Now ladies, how many times have you seen a dress watching the VMA’s, Red Carpet Awards, Counrty Music Awards, or any other awards show that you wish you could just wear it for one night? Are you jealous of the guys being able to rent their tuxes for one night and returning it the next day while you have to buy a dress that you probably won’t even wear again? Would you love the idea of getting expensive dresses for cheap by only renting them for a night? Well Jennifer Hyman was thinking the exact same thing and thought of a way to fix that. She created Rent the Runway. On the website it says:
“Rent the Runway is a fashion company with a technology soul. Powered by a transformative business model, proprietary technology, a unique reverse-logistics operation and some of the smartest people on earth, we’re in a position to challenge old systems and rewrite new rules. By giving people access to remarkable luxury experiences, we’re changing the meaning of ownership — and revolutionizing retail in the process.”
Hyman compares her business to one of your best friends, only with a much bigger closet. I don’t know about you but I always love borrowing my friends clothes. Once you get online the overall all process is really simple. You can start by setting up the date for which you need the dress, accessories if you would like too, then look through their collection for your rental day. Next narrow it down by designer, price, length, or whatever you like to find the perfect outfit. After that you book the outfit for a 4 or 8 day rental period and it should come in 1 or 2 days before your event. For that one night you can feel like a princess and return it the next day in their pre-paid envelope they already provided you with. You don’t even have to dry clean it or anything because they will take care of that for you. The only thing Rent the Runway asks you to do is to upload a photo online and review the dress on their website so others can see how fabulous the dress was.
When Hyman first suggested her idea of Rent the Runway to a boardroom full of partners at a big-time Boston venture capital firm, one of the of the men interrupted her and said, “You are just too cute. You get this big closet and get to play with all these dresses and can wear whatever you want. This must be so much fun!” Thinking that comment would stop her from making Rent the Runway, this only made her want to pursue the idea even more and I’m glad she did. Rent the Runway is such a creative and innovative idea because no one has done this before. I have always been interested in the idea of clothing and fashion for starting my own business so it is an inspiration for myself that even though she was shut down at first, she kept going and created something amazing. I will for sure be using Rent the Runway for different special occasions in the up coming future and suggesting it to all the girls I know. Thanks for reading and happy blogging!
Its absurd how expensive fashion is today. $1,380 for one dress? Ain’t nobody got time for that! It’s exciting to see Jennifer Hyman open up the market for girls who want to look great for a night or so and not drop $1,000 on a dress! She definitely saw an opening in fashion market and took advantage of it. Great choice Elaina!
I did not know this existed but I think it is amazing! I wonder how they get ahold of the dresses though – if they buy them full price or if they are already sold second hand. My other thought is – they would have to have some way of cleaning the dresses after each use which could be expensive.
One of my coworkers used this site over the summer and she loved the dress she got! Most formal dresses aren’t worn more than once anyway, so I think this is a great idea. Although I would prefer a physical store so I could try on the dresses, I still think it’s going to be a huge success.
I think this is a great idea renting dresses! My sister is getting older now and will be going to dances in the near future and this would be a great alternative to going out and purchasing a different dress for each dance. Like Emily said, girls not being able to try on the dress beforehand could be a problem for fitting.
There are many things that I don’t understand about women, but one of them is that they are always borrowing clothes from each other. I could never have even imagined of turning that into a business model, but it’s genius! I know for many girls wearing the same dress twice is a big no-no and buying dresses can be extremely expensive. Rent the Runway is a business that capitalizes on things that seem like they should be common sense, but until Hyman created this business, renting dresses in this format would have never crossed our minds. It’s the perfect mix of saving money, still having that shopping feel, and the borrowing phenomenon. It’s incredible what she has done and I’m glad she didn’t give up on it.