没有女人能抗拒在装修精美的商场里挑选五光十色衣物的诱惑，但是一时冲动买下，待到激情消退，又有多少衣服能避免压箱底的命运呢？
“我们觉得，肯定有好办法解决这个问题，不单单是想办法找到低成本快时尚产品的生产方式，而是通过互联网给女性用户足够多的选择。”Le Tote的创始人Rakesh在筹备之初的想法就是这样的。Le Tote这家网站把买衣服变成了租衣服，用户只需支付每月49美元的会费，就能源源不断的收到新款时尚衣物，而且这些衣物都是没有时间限制的。喜欢，那就一直穿下去，不喜欢，寄回给Le Tote之后你会再收到新的，你需要支付的只有每月49美元的会费。
已经有一堆公司在着手解决女人的衣橱问题了。有些是帮助女人去发现购买新的时尚衣物，再将剩下不穿的放到网络二手市场中出售，比如Material World、Tradesy和Poshmark。还有一些是采用按月订购的方式，定期给用户寄出各种时尚衣物，比如Shoedazzle和Stylemint。Le Tote虽然也才用了按月订购的模式，但其实质要更接近Netflix（在线影片租恁）和Airbnb，你不再“拥有”什么东西，但是却获得了此前难以想象的丰富使用权。
Le Tote上线三个月了，订阅用户已经超过一万名。虽然这一数据并不亮眼，而且这一领域还有如Rent The Runway等已经做的非常大的公司。但是Rakesh称两者的定位是不一样的，Rent The Runway主要做的是高端品牌服装，而Le Tote更偏平民化风格，满足的是18-28岁这个年龄段的女性用户，希望普通人也能以比较低廉的价格享受到时尚消费的快感。
为了保证衣物不至于在租借的过程中损耗过快，Rakesh和他的团队再挑选衣物时会特意挑那些耐磨的面料。那些经过一段时间的流转而不再明艳的衣物也会从周转中抽出，用于季末促销或者捐赠出去。
这段时间里Rakesh表示从用户的行为中学到了不少东西。这些用户在尝试那些之前没有穿过的样式和颜色之后，有很多都愿意继续穿下去。Le Tote也打算在明年推出购买功能，售价从15-100美元不等。
“有些商品真是深受用户喜爱，他们会希望一直穿下去。”Rakesh称，所以，干脆卖给他们吧。
Whatever you may think of fast fashion--that sharp, available, relatively inexpensive class of almost-disposable clothing and accessories--it's tough to avoid its allure in a pinch. But then the thrill fades (if not the garments themselves). And that stuff that got you excited just a few wears ago turns into closet detritus.
“We said, there’s got to be an innovative way to deal with this, not just a low-cost way of manufacturing it offshore, but a way to give women the variety they want,” said Rakesh Tondon when we spoke over the summer. At the time, he and cofounder Brett Northart were prepping to launch Le Tote, which sends its subscribers a personalized tote stocked with an assortment of five apparel items and accessories that can be worn, enjoyed, and exchanged for new ones for $49 a month.
A surge of companies are seeking to satisfy desires for constantly refreshed wardrobes. Many offer new ways for women to discover and buy trendy apparel and accessories and, later, let them unload merchandise in secondhand marketplaces. Think: Material Wrld, Tradesy, and Poshmark. In contrast, Le Tote offers an alternative to actually owning anything outright in the first place.
Instead of giving young, female shoppers yet another way to buy or sell, Northart and Tondon decided to experiment with a subscription solution that’s much closer in spirit to Airbnb and Netflix than it is to, say, Shoedazzle or Stylemint.
“What was really appealing about the rental market is that it’s not so much renting as sharing,” Northart says.
Now three months into a beta release, the Le Tote site counts 10,000 members, a growing subscriber base, and a new fall/winter collection to pack into its totes. At its best, the service offer subscribers the fast fashion fix they want, but at a price that’s easily less per month than what one might spend for the equivalent number of items in a store. And when the romance is gone, whether that’s a few days or a few weeks later, so are the items, shipped for free in their tote back to the company. Another assortment will soon follow.
As for the residual perks, they include less closet clutter and a way to sidestep the social suicide that, clearly, awaits any person who appears either virtually or I.R.L. in an outfit that she's already been seen wearing in pictures on friends’ Facebook pages. Or as Tondon succinctly sums up the plight of today’s style-conscious social media user: “Six other friends that weren’t at that party still saw you in that dress.”
With the sharing economy never more in vogue and secondhand quickly divesting itself of stigma, the idea of paying to wear clothes for a short period of time before returning them to be cleaned and sent off to the next willing wearer is one that could really only gain traction in the here and now. New York-based Rent the Runway stands as the reigning queen of the fashion rental model, but Northart says that his company is different.
“A lot of the rental models that exist today are meant to give access to super-high-end brands that are really expensive. We’re really trying to add variety to your everyday wardrobe without adding to the clutter,” he explains.
Aiming to satisfy its core audience of 18- to 28-year-olds with affection for the sort of style touted by Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie, Le Tote focuses on the kinds of casual tops, statement necklaces, skirts, and dresses that twentysomething shoppers routinely scoop up on quickie shopping missions in preparation for the weekend ahead instead of luxury brands and cocktail-appropriate attire.
To keep quality in check, Northart and Tondon say their team strives to buy durable garments (this is not the place to go for a chiffon top layered in sequins) from its wholesalers at the outset and subjects returned totes to a rigorous inspection process. When items pass their prime, they’re pulled out of the rotation and saved for end-of-season sample sales or donated.
Along the way, Northart and Tondon have learned a few things about their users. They love tops and are likely to embrace clothing and accessories in colors and styles that they’d have never chosen for themselves once they’ve had the chance to try them on. But perhaps the most important thing they’ve learned is that, in fashion at least, sharing is all well and good, until it isn’t.
In response, Le Tote will add an option to buy items in its totes early next year. Prices will range from $15 to $100.
“Subscribers have loved some of the items and they really want to hang on to them,” says Northart.
