Tell us a bit about your background & what inspired you to start a rental business?
So I am Bliss, I don’t often show my face around social or online as I’m busy head down in the nitty gritty getting stuff done, generally that’s my go to mode… Maybe it will change one day! Before starting or collective I was head of buying at COS, a role & company that really shaped my skillset & ignited my passion for product, details & the construction of garments through work with so many talented people. After having my daughter Bay, life totally flipped around & I learnt how totally insane the world of baby-and kids clothes is: the high volume of waste & how easy it is to reach for lower priced, lower quality products - because reaching for high quality again & again as they grow so fast gets expensive! It was enough to make me take the jump, start a trial & I quickly saw how this would take off so extremely scarily took the jump to leave a safe salary and put everything in to make this work.
"Something about having a baby made me feel both extremely vulnerable and extremely brave at the same time!"
Tell us about the name or collective...
'or' stands for on rotation, I loved that the acronym ‘or’ is also a synonym standing for an alternative way to shop.
The ‘collective’ part is a nod to how we are building the business, the community we are building and the incredible partnerships we have in place to build the business into a reality.
What has been your proudest moment so far since starting the business?
There have been so many moments… I don’t feel I have come up for air to celebrate enough but I have such a fierce belief in what or is offering that keeps me powering through!
I always get that giddy feeling every time I talk to a mum that uses the service, always so generous with compliments and passionate about the service -- you can spot the super stylish little ones a mile off! That feeling never gets boring and always makes me feel super proud of what we have built, it's why I started it in the first place!
More recently we also won 2 awards, Marie Claire sustainability award for children’s fashion and Junior magazine Gold award for circular business. We were up against fierce competition and have only been trading a year so couldn’t be more proud to have achieved that!
How does renting with or work for those that don’t know?
You pay a monthly fee to be a member - the fee is based on how big you want your little ones rental wardrobe to be. Once you’re in, you pick your items from our big selection of the coolest cult kidswear brands and you are free to change the items up whenever you like. In simple terms : Rent. Wear. Rotate.
"or is all about the fun and dopamine of shopping new, with none of the financial guilt or sustainable concerns."
How have you worked to make the whole business more sustainable & have you faced any challenges here?
There is always more that can be done and we are striving for the best so when we started we turned over every stone, not everything has been possible (yet!) but our non negotiables are:
All our brands have a sustainability mission and produce high quality goods that can stand the test of time.
We waste nothing… Not one item goes to landfill, we donate, resell or recycle after its rental life. We even collect any plastic packaging that comes our way to melt into (soon to come) gift cards!
We use low to zero net impact washing, using ozone technology. This was a big piece of work for us, to find the balance between impact & quality with no compromise at all on hygiene or cleanliness but we got there, and our process surpasses NHS-grade disinfection!
Delivery has been our biggest challenge, starting local I delivered all rotations myself! We now partner with Zedify who can deliver locally with no carbon footprint on cargo bikes & are working hard to expand this service to be able to offer nationwide zero emission deliveries.
This is a brilliant & disruptive model for the children’s clothing market. How do you think the fashion industry can change in the short term to become more sustainable?
I strongly believe that caring about quality and longevity can have the biggest effect. Overproduction is one of the biggest yet under-spoken about problems in the industry but the one that we, as consumers can have an impact on by consuming less, especially less low quality – short lifespan products.
"Production has doubled & we wear items on average 36% fewer times so if we start to think about 'cost per use' & buy fewer higher quality items, a big difference can be made."
Or is a real testing ground for this, we get to see the true lifespan of a quality product over different families and we have some brands that far exceed expectations on how long a product can last. BINI products are such a perfect example of something to invest in, treasure & then hand down - they last literally forever! We still use my daughters BINI snuggler 3 years down the line for all sorts (Frankie the whippet is a big fan of the snuggler too!).
You can join in the rental movement at www.orcollective.co.uk & follow them on Instagram @or_collective. Click here to rent BINIBAMBA!