THE black lace party dress from Asos is perfect for Charlotte.
She’ll wear it at the weekend and then, if she feels like it, she might order another dress for the party season.
Money doesn’t come into it — Charlotte has no intention of paying.
Once she’s worn the dress she will stick it straight back in the post.
Around a week later, a full refund will hit her bank.
Charlotte, a 28-year-old support worker from Manchester, is one of a growing number of women who buy clothes, wear them once or twice, then send them back.
More often than not, the item will be something glitzy for a special occasion.
The practice has become so widespread there’s a word for it: Wardrobing.
Shops label it “tag tuck fraud”.
Charlotte has been doing it for ten years and admits she has worn — then returned — between 100 and 150 items.
She pays for everyday clothes but says she wouldn’t dream of forking out for something she’ll only ever wear once.
It’s saved her up to £2k.
“It’s usually party dresses, or something nice for a wedding or the races — one-off dresses I’d never wear again,” says Charlotte.
“Because I’m not paying for it, I can go for something a bit different, something I wouldn’t normally wear.
“There was this little green cropped top with a matching skirt I got once.
“It was bold, very out there, and it got a lot of compliments.”
For Charlotte, who mainly shops online at the likes of Pretty Little Thing, Shein, ASOS and Boohoo, it’s not just about looking glam for free.
Sometimes I do get a kick out of it, I think ‘I’ve just got to wear a really nice outfit for free and now I’m sending it back
Charlotte
She now gets a thrill out of her underhand habit.
“Sometimes I get a kick out of it, because I think: ‘I’ve just got to wear a really nice outfit for free and now I’m sending it back’,” she says.
“I’ve saved hundreds of pounds — my friends do it as well. I do feel a bit bad sometimes, but not enough to stop.”
The only inconvenience, she says, is having to put up with irritating clothing labels rubbing against her skin.
“I’ve only had a return rejected once.
“A blue bodysuit had one of those hygiene stickers on it and I’d removed it.
“I had to pay for that — it was about £15.”
A survey in October by logistics company Zigzag, and researchers at Retail Economics, found serial returners send back £6.6BILLION worth of online purchases a year.
Most of these are items that don’t fit, or the buyer has changed their mind, but 16 per cent of buyers surveyed admitted they had bought the items to wear at a social event, only to return them.
Cardiff student Sarah, 18, started wearing and returning items two years ago after getting a part-time job in a high-street clothing store.
In that time she has “borrowed”, as she puts it, around 50 items.
“At work, I realised how easy it was to take things back — staff wouldn’t really check,” she says.
“We’d have things coming in a little damaged, with tags ripped off, or minor stains, but they still got a refund.
“Then a friend saw something on TikTok about wearing clothes once before sending them back, and I thought it was a good shout.”
Usually it’s something I don’t want to splash out on
Sarah
Like Charlotte, Sarah normally returns items she plans to wear once, to a party.
“Usually it’s something I don’t want to splash out on,” she says.
“I tuck in the labels and wear the piece for a day or two. I’ve bought stuff then taken it back from shops such as Pull&Bear, H&M, Primark — large stores where it’s easier to get away with.”
Sarah only sends returns to larger shops.
She adds: “These are all chain stores that don’t really need the extra cash. More people are struggling to buy clothes than there are [chain stores] struggling to make profits, so I’ve never felt too bad about it.”
Retailers might not see it quite the same way, as people like Sarah cost them money.
In September, ASOS said it was introducing a return fee for frequent returners.
Julia, 42, a model and writer from Derby, grew accustomed to having a large wardrobe.
But in recent years she has had cancer and her husband lost his job.
With money in short supply, she started wardrobing five years ago.
While she does it out of a perceived necessity, she admits she also gets a kick out of it.
“It’s like playing dress-up – it’s kind of thrilling,” she says.
“It’s usually more showy things, like glitzy party dresses. I needed something for a wedding recently, so bought a nice sequinned skirt for £60 from Zara.”
Sarah admits to not telling her husband what she’s doing as he doesn’t agree with it.
She adds: “He once saw a label sticking out of my dress. I tried to say I was keeping the label on in case the dress didn’t fit, and he just rolled his eyes and said, ‘It fits fine, you’re not doing that again’.
“Since then I’ve carried on without him knowing, but I do feel bad.
“As long as I’m not hurting anyone, though, I’ll do it.”
Industry expert Clare Bailey says: “It does create a potential loss of revenue. Retailers have to check the product and process it back into the stock, and then there is the cost of the admin of the refund.”
