually, without properly considering this context. I was actually thinking about it in terms of my own compulsive/problematic relationship with shopping — can renting vs buying help reduce some of my overconsumption and tendency to use shopping as a (not always healthy) coping strategy. But you’re right I framed it as if Nuuly, the company, could be harm reduction. Which, no! A better headline might have been “Can Renting Clothes Be Harm Reduction?”
I had so much hope for Nuuly — I tried it last year hoping it would help me cure the shoppies and avoid buying things I didn’t need — but I’m so picky and hate wearing color, and wasn’t really interested in renting basics or casual clothes, so it ended up having very, very few options that checked all my boxes. I got one box of six items and wore one (very itchy!) dress one time, then canceled. I still love the idea but Nuuly wasn’t it for me.
(I also tried Armoire but the clothing all felt like it was from a TJ Maxx in 2012!)
I wondering about RTR, but I’m also just getting better at shopping my closet, which is definitely a win.
I wear a 2x in most brands (or around a 20W / mid fat). I've been thinking a lot about the "divest from Anthropologie" conversation. It certainly doesn't negate all of the unethical things that Anthropologie/URBN do, but it's truly one of the few companies that is doing interesting, mid-price plus size clothes IMO. Their number of plus size items is expanding from season to season rather than shrinking (looking at you Madewell and Athleta) and they are making the same styles in plus and straight sizes, not "special" options for plus. I also shop ethical, small, independent brands, and while I have several high-quality pieces I love, they don't have the range of styles that Anthro offers. Even size inclusive brands like Universal Standard don't have the colors, prints, etc. that I can find at Anthro. Some of the e-commerce fast fashion plus size companies have Anthro-esque colors and prints, but in much lower quality garments (which feels like a worse choice to me).
The way I've decided to navigate my personal choice around this is as follows: Because of my size, the clothing industry, capitalism, etc., I have fewer options available to me to shop than folks who wear smaller sizes (though admittedly more options than folks who wear larger sizes than I). I am avoiding Anthro for things I can get elsewhere from more ethical sources - candles and home goods, for instance. But for now I am continuing to shop their plus size clothing when other alternatives in similar styles/quality levels aren't available to me. I'm still thinking about whether this smacks of "but I like it, so I don't want to quit it" whining/privilege, but the bottom line is that I think straight size folks can can lead the way on divesting from Anthropologie and have access to a massive range of stylish clothing from a huge number of other sources.
Yes, I definitely hear and co-sign this perspective. It parallels the conversation around Amazon and how folks in rural areas/disabled folks/etc/etc can't always opt out. Divesting is a privilege and we have to name that, even while encouraging everyone to think creatively about what level of divestment is doable and sustainable for them.
That's very much how I feel, too. My options are already more limited than straight size folks, exponentially so, so saying "never again from X brand" is tough, especially since I grew up as a fat teen in the 80s when every option I had was at completely different stores/brands than my straight sized friends. I do love all the dedicated plus size brands that have come into existence since I was a teen/ young adult, and I'm happy to support them. But I still recall how nice it felt to be on a video call at work and to get a side chat from a straight sized coworker asking if I was wearing an Athleta top, which she also had and loved. Even though I was over 50 it was one of those fashion solidarity moments that I NEVER had when I was younger and craved them!
Those moments are so powerful!
I don’t think that sounds like whining. I think that sounds like being practical.
I find the offerings of so many ethical brands either don’t cover my size or don’t offer the colors and prints I find appealing. Or both. I find myself aiming to minimize consumption of the lowest quality fast fashion and am always seeking out secondhand options and new-to-me brands.
Such a good point.
More than anything, this has inspired me to look for that anthro button-down on secondhand websites.
YES. That is the best take away!
I've done that with several Nuuly items I like. I found them even cheaper on Poshmark second hand, once I know they fit and I like the item.
