Wear clothes once, then take them back?

[Massiveroastdinner]

Does anyone do this?

I remember doing this a lot as a teen, so I’d have lots of different outfits to go out in, but couldn’t afford. It was either from the catalogue or from shops.

Haven’t done it since, but was reading about how many fashion influencers on Instagram etc do

[quote Massiveroastdinner]@SmellyTheSmeolaSmoteSmestika Yes, it definitely wasn’t a good thing to do, we all did it and looking back it’s awful.[/quote]
We didn’t all do it. It’s dishonest and gross. Don’t pin us ‘all’ in that category.

Influencers don't leave the house in them though often, they do their little bedroom/mirror photoshoots and videos and then return. Which really is no different to trying stuff on and then returning. From a sanitary point of view this ok

HOWEVER it drives us demand for fast fashion which is obviously horrendous and I'm totally against 'haul' type videos for this reason

I've never done this - though I think friends have suggested I do - I wouldn't.

My SIL who has a very strong moral compass about a year or two ago I went to her house and she'd bought a dress to wear to a wedding and planned to return it afterwards. I told her it wasn't right to do that so I hope she didn't do it.

I did have a friend who was a Legal Executive and I think she did this a few times in Debenhams quoting sale of goods etc act at them, in her 20's, I didn't think this was honest and told her so.

Not sure if I've had this in deliveries but must have done.

@thisplaceisweird

Influencers don't leave the house in them though often, they do their little bedroom/mirror photoshoots and videos and then return. Which really is no different to trying stuff on and then returning. From a sanitary point of view this ok

HOWEVER it drives us demand for fast fashion which is obviously horrendous and I'm totally against 'haul' type videos for this reason

I've seen a lot of influencers in a bar/street location wearing the clothes and being filmed for this. It depends how much they sweat/wear it etc.

You have no idea if influencers wear items out.

I've got a friend with late teen DD who does a bit of influencing but she swaps clothes with her friends and sells on Vinted/Depop etc after wearing them which she also wears them 'out out'.

I have worked in retail for 20+ years and still get surprised at what people think is acceptable to return - things with make-up/food/period stains/pet hair etc and are very defensive if you refuse the return.
We had one customer who always seemed to return an expensive garment due to some "fault"/problem/sob story, the third time I noticed she was trying to return something ~£1000 I flagged it with loss prevention.
We also have ppl returning things claiming that it's the first time they've worn or washed it and a fault has appeared. Most recently someone returned something she was appalled with the quality- on further investigation it turned out she bought it more than 9 years ago🤣. We refused the refund but she was adamant she would send it to Head office!

@NotSure1542

I’m going to go against the general census and say I’ve done it . I was very broke, just graduated and had my dream job interview. I was so bad with my finances and put myself into an overdraft because I didn’t have an outfit to wear to the interview. I wanted to keep the outfit for future interviews but couldn’t afford to! I made sure I showered, wore no perfume before wearing it and made sure it was in the condition I bought it in. It’s not something I am proud to admit but I was desperate. I did get the job though and haven’t done it again.

Was there no one you could borrow an interview outfit from? That's what me and my friends (and employment agencies suggested) did - lent or borrowed smart work suits for interviews.

of course not... so someone gets to buy your dirty sweated in clothing (because you can't be washing it if the tags are on).

How selfish, cheap and nasty.

I know tonnes of people who buy clothes wear them once then sell them on as 'almost new' but they remove tags, wash them and sell them on things like eBay/Facebook... they are deceiving anyone.

Frankly, I think clothing is made to be worn more than once and its massively wasteful, vain and consumerist to have that mindset though... yes sometimes you may need to sell things (no longer fit or get worn) but you should be buying loads of close to dispose of after 1 use.

• they are NOT decieving anyone

No way, I absolutely would not send worn stuff back and getting something that's been worn before is clearly disgusting. Clothing stores are not rental services and while it's okay to rent an outfit from a said service for a specific occasion or a photo shoot (after all it's easier to recolor a dress via some Photoworks than draw a completely different one), it's never okay to do the same to a store. However, I remember magazines like Elle Girl stating this is normal and even encouraging their young readers to do so

@Lovemusic33

Never done it, seems wrong. If you can’t afford it then don’t buy it. There are places that hire out clothing now, I know several people that have done this so they can wear something expensive on a night out.

