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'Rent The Runway' Offers Couture on Loan and Online

by Matthew Zuras on November 10, 2009 at 05:48 PM

So you randomly get an invite, let's say, to the annual Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. All of the taste-makers and most fashionable will be in attendance, including Queen Anna Wintour, herself. The problem: you make a mere $28K a year and your hottest ensemble comes straight from the clearance rack at Zara. What in the worst-dressed-list hell are you to do? (And, more importantly, how did you scam an invite?)

Internet entrepreneurship to the rescue. The week-old, members-only site Rent The Runway (RTR) offers a Netflix-style model of dress rental. (Devoted Switched readers will remember last month's post on the similar service ThredUp, also based on the Netflix model.) Designs by Diane von Furstenberg, Proenza Schouler, and even Project Runway's Christian Siriano are available on RTR, with price tags between $50 to $200 for four days. After choosing your frock, and reserving a rental date, you'll receive the dress in two different sizes ("just to be safe," according to the site).

In addition to the dress, you'll get a Fit Kit, which includes deodorant wipes and double-sided tape to keep all of your unmentionables in check throughout your soiree. And don't worry; even if you do sweat through your gorgeous Hervé Léger bandage dress, RTR will take it out of your prepaid return envelope and handle all the dry cleaning.

Of course, this is not a new concept. If we even go back to our analog days of high school, most guys we knew ended up renting those gaudy, ill-fitting tuxes to wear to the prom. And other dress rental services certainly exist today, even online. Sites like Ilus New York and Wear Today, Gone Tomorrow offer online gown rentals -- although Ilus's selection does not feature big-name designers, and WTGT offers rentals at only five- to 10-percent of the retail price.

The immensely popular Avelle (formerly Bag, Borrow or Steal) is likely the site most analogous to RTR, having dismantled the idea that ridiculously expensive handbags were only the purview of the fantastically rich. We absolutely love sites like Avelle and RTR that democratize great fashion by making it available to all. Everyone deserves to wear couture at least once before shuffling off this mortal coil. [From: BrandX, via Luxist]

Tags: clothing, dress, fashion, geekchic, rent the runway, rentals, RentTheRunway, top

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