Renting a handful of luxury
High-priced bags go into clutches of many
Meghan Doyle attracts a lot of attention walking around campus with an authentic Louis Vuitton Papillon bag. The 19-year-old freshman at Wheaton College acknowledges that this caliber of handbag, which retails for more than $500, is not exactly a wardrobe staple for the average college student.
Doyle also turned heads last month with a Chanel purse. ''People are always coming up to me and commenting on the bags, asking me if they're real," she said.
Yes, they're real, Doyle tells them. They're also rented. Doyle recently exchanged her Chanel bag for a new Louis Vuitton through a designer handbag club she joined last year.
In the age of new luxury where some people would forgo a month's rent for the new Chloe Paddington bag, retail analysts say there is a burgeoning group of middle-class Americans who are indulging a yen for high-end fashion with small compromises; they pair H&M with Hermes, wear their Tiffany bracelets to Target, and rent their designer handbags. Companies such as Bag Borrow or Steal and From Bags to Riches are catering to fashionistas who lack the disposable income to satisfy their cravings for Coach satchels and Chanel clutches, but for whom carrying a cheaper knockoff is blasphemy.
Services to rent luxury automobiles and designer wedding dresses already exist, and analysts predict more such companies may sprout up if interest in high-end products continues.
Bag Borrow or Steal is an online company that works like a
Doyle and her mother split a Diva Deluxe membership, which allows customers to rent two bags at once. ''I usually order a new bag each month. My mom tends to hold on to hers a little longer," she said.
Instead of charging a membership fee, From Bags to Riches, another online company, allows customers to rent handbags on a weekly or monthly basis. The bags are divided into collections like Madison Avenue, which features designers such as Cole Haan, Coach, and Dooney & Bourke, and Monaco Runway, which includes Dior, Fendi, and Dolce & Gabbana. The rentals range from $19.90 to $72.90 a month and vary by collection. From Bags to Riches also offers an option to buy the bag, with a percentage of each rental going toward the final cost.
Both companies require customers to maintain the bag's original condition but do clean and shine the items again before renting them back out. The companies also allow customers to purchase insurance to cover the cost of damaged bags, but the insurance does not cover theft. Once bags are retired, the companies relegate them to a bargain bin, where members and customers can buy them at a hefty discount.
While renting handbags is a relatively new concept, Maura McGreevy, 21, used to scour the Internet wondering if such a service existed. A junior at Boston University, McGreevy stumbled across Bag Borrow or Steal last year and has been a member ever since.
She said the company introduced her to new designers such as Tano and Baby Phat, which she said she probably wouldn't have discovered on her own. Also, renting solves a familiar quandary for handbag junkies like McGreevy, who after plunking down a month's rent on a handbag, tire of it after one season.
''When the season or your whim changes, you can send it back," she said, but admits sometimes having trouble ''letting go." ''My last bag was a Cole Haan, and I was completely obsessed with it."
And it's this kind of obsession that fuels designer handbag clubs and other luxury rental companies, according to Michael Silverstein, senior vice president of the Boston Consulting Group and coauthor of ''Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods." The book focuses on mass market consumers ''who selectively trade up to better products and trade down to pay for other premium purchases."
For instance, some consumers often trade down for certain items, such as buying their grocery staples at
According to Silverstein's book, the new luxury market will continue to grow at a rate of 15 percent per year, reaching $1 trillion by the end of the decade. A November 2004 survey by the Boston Consulting Group of 2,100 adults with household incomes of $50,000 or more shows that the vast majority of people ''pay a little more" or ''pay as much as I can" in at least five categories, including cars, homes, appliances, and dining out.
''Handbags are definitely a 'trading up' category," Silverstein said. ''Coach has driven to $1.4 billion in revenues and a market value above $10 billion based on the phenomenon."
Handbags are also a ''neutral" category, where compliments are easy to garner while an article of clothing, for instance, may not be as noticeable, he said.
According to Silverstein, the average luxury-bag consumer buys more than four designer bags a year, paying about $200 to $300 per bag. ''She keeps them for more than five years. On a per usage basis, that's less than a $1 per day per bag. That's hard to beat with a rental," he said.
Nonetheless, some rental companies are attracting such customers in throngs, according to Michael Smith, the CEO of Bag Borrow or Steal. ''We're creating an entirely new market. We're granting access to designers that many people would not have had access to before," he said. While some people may purchase a $300 Coach bag on their own, Smith said many may not be in the financial situation to purchase others from Chanel, Louis Vuitton, or Chloe -- that can cost upwards of $1,000.
''Most of our customers already own a number of designer bags but use our company as a means of accessing a larger variety of them," said Kara Richter, the founder of From Bags to Riches. Richter said her average customer is between 26 and 35 years old with an annual income between $50,000 and $75,000. ''Many cannot afford to purchase more than one designer bag a year," she said.
Beth Simpson, 39, who lives on the North Shore, received her subscription to Bag Borrow or Steal as an anniversary gift from her husband. She has since retired her ''beaten up black Coach bag" and said she has been enjoying ''that new purse feeling" on a regular basis.
Simpson said this service affords her the liberty to be a little more experimental, whereas budget constraints usually dictate she be more neutral when buying a designer handbag.
''I borrowed a pastel Coach demi bag that was super cute and perfect for over the summer," she said. ''But it was not something I could've justified purchasing if I was only going to wear it for a month or two."
Christina Leahy, 31, of Dedham, said without the rentals she'd never have been able to afford an authentic Coach bag, and noted that even fake ones can cost more than $100.
''I've had a few fakes but you feel so much prouder walking around with a real one," said Leahy, who purchased a patchwork Coach bag from Bag Borrow or Steal and is now renting a smaller version of the same bag from From Bags to Riches.
''I love this bag. I love it," she said.
