I was really excited when my lovely (and hilarious) friend Jess started using the Rent the Runway service. Mostly because selfishly, I wanted to know what it was like, because I was thinking about using it myself. Jess is awesome and offered to write a guest blog to give our readers the 411 on this pretty awesome service! So, without further ado… here’s Jess!
Knock, knock. Who’s there? Oh you know, just Diane Von Furstenburg, Derek Lam and Vera Wang. Oh yes, please come in and STAY FOREVER.
Let me just say, I am having so much fun.
I first heard about Rent the Runway (RTR) about 2 years ago from a friend of mine who used to rent dresses for weddings and other events. It was an idea that resonated with me and I promptly cataloged it in the filing cabinet in the back of my mind for later use. A year or two went by without any fancy weddings or events. Then this summer hit. It was essentially a tsunami of weddings/showers/work events and important work dinners. Since I tend to wear casual summer dresses during the hot months anyway, I convinced my husband that an unlimited RTR subscription was surely the most economical and fun way to spend my summer.
So I signed up. Unlimited. The subscription is $135/month and basically operates like Netflix. I get to choose 3 items from their unlimited selection. They are sent to me and I get to keep them indefinitely until I am ready to return an item for a new one. The turn-around time is surprisingly quick. They usually receive the UPS bag within 1 day and I receive a notice telling me to choose my new item, and new dresses are sent to me within 2-3 days. I am ROLLING in designer dresses, y’all.
The types of dresses range from formal wear, to bohemian hippie, to conservative work appropriate. They even have accessories and jewelry and hand bags available for renting. Jackets, sweaters, and pants are available and would be perfect for the winter months. I was looking for dresses primarily as work outfits with the additional benefit of conversion of work–to-evening, so you will see a lot of knee length dresses that I have chosen for myself since I work in a clinic setting.
Here are my first 3 dresses. I squealed A LOT.
Wore this Diane von Furstenberg dress to a “professional women” career dinner and got so many compliments. I am already a grown up for sure, but in this dress I felt like a RICH grown up. Retail: $450
This Yumi Kim dress was a work dress and all my front desk people (even the 18 year old guys) commented on how nice I looked. I then immediately accosted them for suggesting I look haggard on all the other days. Haha. Just kidding. EXCEPT I’M NOT. Retail: $215
Last dress was an Alberta Ferretti and I wore it for an important dinner with my husband’s bosses. We went to a great restaurant in DC. Both his male bosses remarked on how pretty the dress was. If middle aged hetero men are commenting your clothing, you must be doing something right. Retail: $895
All the first dresses I wore without much accessorizing. I was just getting my feet wet.
Realization #1: I need more high end pumps. Shh. Don’t tell my husband I am spending money on shoes to go with my “economical dresses.”
Realization #2: I need to invest in more colorful costume jewelry.
I kept the first three dresses for about 2 weeks, returned them and I got my next batch about 5 days later. Another grand slam. First dress is Diane von Furstenburg wrap (retail: $398), the pink dress is Trina Turk (retail: $298) and the last was one of my favorites, a Derek Lam dress (retail: $1895). The belt was an accessory I added.
These three dresses were all worn to work and I doubled up on the wrap dress for a bridal shower over the weekend. The Derek Lam printed dress with tassels fit me like a dream, and I was probably the most excited about that dress just because I *felt* fashionable wearing it, but the item was defective which left me a little disappointed. After about 3 hours of wear, the tassels began to unravel, and the material fell out of the loop. I ran around work looking like an ant whose hill just got knocked over, attempting to pick up all the material and depositing it in a ziplock bag until I got home. Even though I was disappointed in the defect, I will say that customer service was wonderful. I emailed them about the dress and they responded back to me within the hour, and offered to send a replacement dress without needing to wait for the return. I took photos, attached them to the email and they credited my account with an “additional dress”. I understand things happen, so when customer service is amazing as theirs was, I didn’t even view it as an inconvenience. Great customer service goes a long way.
I found the RTR site easy to navigate. They send email reminders when new dresses have been added to their inventory so I find I am always casually browsing when I have time to kill. The reviews on the site are absolutely wonderful. People who have rented the garments prior will tell you if they run true to size, fitting issues, and quality of dress materials. I have found them to be accurate each time. Overall it has been a wonderful experience and I am so happy with signing up. I told my friend who is a personal trainer and she said she is going to tell her clients about it as a “reward goal” for her weight loss customers. I thought it was an excellent idea!
Final Grade: A-
Well, Jess has definitely convinced me that Rent the Runway is a service I will have to try for myself. I have a wedding coming up this year and I was thinking about renting something kind of fancy for it! And I’m in weight loss mode, so that will be a nice reward for myself as well!
If you are interested in signing up, click here! Using this link will give you $30 off your first order! This is a no brainer!
Purchased; All opinion’s are Jess’s
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laurenelectro
A self-proclaimed beauty junkie/hoarder with a serious Sephora problem. This blog is a total rationalization of that problem. Everything is TOTALLY fine. Her free time is a mixed combination of making fun of reality TV with her husband, hanging out with cats and finally trying to figure out how to do her hair.