Ganni and Levi’s have teamed up to create a collection of upcycled denim pieces using vintage Levi’s 501s. The rental-only collection includes a button-down shirt and shirtdress featuring Ganni’s signature oversized collar as well as a pair of jeans. Wearers can rent the pieces for one to three weeks through the Ganni Repeat website, with prices starting at $55 for a week-long rental.

The Love Letter collection encourages wearers to connect with those who wore the pieces before them by tapping their smartphones against a patch on the garment to unlock the piece's journey, with deeper stories available on the Ganni website and #GanniGirls on social media. “Think of it as ‘The Sisterhood of the #GanniGirl Traveling Pants',” reads an article about the collection in Vogue. “The idea was to create something worn by many, but owned by none,” says creative director Ditte Reffstrup.

Ganni x Levis fosters sisterhood through sharingGanni (2020)

Clothing rentals have often failed to get off the ground, with 83.7% of UK consumers saying they would be unlikely to rent clothing or accessories, a position further amplified with hygiene concerns in the context of COVID-19. However, the excitement sparked by the Ganni x Levi’s collab shows how changing the narrative around rental can have an impact.

Rental brands like Rent the Runway and By Rotation often focus solely on sustainability without looking to broader values like community. Ganni x Levi’s paves the way for creating rental communities by fostering an idea of sisterhood. To elevate rental lines to luxury standards and build hype around collections, brands would do well to think about how they can revamp existing narratives around the circular economy.

Isabel Evans is a behavioural analyst at Canvas8. Fascinated by how and why people do things, she has an MSc in cognitive and decision sciences from UCL. You can often find her drinking endless coffees, running around Regent’s Park, or delving into a book.