[SUSTAINABILITY] 🌱 Ireland Fashion Week Judge & Award Winning Sustainable Fashion Entrepreneur - Rachel Hennessy - on consumer behaviour and EU policy change for a circular fashion future
A Conversation on Changing Mindsets, Championing Circular Fashion, and Building a More Sustainable Future.
Hello and welcome to Ireland Fashion Week,
Rachel Hennessy is one of Ireland Fashion Week’s judges. As a champion of sustainable style and circular fashion, an award-winning entrepreneur for her commitment to pushing for policy changes and a more sustainable way to enjoy and consumer fashion, we sat down with Rachel to understand her hopes and expectations for the future of fashion in Ireland - from end consumer behavior to design and retail. ♻️
Ireland Fashion Week’s mission is to give Irish fashion designers a platform to grow their brands, as well as giving them to tools and guidance to fuel their growth and sustainability commitments with technology to reduce waste and increase transparency. 💚
Can you please share a short introduction to yourself and your work?
“My name is Rachel Hennessy and I am the founder of Happy Days Fashion Rental. I founded Happy Days almost 4 years ago with the mission to make rental the number one choice for occasionwear, i.e that people will choose to rent over buying something new. Every day is different, as most small business owners can attest to. From planning social media and marketing content, to last minute problem solving, to updating the website there is never a dull moment.”
What does sustainability mean in the context of your work?
“Happy Days was born out of my own frustration with fast fashion to become an alternative to buying a dress and wearing it once. The majority of our customers say this to us in store, that they are so sick of seeing items in their wardrobes that they won’t wear again. I think there is a need for this market, along with other areas such as re wear, recycle, repair etc. The circular economy is gaining such momentum at the moment I hope we will start to see some support from government agencies to support businesses in these areas.”
What have been the biggest challenges in putting sustainability at the heart of your business?
“The biggest challenge is the extremely high VAT rate on rental - it is currently at 23%. That means every single time a dress is rented we pay 23% VAT on that booking. We are technically a service and yet service businesses in Ireland pay 13.5% VAT. This greatly impacts our margins and is a serious inhibitor for being able to grow and expand a rental business. Over the last three years we have been lobbying the government to try and get this reduced. It has to be agreed at an EU level and in 2023 MEP Frances Fitzgerald agreed to bring it up at the European Parliament. Unfortunately, her efforts went unrewarded so we continue to lobby to get this rate reduced.”
What opportunities have come from committing to sustainability?
“I have been lucky enough to receive some awards for my sustainability efforts including the VISA She’s Next Small Business Award in 2023, The National Digital Awards for Sustainable Business of The Year in 2024 and have been shortlisted for many others.
In 2024, I started The Happy Days Podcast where I have guests on to discuss the happy days in their lives. I was able to get sponsors on board immediately for the podcast due to the sustainability credentials associated with Happy Days.”
How are consumers responding to your sustainability efforts?
“I think the rental market is in a completely different place then when we started almost 4 years ago. People are now proud to say they rented a dress and will say they got it from Happy Days rather than the brand! As mentioned people are tired of having items sitting in their wardrobes that they aren't getting the wear out of. We get told this daily in our store.”
Are they coming to you because of your values, or discovering them after engaging with your service?
“There are many different reasons why people will come to us, some may have just seen a dress they really liked and its a bonus they can rent it for ¼ of the retail price, some are choosing it because its the sustainable option, and some just need a dress last minute and we have one of the best selections!”
Have you needed to do a lot of education or storytelling?
“At the start we did, we needed to explain how rental worked including delivery, cleaning etc but now it really has become the norm! We were so lucky that in the early days so many customers would send us their gorgeous photos of them in their rented outfits, we were able to share them on our socials and on our website and this gave other customers peace of mind about using our services as they saw real people in the clothes.”
What are your hopes for Ireland Fashion Week in terms of sustainability for fashion designers and businesses?
“I think every fashion designer and business has sustainability at least in their minds now, you kind of can’t ignore it at this point. I would love to see transparency in fashion week, with brands telling us what they are doing and what they plan to do in terms of sustainability. All anyone can do is their best and I would just love to see some consideration put behind it and to bring us along with them.”
What are your hopes for Ireland Fashion Week in terms of sustainability for consumer mindsets and behaviour?
“I am such a believer in buying Irish when you can, especially if you are buying something new. If you buy Irish then this money is going to an Irish business, and therefore back into our economy. We have to support local so that businesses can thrive here and then thrive further afield. I hope fashion week will really put a spotlight on that and start to change more people mindsets.”
Thank you to Rachel for sharing her insights, her passion for circular fashion and her vision for a more sustainable future. We’re proud to spotlight changemakers like Rachel who are reshaping the fashion landscape in Ireland and beyond. 💚
Stay tuned as we continue to share more conversations, stories and announcements in the lead-up to Ireland Fashion Week.
The Ireland Fashion Week Team
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Love this. As a circular designer I know we need to change how we design and offer our consumers choice.