My honest review of Oxfam’s new secondhand clothing rental service

Here’s our verdict… (Picture: Vicky Jessop)

It’s 3pm on a Thursday, and I’m outside my house, dressed in a lavish sparkly number that feels perfect for a Christmas party.

‘Nice dress!’ somebody shouts. Naturally; this is London. 

What they don’t know is that it’s head-to-toe Oxfam. And, unusually for a charity shop, it’s going to be sent back in 10 days. These clothes are rentals, and for the next week, they’re all I’ll be wearing.

Say the words Oxfam, and the idea of renting probably doesn’t spring to mind. The clothing rental market, after all, bills itself as a luxury option.

Sites like By Rotation and Hurr have built massive platforms by renting out designer items for a fraction of the purchase price. A £245 Rixo dress on the former, for example, will set you back around £30 for the minimum 3-day rental.

Oxfam Rental, by contrast, is described as Britain’s first charity-backed clothing rental service. The clothes on offer are donated goods and items from retail partners, which have been professionally cleaned and prepped.

Currently in its ‘soft-launch’ phase, you can rent an item for a fixed 10-day period, with prices starting at around £22.

Some items have been donated from customers, while others are from retail partners (Picture: Vicky Jessop)

It’s no surprise that renting a wardrobe is fast becoming an appealing way to shop, with the cost of living crisis making spending money on statement pieces a luxury that’s hard to afford. 

At the same time, clothing waste is rampant. In fact, the average UK wardrobe contains 80 items, and 32% of them haven’t been worn in the past 12 months, according to Oxfam’s 2026 State of Style report.

Renting is a neat way of getting around this, but could Oxfam’s version stand up to scrutiny? I was about to find out.

First thing’s first

I set about browsing the website.

I needed outfits for seven different days. The site is easy to browse, and easy to filter; but I opted to search for dresses in my size, and immediately hit a wall. There weren’t that many options. 

Sites like By Rotation boast a collection of over 120,000 dresses for people to choose from; even if you’re narrowing down options by size, style and location, that still leaves a lot of choice. 

I found myself struggling to find enough clothes that appealed. Sure, there were 323 dresses in the collection, but once I’d applied the filters for my size, that went down to 138. For trousers, there were 47 options total, which went down to 11 with filters applied. Knitwear? 29 styles. 

A criss-cross back jumpsuit offered a flattering silhouette (Picture: Vicky Jessop) And a fantastic statement back (Picture: Vicky Jessop)

The designer section was equally uneven. Yes, there was a Stella McCartney jacket, and even a blue skater-style dress from Balenciaga, but a lot of it was vintage, and felt like something the mother of the bride might wear.

Since Oxfam’s site is in its soft-launch phase, I’m told there are plans to add more clothes to the rotation, especially seasonal pieces like knits and party options.

Once I’d managed to construct enough outfits to fill my basket, it was time to check out, where I discovered the big bonus for shopping at Oxfam: the price. 

For £22, I could rent a ribbed sweater for 10 days. That’s miles better than many of its competitors, although it’s also worth saying that many of them trade in designer products, which wasn’t always the case here. You might also get lucky and find a jumper for £22 in an Oxfam store, which you can keep forever.

Once the items arrived, they were all in good condition, and immaculately cleaned. 

I immediately fell in love with the aforementioned sparkling dress (a Hugo Boss number from the site’s designer section) and a black Kirin dress outlined in neon piping, which I promptly wore out for drinks. The reception from my friends was complimentary, if bemused: ‘Oxfam?’

The sequin Hugo Boss dress (Picture: Vicky Jessop) The black neon-edged Kirin dress  (Picture: Vicky Jessop) The Niccoline blue coat was a staple I wasn’t ready to part with (Picture: Vicky Jessop)

Nevertheless, they both felt like great options to flaunt at a work Christmas party – or just a night out. And as Oxfam says, that’s kind of the point. 

‘A great outfit shouldn’t have to be a one-night wonder,’ Julie Tyrrell, Oxfam’s head of retail sustainability, says. ‘Rental gives people the chance to wear something special, then pass it on for someone else to enjoy.’

Certainly, the ease of the service made it an appealing option for anybody looking to shop a little differently, including me. 

The only difficulty is not being able to keep them. When the end of the week rolled around, I generated a free return label from the Oxfam website, popped everything unwashed back in the box and dropped it at the post office with a pang of regret.

Some of the items – the big blue peacoat, the Hugo Boss sparkly minidress and the massive, wide-legged LK Bennett pantaloons – had been winners, and it was sad to let them go.

The verdict…

The real benefit of Oxfam’s rental service is in how how comparatively cheap it is in contrast to its competitors.

But, despite this, Julie says it’s not quite taken off yet. ‘We’ve had over 40,000 visitors to the site since launch and people are renting from us, although it is early days and bookings are still relatively low,’ she says.

‘We’re not expecting everyone to change their habits overnight.’

This Twinset Milano dress got a lot of compliments (Picture: Vicky Jessop)

But would I shop there again? There are downsides: the ten-day fixed rental time, for instance. There’s no way of renting an item for any less money or time, which does limit your options somewhat.

Plus, there’s no getting around the lack of choice. Hardly any items really felt like ‘my style’, which made it really hard to find clothes amidst the limited options available. Out of all the clothes I tried on, only a few really appealed – not a great hit rate, considering the amount of items I rented.

The real benefit of Oxfam’s rental service is how comparatively cheap it is in contrast to its competitors. If you’re looking for an item to wear to a job interview, or a coat or jacket to match one specific outfit for a big night out, but don’t want to break the bank, this would be the place to go. 

Likewise, if you’re hoping to rent a nice Christmas party outfit but don’t want to buy one outright, start looking here. It’s best to come with an open mind and a bit of imagination, but who knows: you might stumble across a bargain. 

Plus, the money goes to charity. Now that’s a nice thought.

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