Theres always been places that hire clothing, it was more common in the past.

My mam hired her wedding dress which was fairly normal back then, I don't know anyone now that would hire a wedding dress though.

I’ve done it once, years ago. I never stopped to think of the wider implications.

These days I’ve plenty of unworn clothes that still have tags on, which are most likely never going to be worn and are of course never going to be returned because they’re way past the return window. I need to find time to organise and get rid of them. Maybe this is how karma has got me

Yep, that tantamount to theft.

No I have never done this and think that whoever does this is a stingy lowlife.

Pinkgorrilaz

Proper influences (not wannabes) get sent the packages by the company specifically for the publicity which is different, the company trades the clothes for the advertising and sometimes pays them too.

People saw real influences doing that and then adopted the fake it till you make it rubbish though.

Skanky thing to do

Thanks, OP - another excellent reason for me never to look at ‘influencers’, fashion or otherwise.

Not that I really needed one.

@bendmeoverbackwards I asked whether it could be marked as a faulty return so that no other poor sod had to receive it. I explained to her that it stunk and was unwearable. She did tag it as faulty and double bagged it.
Whether or not it went back into circulation I don't know, but I've sent things back to Next as faulty before and then received the exact same item back when I re-ordered despite me telling them that it was either wrongly tagged damaged and watching them mark it as such.

I did once with a suit for a wedding when I was in my early 20s and a very poor student. Felt very bad and have never done it since.

It's infuriating, never occured to me to do it.

a) unsustainable - a lot of returned clothes go to landfill IIRC
b) a massive PITA in shops when you go there to buy something and there's a queue of people returning piles and piles of clothes because either they're wearing once and returning (or else have just bought half a shop bc they can't be arsed to try it on there)

Not quite the same but have picked up an item to try on in a shop and there’s been makeup all over the neckline.

I can beat that bridal one. DH and I were in H&M one time and he picked up a pair of men’s shorts to try on. He got to the changing rooms before discovering that they were full of diarrhoea and weren’t even H&M branded! Someone had clearly had the shits, grabbed a pair of shorts, gone to the changing rooms and then calmly hung up their shorts ready for an unsuspecting shopper (DH) to pick up 🤮 🤮

It’s grim and skanky.

I had a colleague who proudly told us she had bought something, worn it for a date but kept the label on, then taken it back for a refund. As we stood there with a shocked look on our faces she happily told us she wore and returned stuff regularly.

The 3 of us stood there and told her what we thought of her and said how disgusting it was because we don’t want to part with our hard earned cash and get something someone else has worn. We embarrassed the hell out of her so hopefully she thought twice about doing it again.

Never done it with clothes, but ordered a table and chairs from the catalogue for Christmas as I was hosting and didn’t have enough space.
They came 2 days beforehand and there was damage to one of the chairs, but the other chairs and table were fine. So we switched out that broken chair and used the rest for Christmas Day and packaged them up for return on Boxing Day! We never did bother with a replacement!

Also a few years ago I bought some outdoor icicle lights but within a couple of weeks they’d rusted so when I took them down I decided to return as I didn’t want to take a chance they wouldn’t work the following year, it was a shame as they were the perfect.
Next year couldn’t find an equivalent so decided to buy the same lights again to ‘use’ for Christmas knowing they would probably rust over the course of the few weeks they were up.They did, so again I took them back again for a refund.

The next year dh asked me if I was ‘renting’ the lights again for Christmas!
I must admit I considered it but thought it might be taking the piss to do it again for the third time.

I found some online different brand and different company which I have used for the last two years and are still good to go for this year!

When I worked at topshop someone tried to return a bikini and the bottom half had a massive skiddy in it

This is disgusting sorry but I once ordered a basque from Ann Summers and when it turned up it had dried up discharge on the crotch,

I couldn't believe it had been not only returned in that state but actually sent back out!

Shudder