Just want to remind everyone about the Nuuly THRIFT SHOP! I'm in my early 50's, work in a school, and started doing Nuuly in January after realizing that's how all the young teachers with low clothing budgets dress adorably. I stumbled across the thrift shop on their website, but I find that most of my fellow Nuuly peeps don't know about this feature. I use it for staples I know I want to own - I've bought tops and dresses from $15-$30. There is a 5-item per month limit, you buy it right away (no returns), and it ships with your next box. One month I rented a blouse I absolutely adored, and my price to buy it was like $98, but I found it in the thrift store for $25. Nuuly has really scratched the itch for shopping for me, and I'm definitely spending less on clothes each month!
OMG thank you for explaining this!!
Yes and I want to note that Nuuly recently added a “rent instead” button to items in the thrift shop, so you can try it out as one of your 6 items before committing to a no-return purchase. In my experience, the buy prices for these during your rental have been the same as the thrift shop price!
That’s super interesting
I ended up cancelling it because I was so frustrated as a plus size person paying the same amount as a straight size person. My straight size wife had 1000s to choose from in each category and I would maybe 100 items in each category (and maybe 6 I actually would wear). I liked it for the same reason you did - fun extras, great bachelorette outfit I would never wear again, good for events in general! But ultimately I felt ripped off for the day-to-day items.
Such a good point!
That is a giant downside!
I agree with much of the pro-con content, but I think it’s worth pointing out that Nuuly is owned by URBN, the same parent company that owns Anthro, free people, urban outfitters. So while yes it’s true that renting the Anthro clothes through Nuuly is supporting Anthro, so is renting *any* of the clothes.
Yep. Another commenter alerted me to this earlier this morning. Feel VERY dumb I didn’t check into that and yes, def means this is less harm reduction than I hoped!!
(I still think for me personally, it’s compulsive shopping harm reduction. But it’s NOT “divest from evil billionaires” harm reduction.)
my bad, I thought I checked all the comments to make sure no one else had pointed it out yet :)
I find nuuly super helpful for ‘spicing up my wardrobe’ — adding patterns, colors, and prints that I wouldn’t want to buy forever because they’re distinctive and therefore would not necessarily wear on repeat. Also great for learning how different brands fit and trying new cuts (barrel jeans anyone?).
FWIW, Nuuly is owned by URBN which also owns Anthro, Free People, Urban Outfitters, etc. so not sure that it feels like divesting from those brands to me. I also have to keep a taxonomy of brand evilness in my head and Anthro/URBN are toward the middle.
AGHHH I did not know they were owned by URBN. Well fuck, then this isn’t harm reduction at all! (And also explains the Anthro domination of their plus sizes!) 🤦🏻♀️
Would love to know your personal taxonomy of brand evilness if you are up for sharing it. I do something similar these days when everyday it seems like there is a new company that is doing something that doesn't align with my values, but it's hard to keep track.
Thank you for this. I've tried clothing rental and or style box type things before (like remember Gwynnie Bee? I was on that the year it came out) and I always wind up canceling them because they are about Fashion, CURRENT Fashion, and I am very much not 😂 So I appreciate the confirmation that Nuuly is not for me!
Glad to help!!
I've tried Nuuly twice and both times I cancelled it within a few hours because I couldn't find 6 things I liked in my size. It seems like most of the available mid-sized to plus options are very casual, and I just don't need to rent casual clothes. I wear casual items so much it makes more sense just to buy them. I want to rent statement items and they just don't have enough available.
I’ve been doing nuuly for maybe 6 months (started when you first mentioned it as a sneak peek) and I’m a XL straight sized person, and I find that fully 75% of the items don’t fit or are worn out and don’t ever get worn by me in a month. So obviously I should stop soon lol, but the hope is always there that *this month* everything will look on me like it does on the model.
I did do a last run through of the thrift options, which will come with my next bag. So I’ve got at least one more month in me.
Pro: I’ve discovered a couple new brands that I’ll keep purchasing from directly maybe? Or looking out for in thrift.
Yikes, I didn't know Anthro was such a slimy company. I've been off them for a little while mainly because the customer service is so terrible, but this calls out another reason to avoid them.
