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When it comes to clothing, I love to thrift. Between the environmental and economic impact of fast fashion and the fact that I tend to cycle through a lot of clothing, buying gently worn items when I can makes the most sense.
I use to enjoy going to the local thrift store every few weekends to see what they had in store. But since the start of the pandemic, I’ve pretty much exclusively turned to ThredUp for the majority of my thrifting adventures. If you haven’t checked them out yet and enjoy second hand shopping, I highly encourage you pay them a visit. Use this link here and get a free $10 to use on your first purchase with them.
Being one of largest online thrift store, ThredUp offers a large variety of styles and options to browser through. While I personally think that some of their luxury items are overpriced and can be found at a better value elsewhere, great deals can be found with the designer and contemporary brands they consign.
They generally end up having huge stock from brands like Free People, MADEWELL, Lululemon and the such. And many pieces are new with tags. Ultimately, it’s a wonderful place to shop secondhand and way more organized than most traditional thrift shops I frequent.
That’s why I was excited to hear that they recently partnered with Rent The Runway to help them recycle their clothing.
Now, I’ve never personally used RTR before. But I have seen many of their ads on my social media feeds and it did seem like they had some cute stuff. But with membership starting at $69/month and rentals costing $30-$60, the program just never appealed to me.
So when I saw that I could buy some of their designer pieces for a very decent price through a company that I already used and trusted, I decided that I wanted to give it a go.
About REVIVE
Revive is the collaborative project between ThredUp and RTR that has a focus on rethinking our approach to fashion consumption. The previously rented clothing gets new life in a more permeant home while the new owner is getting quality fashion at a fraction of the price. This helps to reduce some of the waste we create as consumers, and we still can look amazing and current.
With these items all being gently used, they are also heavily marked down. At up to 80% off retail price for designer items in great conditions, that ends up being a huge savings for buying secondhand. When comparing the cost to buy RTR’s clothing from REVIVE as supposed to just renting directly from their site, the prices end up being pretty similar. However, I wasn’t mad at that; when shopping with REVIVE, you get to keep the clothing you just spent $60 to wear, and I think that is fair.
My Experience With REVIVE
So I’ve talked up why I think REVIVE is an amazing program in theory. Let go over my actually experience with it.
I placed a bundle order on around 3am on January 22nd for 6 items. Even with it being the early hours of the morning, laying in bed with no tea in hand, the site was easy to navigate. I had zero issues looking through the different pieces they had to offer and they did have a large selection. And as mentioned above, the prices were reasonable too. While I did end up ordering a few other things from ThredUp as well, my total bill ended up being $238 compared to the $1,600 it would have cost me retail. That’s around 85% off.
While the selection was huge and the savings amazing, I do feel like RTR is more tailored to a professional and matronly crowd. Now yes, I am a mother of 3, real estate investor and business owner. But that particular look doesn’t quite fit in with my aesthetic most days. So while REVIVE had a lot to offer, for me, I only really gravitated to a few things.
As for shipping I was a bit disappointed that my order was suppose to shipped in 4 pieces, as I choose the bundle shipment in order to cut back on waste and had to wait an extra 7 days. But they did send me an email immediately about this. My guess is that all the items were at different warehouses. There isn’t too much that can be done about that.
All items actually shipped out on the 29th, with the first package arriving on February 3rd and the 5th (when there were only suppose to be 4) arriving on the 10th. With the snow storm hitting half the country at this time, I consider this to be pretty good for standard shipping. Everything was packaged neatly and with care with limited plastics and mostly recyclable materials.
I waited to open all the packages together on the 12th, and was surprise to find that I had actually been sent a 7th piece that I did not order. I checked to see if I was charged for it, but I was not. I was a beautiful Armani blazer in black. A nice little bank error in my favor I guess.
As for the items that I actually ordered from REVIVE, when they arrived, I feel like it was a mixed bag.
To start with the good, all the pieces came in pretty much immaculate condition. My garments seemed to have been professionally cleaned before going to the warehouse, zippers showed little to no wear on them and buttons firmly attached. They appeared to be no more used that any other piece of clothing you might try on at a department store.
And you can tell these items were made from quality material. While all coming from different fashion houses, You can tell that that these items were made with more expensive materials and made to be staple pieces in your wardrobe. Nothing about this items felt cheap at all.
And even with being pregnant with an ever expanding stomach, the fit of these items was still very nice. It can be hard to shop for things that are well fitting and cut right, especially with a body that is changing. So that too was nice to see.
Perhaps the only thing really wrong with the items that came from the REVIVE collab with ThredUp and RTR is that all the items ran a bit long on me. This wasn’t too bad, seeing that I’m 5’4, but if you are shorter, this could be a bigger issue.
But despite all the wonderful things I have to say about the quality of these items, they still all came out looking a bit too professional for my actually daily needs. And this is way these items were probably up for rent in the first place.
While I did like how everything fit and looked on my body, the majority of things that I thought could match my style, just didn’t in the end.
Ultimately, I feel like this collaborative effort is probably better suited for women who are constantly immersed in an office like setting and that’s just not me.
Just now having gone back to peruse their site again, I am seeing a few more pieces that I think can be beer suited for more casual use. But the vast majority if their items are again, more on the office causal side.
Final Thought on REVIVE
Overall, I think it’s a great program with great value in it. I love that it brings another dimension to sustainable fashion and gives better access to quality clothing for a price many can afford. I do however feel like this program is very much tailored to a specific group of women that I’m not really included in yet.
That’s 100% okay.
While I did only end up keeping a few things from REVIVE for myself, I think any woman who is looking to add a few more expensive, professional pieces to her closet will find what they are looking for here.
But if you are just looking for daily wear items, I would just probably stick with the main ThredUp site. And If you are visiting them for the first time, don’t forget to click here for a FREE $10 to use on your first purchase.
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