AMSTERDAM, January 7 – Ikram Cakir palms her a multicolored blue and white shirt and selects an identical garment, this time in sizzling pink. Welcome to Amsterdam’s “trend library”.
Billed as one of many world’s solely bodily hubs for renting new and used garments, the Dutch capital’s “massive closet sharing” is a response to clothes waste and air pollution from the style business.
Promoting
Promoting
Tons of of brightly coloured pants, coats and jumpsuits are sorted by model or type, every with a tag indicating a sale worth or how a lot it prices to hire the merchandise per day.
The every day rental worth varies from about 50 euro cents (US$zero.55) to a few euros, relying on buyer loyalty: how typically they hire garments and the way a lot they borrow.
For Cakir, a 37-year-old NGO marketing campaign director, the idea is “simply good.”
“Quite a lot of garments are purchased after which by no means worn,” he advised AFP.
“It is a nice option to put on new garments with out depleting the planet,” Cakir added.
Globally, the equal of a truckload of clothes is burned or buried in landfills each second, in keeping with the Ellen MacArthur Basis, a charity centered on eliminating waste and air pollution.
The textile business can be a serious polluter, inflicting between two and eight p.c of world carbon emissions, in keeping with the United Nations in 2022.
Within the period of quick trend, the typical individual buys 60 p.c extra garments than 15 years in the past, whereas every merchandise of clothes is stored solely half as lengthy, the UN says.
Trend is accountable for 1 / 4 of the air pollution of the world’s waters and a 3rd of the discharge of microplastics into the oceans, substances poisonous to fish and people.
All this prompted Elisa Jansen to open “LENA, the style library” in a stylish space of central Amsterdam, along with her two sisters and a pal.
“Why did we open in 2014? As a result of the style business is likely one of the most polluting on the planet,” he advised AFP.
‘Strive before you purchase’
The library additionally has a web-based part, in addition to drop-off and pick-up factors in different Dutch cities.
“All the time new garments. Good for the planet. Experiment along with your type. Strive before you purchase,” reads an indication hanging above LENA’s counter and washing machines, summarizing its philosophy.
Jansen’s profession started in classic shops, which is why he says he “has all the time labored in clothes recycling.”
However the classic enterprise didn’t enable him to buy new objects and he discovered the type too homogeneous.
“That is once I got here up with the concept of sharing garments in an enormous closet,” she mentioned.
Prospects register for a payment of €10, permitting them to borrow or buy clothes from the gathering.
There are greater than 6,000 members, however not all are common debtors, Jansen admits.
Their prime precedence is the standard of their clothes, all the time preferring extra sturdy manufacturers.
“You will not discover quick trend right here,” she mentioned, referring to a pattern wherein garments are purchased low cost and thrown away after just some wears.
LENA was “actually one of many first of its form” when it opened 9 years in the past, Jansen mentioned.
Related initiatives have been launched in locations together with Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Scandinavia and Switzerland, though Jansen mentioned Scandinavian shops appeared to have closed since then.
It took a while to discover a worthwhile enterprise mannequin, he admits.
However its location in a modern space now primarily attracts ladies between 25 and 45 years previous “who wish to select sustainable choices but in addition need stunning garments.”
India Donisi, a 35-year-old wine blogger, is the audience.
“It is truly very handy,” he mentioned whereas attempting on what he referred to as an “extravagant” fuchsia-pink jacket.
Donisi commonly rents garments from the library to put on at media occasions, however she lives across the nook and admits she would not go throughout city to borrow an outfit.
Jansen hopes his initiative evokes others.
“I actually imagine that is the long run. Our consumption can’t proceed as it’s,” he mentioned.
“I hope different clothes manufacturers even make it themselves… so that you all the time have the choice to borrow if you happen to do not wish to purchase.” — AFP