I feel like I never have any idea what to wear. I'll buy jeans that I'm convinced are perfect, then I'll wear them for a month, catch my reflection in the mirror, and wonder what I was thinking. Anthro was my go-to for cute, colorful, offbeat clothes (especially tops), but they aren't really that cute anymore. I guess Nordstrom has many of the same brands but the selection seems more limited.
I follow a few influencers whose style I like on LTK (and you on ShopMy!) to see what they're wearing. It helps, but nothing is as helpful as shopping in person. The issue there is that so many of the stores in malls or shopping centers carry the same sort of stuff, so it's tough to find unique pieces.
That was an interesting point made by another commenter about the Nuuly thrift shop. I might check that out.
I love Nuuly for vacations or special events. I love the idea of buying new clothes for a vacation but don’t want the cost, returns, or random items I end up with. Nuuly is the perfect fix- bright Farm Rio dress for the beach? Yes. In my closet? Not needed for my WFH, mom life. I also love that you can buy secondhand from them.
This is exactly what I do! I’ll do one box for a vacation or a work trip and then I pause or cancel because I just don’t need 6 new things a month for my life. Plus the last box I tried out, only 1 of the dresses worked out for me and only with fashion tape securing it in place. This is after reading all the reviews so I don’t know what was happening there. If I lived in a colder climate I would be trying out all those fun coats though!
This, I think, is going to be my Nuuly strategy going forward -- pause it unless I have a specific use for it. I agree with what others have said that otherwise getting six random items every month just keeps you in a shopping mindset (and I know for myself that is...often unhelpful).
Omg, thank you for writing about this. I started Nuuly in December and have many of the same feelings as you. I learned about it from a thinner friend and was very hesitant (I’m a tweener, at the high end of straight sizes/low end of plus sizes). So far, I have liked it but not loved it. There is at least one item each time that I can’t wear, and while one of my main reasons for signing up was to shop less, I have bought one item from almost every haul I’ve had. Another reason I don’t particularly love it is that I find it overwhelming to go through their inventory to select things for my closet/box. I’m a completionist who has to see all options available to me before a I make a decision. And sometime the sheer number of things they have is paralysis-inducing. I use the filters to make the numbers smaller, but it is sometimes a bit much and takes the “fun” out of the shopping process.
I have been waffling about trying Nuuly, and now I am still waffling??? I did do RTR for a bit, but my main problem was that whoever they use for dry cleaning uses such powerful stuff that the smell irritated me (like actually because I am a very allergic person, but also emotionally because why did it need to be so strong?). BUT this isn't the point. The point is that the Bennet button down is a main feature of my wardrobe. I have it in so many colors and stripeways. I also have it in good old white and classic blue. It just looks so polished and also feels casual at the same time. Love that you've discovered it.
It is SUCH a good shirt!!
The clothes are really cute but I just can’t get behind paying $100/mo to not own clothes. And then paying more money if I want to own used clothes from the same people I’m already paying $100 to every month. Do they offer rentals without membership like (I think) Rent the Runway does?
Hmm good question. It’s not really a membership — you can skip a month anytime and not get charged. Well I guess it is a membership because you will get charged if you don’t remember to go into your account and pause. But there’s no specific membership fee and you can def cancel whenever? Haven’t done Rent the Runway (last time I looked they had zero plus sizes) so can’t compare!
That sounds an awful lot like a membership.
Ahaha yes it’s not not a membership. I am answering comments before the coffee has kicked in! I just meant, there’s no additional membership fee.
I will say — I think it’s worth examining the idea that we don’t want to pay $100 to not own clothes. I had the same initial reaction. But clothes are not an investment. Why do we have a need to own them? So much of what we buy only has a few months of usefulness in it anyway thanks to fast fashion, crappy retail practices and the way bodies change. It’s been good for me personally to reframe that — I can enjoy the fun and beauty of an outfit without needing to have it be MINE. (There is maybe another essay about consumerism in here!)
I would argue that clothes are an investment. At least they are for me. I wear certain outfits to project a certain image in certain situations. The right outfit is the difference between someone thinking I’m qualified for my job or not or the difference between being perceived as belonging to the space I’m in or not. Clothing may not be the same as a mutual fund in terms of an investment but it’s far from toilet paper.
