Seeing fashion influencer Alexandra Stedman posing in the blue and white Stella Nova dress on Instagram was such a surreal moment. Not because the dress was stunning – even though it was – but because, of all the brands and options I am sure Alexandra had at her disposal, she chose my dress to celebrate her 40th birthday in. As one of her 423,000 followers, and part of over 500,000 users on clothing rental app, By Rotation, that was an incredible feeling.
To date I’ve made around £14,200 from renting my clothes on the app and I don’t plan on stopping any time soon. Fashion has always been a love of mine. Growing up, I felt like the only way I could express myself was through my clothes but as we didn’t have loads of money, I learned to be as creative as I could with what I had.
I used to like to mix up pieces from high end brands like Rixo with items from H&M and Zara. It won’t surprise you to learn, therefore, that by early adulthood, shopping had become my favourite hobby. Trends come and go so quickly though, so I found myself in a cycle of constantly buying from fast fashion sites just to keep up with them.
Of course, the issue with that is that the quality is very rarely there, and so pieces often don’t last long meaning I inevitably spent more. I dread to think how much I have spent on clothes over the years – it’s probably more than I’d like to admit – and looking back, I can now see my shopping habits have always been concerning. For a long time.
