Wardrobe Rentals: A Study of the Fashion Industry under Sharing Economy

This paper explores the two dimensions of demand and supply of production and consumption in the fashion leasing industry, adopted the method of multiple case study, field investigation, and interview. Drawing on analysis of both demand and supply, we identified the gap between two sides, then proposed a new conceptual model of co-creation, in which combine the traditional retail business clothing model and wardrobe rentals business model to contribute the problem solving of both the demand and supply sides. Moreover, we optimize the rental platform to improve the recycling of clothing with the proposed co-creation mechanism. We argue that empower consumers to participate in the production and consumption on the new platform model, would the inspire consumers to be more creative from constraints in the traditional retail model of purchase and consumption, nor to abandon and deny changes in fashion, but to deeper changes in fashion and to achieve long-term sustainable development through the co-creation of wardrobe rentals platform.