The clothing I buy I tend to wear and rewear for several years and I take my time choosing items to add to my wardrobe. I have the privilege of not having to have dealt with many size fluctuations in my life so my clothes tend to fit me for longer. In that light $100 not to own clothes seems a waste of $100 for me. I can see where it would work for someone figuring out their sense of style or how to dress a body that has recently changed but these subscription clothing/make up/undies companies just seem to want us to shop more not less.
To be clear: I'm not saying clothes aren't important. (I'd also never say toilet paper isn't important!) They are essential and projecting the right image is a necessary strategy for employment, safety -- all sorts of things.
When I say they aren't an investment, I mean it literally. Most items of clothing will not increase in monetary value (unless we're talking about super rare designer pieces) or get better with age. Retail clothing, especially, tends to be cheaply made and wear out quickly. Renting those kinds of pieces instead of owning them saves me closet space and money, making it MORE accessible to have the outfit I need to project the right image at a work event or be perceived as belonging to the space I'm in.
While I'd love to only ever buy very high quality clothes I can rewear for years on end—that's just not available to me as someone who wears plus sizes and experiences regular body size fluctuations. So I guess another way of framing this is: It's a privilege to be able to treat clothing as an investment and more fully opt out of consumerism in that way. Which doesn't mean it's not worth doing! Just that there are a lot of different ways to make clothes work for us.
I was actually thinking more about the body fluctuation issue since it’s not something that I experience all that often. I have fast fashion pieces that are 5+ years old that I still wear and look just fine. If I lived with the fact that in a year or two all or most of the clothes I wear regularly weren’t going to fit or at least not fit as well then I probably would pay money not to own clothes. Or at least to own fewer clothes since there’s no reason to own something that isn’t going to last.
Shelling out for a new wardrobe every 1-2 years looks and feels different than having to do so every 5-10 years. And if you’re someone who likes to play with trends, a subscription like this can make even more sense. Thank you for helping me see the other side of the issue. I don’t think I’m likely to pay a monthly fee to not own clothes that I love but I can see more clearly why someone might.
Okay I hope this does not come across as tone policing at all and it's truly just related to the title of this piece, but I worry about asking if a cooperation can be harm reduction. Of course a questions are valid but I don't want to co-opt this movement that was started by low income BIack queer people during the AID epidemic. I love this definition of harm reduction by mariame kaba, "Harm reduction is a philosophy and set of empowerment-based practices that teach us how to accompany each other as we transform the root causes of harm in our lives.
We put our values into action using real-life strategies to reduce the negative health, legal, and social consequences that result from criminalized and stigmatized life experiences such as drug use, sex, the sex trade / sex work, surviving intimate partner violence, self-injury, eating disorders, and any other survival strategies deemed morally or socially unacceptable.
Liberatory Harm Reductionists support each other and our communities without judgment, stigma, or coercion, and we do not force others to change. We envision a world without racism, capitalism, patriarchy, misogyny, ableism, transphobia, policing, surveillance, and other systems of violence. Liberatory Harm Reduction is true self-determination and total body autonomy.."
Completely valid! I did use the term casually, without properly considering this context. I was actually thinking about it in terms of my own compulsive/problematic relationship with shopping — can renting vs buying help reduce some of my overconsumption and tendency to use shopping as a (not always healthy) coping strategy. But you’re right I framed it as if Nuuly, the company, could be harm reduction. Which, no! A better headline might have been “Can Renting Clothes Be Harm Reduction?”
I had so much hope for Nuuly — I tried it last year hoping it would help me cure the shoppies and avoid buying things I didn’t need — but I’m so picky and hate wearing color, and wasn’t really interested in renting basics or casual clothes, so it ended up having very, very few options that checked all my boxes. I got one box of six items and wore one (very itchy!) dress one time, then canceled. I still love the idea but Nuuly wasn’t it for me.
(I also tried Armoire but the clothing all felt like it was from a TJ Maxx in 2012!)
I wondering about RTR, but I’m also just getting better at shopping my closet, which is definitely a win.