the unexpected benefits of clothing rental
a real-life review of Rent the Runway and Nuuly, plus the surprising way I ended up shopping differently
Until this year, I’d only used Rent the Runway once, renting a dress for New Year’s Eve.
Trying to figure out sizing and having one shot to get it right made the process a little stressful. Even though I didn’t use it often, I would encourage clients to rent clothes for special events rather than buy a four-hundred-dollar dress they’d wear once.
Side note: why are we okay with spending so much on a one-time-use item but not on something we’d wear multiple times a week?
When clothing rental services began to proliferate and to rent out clothing for daily wear and longer periods of time, clients would ask whether it was something they should try. If it’s within someone’s budget, I think it’s a great idea for several reasons:
If you don’t know your style, you can experiment with all different kinds of styles and really test how you’d feel in that style out in the world
If you’re in a period where your size is fluctuating rapidly, you can rent instead of buying clothes in every size.
If you’re in an industry where it’s important to keep up appearances, you can rent at a lower price than purchasing an entire high-end wardrobe.
In general, more people wearing the same item is a sustainable way of getting dressed.
The only aspect I don’t love is that by renting clothes, it can appear to others that you have a new wardrobe every two weeks, perpetuating the idea that we should have new clothes all the time.
A few months ago, Rent the Runway reached out to me and offered me two free months of their service.
Honestly, it sounded fun, so I agreed. Since Rent the Runway isn’t size inclusive, I reached out to Nuuly, and they gave me a free month as well.
As an affiliate for both of these programs, here’s what I receive: from Rent the Runway, I received 3 months of the service for free and I receive a commission of $15-30 if someone signs up using my info. From Nuuly, I received one month of service and I receive Nuuly gift cards from $50-$200 depending on how many times I post on social media.
If you’d like to try one of these services and want to use my affiliate links, you can go here for Rent the Runway and use code RTRXDGILLESPIE for a discount making your first month $65 for 5 items, and here for Nuuly (unfortunately, they didn’t give me a discount code — one month is $98 for six items).
I don’t want to do too deep a dive into the logistics, because there are already plenty of reviews out there, but here are the pros and cons for the two services I tried (and the 5 items I ended up purchasing after renting):
Rent the Runway
Pros
High-quality clothing
Fast shipping
If something doesn’t fit, you are allowed one exchange per shipment.
Great customer reviews. There really is nothing like seeing a garment on a body similar to yours.
The ability to purchase clothes you’ve rented (only available if you have a current membership).
Cons
SIZE INCLUSIVITY. For a size 4, there are about 8,000 available items. For size 16, there are 2,000. Above that, there are only a handful of items. There are a few designer plus-size (up to 3X/24) brands that are curiously absent: Marina Rinaldi, Lafayette 148, Tadashi Shoji, and Mac Dugal.
I don’t understand why neither of these services includes size charts or measurements. You are entirely reliant on the customer reviews to try and parse other people’s height and weight to determine if something will fit. I would also check the brand’s size chart on other websites to get more info – it would be such a small thing for them to include!
I personally had a hard time finding enough items I liked to rent over the course of two months. A lot of the clothing is tight or revealing and a bit preppy, and it wasn’t my vibe.
Nuuly
Pros:
SIZE INCLUSIVITY. Nuuly has 4,500 items in size 3X/24. Unfortunately, there are still only a handful of items in sizes 4X/26 and up, mostly from Eloquii and Good American.
Fast shipping.
Great customer reviews.
The styles and designers were more my vibe: Corey Lynn Calter, Dhruv Kapoor, Lisa Says Gah, etc.
The ability to purchase clothes you’ve rented (only available if you have a current membership).
Cons:
Nuuly's parent company is URBN, which also owns Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, and Free People. The founder, CEO, and chairman of the board, Richard Hayne, has made many donations to Republican political candidates. The company also has a reputation for cultural appropriation and ripping off artists’ original work.
No size charts.
Lower quality items. Items on Nuuly generally retail for $50-200, whereas on Rent The Runway they retail for $100-1500.
Obviously, lower-quality items don’t hold up well when worn as often as in a rental. You might end up with items that are almost too worn to wear.
I’ve really enjoyed this experience for two reasons: one, it’s just been fun. I build my wardrobe so slowly that I still don’t have an assortment of interesting pieces to choose from. Having an influx of those items and the excitement I felt around getting dressed showed me that it’s still worth working on.
However, the biggest perk of these services is one I didn’t see coming – the ability to really wear clothes you are considering buying.
I started planning my shipments based on items I might like to wear long term, not just for a week or two. When the items arrived, I was able to play around with them, wear them in and out of the house, and see how they wore on me. If I continued to think they were great after the initial try-on, I could buy them at a discounted rate since they’d been worn by others. This is how I’ve ended up with my favorite pair of jeans in years, two tops that I absolutely love, a quirky puffer I’ve been eyeing for a year at a huge discount, and a $750 jacket for $113.
from L to R: See by Chloe wool jacket, retail $750, purchased for $113, Lee Light Indigo Rider Low Slung Barrel Jeans (only up to size 34): retail $118, purchased for $66, Bondi Born top: retail $225, purchased for $108, Rachel Antonoff Coffee Cup Trash puffer: retail $428, purchased for $90, Staud Sawyer top: retail $295, purchased for $83,
I went into this thinking clothing rental would be a fun experiment or a practical solution for special occasions. And it was those things. But what I didn’t expect was how useful it would be as a filter.
Instead of guessing whether something would become a favorite, I got to actually live in it first. Wear it on a normal day. See how it held up. See if I reached for it again. That’s information I’ve never had when buying clothes straight off a rack.
I don’t know that I’ll use rental services all the time, but I do think I’ll keep using them this way. Not as a way to constantly have something new, but as a way to make better decisions about what actually deserves a place in my closet.
I’m curious if any of you have tried clothing rental, even just once. Did it feel worth it? Or did it just make getting dressed more complicated?
