Imagine being able to exchange or lend your clothes to strangers? This is how Lucid Bag works, a shared wardrobe built by several people, a kind of lending and renting community for clothes and accessories. We talked to Luciana Nunes, creator of the business. Check out the interview and surrender to more sustainable consumption:
me without borders - Tell me a little about yourself, where you were born, grew up, studied and live:
Luciana Nunes- I was born in Acre, in Rio Branco, but my family is all from Minas Gerais, my birth there was sort of by “accident”. I stayed alone for six months and then I went to Belo Horizonte, I lived in the city for 11 years. Afterwards, my father was transferred to Goiânia and I stayed there for many years, I graduated from college and, because of that, I have a very strong connection with the city. My parents still live there, so once a month I end up going back; we are opening a Lucid Bag in the city in April.
I'm a journalist, I've always worked in the area and had, about 7 or 8 years ago, a digital communication agency. We made content for many brands, mainly fashion. We work for Cavalera, Cás, Traslaton and several other fashion brands, not only from SP, but from España as well. I was already dissatisfied with this area, not only with communication, because I like it, but mainly with fashion customers. Although I really liked the topic, I didn't agree with many strategies that we had to use to leverage sales, and I wanted to propose something in this market, but that was really different from what was known.
ESF - How was Lucid Bag born?
Luciana Nunes- In 2014, I went to Spain to take a course to open my mind, find out what I would like to do, and I ended up having a crazy idea. At the time, there was still nothing about a collective wardrobe, which could be used among the community to vary the looks, and so that clothes exchanges could happen without us having to buy them. So, the first thing I did was make my wardrobe available to start the business, and from there a lot of people got interested and started coming in and contributing.
Today, we have 25 girls who contribute to the wardrobe, not only putting clothes on loan, but also subscribing to the wardrobe and using it weekly, every 10 days, picking up pieces and then returning them. So, LUCIDBAG was born that way, from my desire to do something different in the fashion market, something that was more sustainable and that could help us to have a more conscious attitude, in the way we relate to fashion consumption.
ESF – Where did the desire to create the business come from?
Luciana Nunes- It came from the desire to do something in fashion that was different and more sustainable. After some studies and visits I made there in Barcelona, ​​I had already seen similar ideas for other types of businesses, including some thrift stores with very cool and special ideas in fashion, and I took this to the scope of something that could be borrowed, rented, that could be collective, but then return to the same place, which several people could use. Today, we have around 25-30 subscribers in each location.
It's still little, but the project is now about a year and a half, so I already consider it a very big achievement, because it's still something very new in the market. People don't know it, but the reception has been wonderful, everyone has liked it a lot, the girls who are subscribers are really assiduous people in the community, they are always in our wardrobes. There have been some requests from other cities, so I can already see interest from other areas as well, the demand has been very cool, especially to borrow clothes.
In addition to the wardrobe being shared, one of our principles is to share the profit too, so the person who is lending the garment knows exactly how much we are earning with the loan, where the money goes and how much they earn with it too.
ESF - How does it work or Lucid Bag?
Luciana Nunes- Today we have three physical wardrobes. In São Paulo, one in Vila Madalena and another in Barra Funda. We are now opening in April, in Goiânia, and if all goes well, by June or July we should also open in España and Rio de Janeiro. Apart from these physical wardrobes, we have the website, because if other people from other places want to borrow and rent, they have that possibility. How it works is a little different. With the physical wardrobes, we work by monthly subscription, with packages of 50, 150 or 300 reais, to use during the month. This gives them the right to use 3 bags per month, with 5 pieces in each bag. The user goes to the wardrobe, takes 5 pieces, takes them home, uses them for a few days and returns them, takes 5 more and so on.
We managed to do this 3 times, with this value of 50, 150 or 300. The difference between the prices is the quality and how special are the pieces that the user needs to get. For example, if she wants pieces to wear to work, college or parties, the 50 and 150 will do very well. The 50's has pretty cool pieces, more festfashion and simple. The 150's start to have more quality, special items and some signed designs. The 300 is very geared towards party wear, so if the user is a subscriber of 150 or less, but has a wedding to attend, she can increase it to 300 and assemble the whole look in one of the bags, in the same way.
In the physical wardrobes, we have been working this way, in the online sites you have the same looks. If the bag has 5 pieces, among them I send 1 surprise item that can be a line, a disc, a painting or a cosmetic. It doesn't have to be necessarily linked to fashion, and the user also returns it together. The other four are fashion pieces, we help you choose 1 main item of the look, 1 complementary piece, 1 accessory, 1 other piece that we call a “beat piece”, such as a t-shirt or a skirt for her to wear on a daily basis. day and the surprise item. Already online, the person can rent this same look, anywhere in the country.
They are the same values, but the difference is that the person is not a subscriber, he will not be able to receive 3 bags in the month, he will only receive 1 bag, to be able to use and return it within 10 days.
ESF - What's the point?
Luciana Nunes- The main objective is to encourage and strengthen the movement of Zunn Fashion, try to bring back, to circulate in the market, beautiful, special pieces that, many times, stay in our wardrobe, due to lack of occasion of use or identification. Sometimes you change the style, but the point is that other people can identify with your clothes and within my studies – because apart from the LUCID BAG, I am studying the area a lot, mainly, the shared wardrobe, to complete the master's degree – we are really trying to create theories and knowledge production on the subject and one of the things I realized is that today, in fashion, you have some possibilities of Zunn Fashion, but all aimed at pieces you've already let go of.
So, an outfit you know you won't want anymore, you can exchange it with another one, put it at ENJOEI or thrift stores and sell. But what about that piece that you are very attached to, because it has a great affective or economic value? Sometimes, several pieces that the person hasn't worn for about 3 years, they can't let go of it to make an exchange or a sale, because there is a very strong connection with that outfit, and then the piece stays there in the wardrobe.
Lucid Bag's intention is to circulate those pieces that are forgotten in girls' wardrobes and, consequently, reduce impulse purchases, because when you start to realize the type of piece you are buying and leaving behind, you start to also be aware of the bad and unnecessary purchases you have made.
ESF - Do you think that fashion and sustainability are increasingly linked?
Luciana Nunes- Certainly, it is now inevitable to make this relationship. We have arrived at a very difficult climate moment, we have followed many disasters, the subject is very strong in the media, both external and internal. Brands are already having to turn around to meet this demand, they are people who are really more politically engaged, more aware of what has been happening in the world and who have awakened to the knowledge that we can make a difference.
We often think that doing this is a small thing for how much the world needs, but we forget that politics is like that, it's micropolitics. We started with the fashion world first, so we can see that even festfashion is trying to fit in with this more sustainable side and it's a trend. When I bet on this business, in addition to being something I really believed in, it was good for the market too, because I'm sure it's a trend that only tends to increase.
Interview conducted by Angelica Weise from the Eu Sem Fronteiras team.
