Renting our clothes is a nice return for the planet - Hayley Matthews

I’ve been avoiding going up town for a while due to all the Leith Walk business, but a few Sundays ago my youngest and I had breakfast in Wetherspoons at the bottom of the walk and he asked if we could “do shopping”.

He does love a trip to the shops (mainly because he's caught on to the fact he can get a wee treat on the way). So with lots of new shops in the St James Centre to look at, we jumped on the 25.

I had a few shops in mind that I wanted to look at and one in particular, which only opened a few weeks ago, was LK Bennett, which used to be the old Boots at Multrees Walk. Everything looks so nice and with a few summer events coming up, I was on the look out for something flowery and pretty. I've been eyeing up the beautiful dresses on their website for a while so was keen to get a look inside at the real deal – and wow!

As I pulled a few items off the rails to try on, it was exactly the moment that my youngest wanted to get out of his buggy to start driving it about the shop like a tractor.

Half naked in a changing room with a three-year-old running about is not ideal but two wonderful women came to the rescue. Gisele, the manager, and her lovely colleague, Mairi, both swooped to the rescue. They brought over a drink and snacks to keep the wee man busy whilst I tried to kid myself I could squeeze my cankles into heels.

As I chatted to the very attentive staff, I asked about the rental subscription LK Borrowed that a friend had told me about. My friend is the kind of person who always looks out for ways to tackle fast fashion and this seems right up her street. So, the gist is you pay a subscription, borrow some items, wear them, return them and the process repeats.

So instead of buying lots of clothes (and let's admit it – most we never wear), to me seems a much more sustainable way to clothes shop than buying multiple items. I've heard of this happening with handbag subscriptions and car clubs but not so much clothes, so a massive thumbs up to LK Bennett for taking the initiative towards a more sustainable fashion industry. I'd also imagine this means less items going to landfill.

We don't wear many of our clothes, so why not rent them, instead of buying? asks Hayley Matthews.

Fashion changes every week and with the Scottish weather also throwing in the odd curveball, I get why we have wardrobes filled with clothes that we never wear. So I'm keen to try a rental subscription where I can try out the trends of the season without any commitment to keeping the clothes forever (if you do want to keep rented clothes you'll get a discount too).

I see a lot of companies these days going more environmentally friendly and moving more to a subscription and borrowing service instead of pushing a fast purchase, so maybe it's the way forward. However, saying that, there is always that nice feeling that comes with going in to a shop and finding something that's well made that you'll keep forever.