Future Of Retail: By Rotation x Westfields Pop Up
Entering the By Rotation IRL Store, in Westfields White City, was like entering the app itself. The store, perfectly in keeping with the app's green and pink colour scheme, had a warm community feel.
With everyone, from models to shoppers who’d never heard of fashion rental before, excitedly dressing up in dreamy dresses, posing for photos and complementing one another. This completely matched my experiences of By Rotation’s digital world.
If you’re unsure about fashion rental, especially when it comes to sizes or fit, the IRL store is a great opportunity to put those worries to bed.
I tried on a beautiful Superdown dress from Molly Whitehall’s wardrobe, something I’ve been wishlisting for a while. It’s a beautiful, full sequined dress in an ice blue. I worried it might come and not fit me, however the minute I tried it on I felt like a superstar. The community in the shop only made me love the dress further.
Lauren in the Superdown dress from Molly Whitehall’s wardrobe
The store opened on July 1st and announced they would be extending their stay until July 18th. If you have the chance to visit, it’s worth a stop by, and will put you at ease about the relatively new trend of rental.
I caught up with founder of By Rotation, Eshita Kabra-Davies, to talk about the current trends in rental and her experience in the pop up’s opening week.
Lauren with By Rotation founder, Eshita Kabra-Davies.
For anybody who doesn’t know, what is By Rotation and what is the IRL store like?
Eshita: By Rotation is the social network where people can lend and rent designer and contemporary fashion with each other, thereby saving the planet, looking great at the same time, creating friendships and also making money.
In terms of the in-store experience, we’ve got a concept that is very much like hanging out in the By Rotation common room, if By Rotation was a house in Hogwarts. We’ve created this apartment style aesthetic, where our community can hang out, meet each other, rotate with each other here.
We also have quite a few new people who are coming in from the mall, the customers who are asking us ‘What is By Rotation?’ which is really great for brand awareness.
It really is a great way to get our message out there to the mainstream audience, to the people who are shopping fast fashion in the mall and really make them understand that sharing, renting – rotating is an alternative.
“It’s been really great to get all those relationships in 3D.”
And you’ve been open for a week now, how has the past week been?
Eshita: Yeah, we’ve been open since the 1st of July. It’s been really intense but in a good way.
We’ve met so much of our digital community, all these people we became friends with over the last year and half during lockdown, we’ve finally got to meet them in person. We’ve become instant friends, even in real life. It’s been really great to get all those relationships in 3D.
It’s been amazing to run a lot of community events, despite covid restrictions, we’ve been able to run a lot of cool and different events. There was a quiz night, a community night. We have flower crown workshops and we’ll be doing a styling workshop tonight and a table scaping workshop this weekend.
I wanted to ask about the community, because you have the By Rotation Circle, and what was it like getting that group together for the first time in person?
Eshita: It was amazing. Not everyone was able to come, and we had a couple of people who came the day before and that was still very sweet. All of them coming together and realising, we’re like really good friends. There was that instant comradery, which I’m really proud about. It was really special.
At the community event, one of the things we noticed was a lot of women saying, “I’ve seen you on the app. I love your style. I’ve seen that jacket, I was thinking about renting it but I wasn’t sure if it was my size, but I think it could fit me actually.”
Equally for me, there was this white Chanel l bag which I’ve noticed on the app and the woman, who is a super rotator, she was here with the bag. I was like “Can I try it on, just for a photo? See if I’d like to rent it in future?” It was great. There was just great energy.
“We’re just going back to normal life and it shows fashion rental is here to stay. ”
I think that’s what By Rotation digitally exudes but to replicate that in real life, it just shows what an authentic community, brand and start up that we are. Fashion is personal. It goes beyond rotate, return, don’t care. It’s really about getting to know people.
Since lockdown has started to lift and having the store, what have you noticed as the trends in renting?
Eshita: To be honest, across the board, I think anyone would agree rental volumes have just exploded. It's gone beyond any projection we had. It’s really great but it means as a team we need to grow and learn faster, cause we are still very lean.
In terms of what has been popular, there’s been a lot of wedding guest rentals. Long dresses, colourful dresses, more statement, out there. Loud pieces instead of classic dresses.
I would say handbag rental is back on, which is interesting because I’m not really a big handbag carrier myself, any more, but actually people want it to complete an outfit.
That whole roaring twenties thing, where people want to dress up, rent an entire outfit – heels, bag, dress, that is happening which is really cool. it comes from social activities happening again. We’re just going back to normal life and it shows fashion rental is here to stay.
Is there anything you’ve seen since the IRL store and meeting rotators, that you’ve thought ‘That’s the piece I didn’t know I wanted”?
Eshita: I think I saw one of our ambassadors, she came with these beautiful lilac Manolo Blahnik heels. I had never seen the Manolos in this dusky lilac colour and I was like, “what shoe size are you?” She’s not my shoe size, which is a shame.
She also had a beautiful Bottega Veneta bag in a peachy, salmon pink. It was a very cute, very special piece, something that I would be up for renting as long as someone invites me somewhere.
Has there been a favourite event you’ve run over the past week?
Eshita: Our quiz night was really fun, and the Community event was really special. We had our super rotators, the people who had been with us since day one. People have seen us grow and they’ve wanted to come along with us on the journey.
Also because a lot of my really close friends, outside my By Rotation life came to support. They were like this is your vision having a physical space. It was really nice to have those two communities, my friends from outside this world and the community we’ve built, come together.
“Start chatting to people on the app to understand and make yourself feel comfortable.”
And what would you say to someone who’s thinking about renting, or hasn’t rented before? What should they do and how can they start?
Eshita: Firstly download the free app, create a profile, start chatting to people on the app to understand and make yourself feel comfortable.
Another thing, the prices on the app are ridiculous at times. There’s like £15 for a weekend rental, £5 a day. Try and dabble into one of those if you’re a bit unsure, so it wouldn’t hurt you so much if it didn’t work out.
I think really messaging people, following people on the app is a great way to start and get planning your mood boards really.
Written by Lauren Waugh
Instagram: @_LifeofLKW
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