Rent the Runway

If you're a sorority sister, military wife/girlfriend, high school student, wedding guest, or cool enough to have formal occasions frequently, then your worries have just been put at ease.

As a military wife I was so relieved when I discovered this service. I start looking for next year's Christmas Ball gown by April, and trust me, I need that 8 months. The challenge is intensified by my need to have my shoulders, cleavage, and back covered. I can find elegant dresses fitting my standards and style...but they're around $600 and just go up from there. My budget for a one time formal gown is around $200 (not because of our finances necessarily, but that's just what I consider reasonable), so my pickings were slim.

Rent the Runway allows you to wear those designer gowns for a fraction of the price. My husband was a bit skeptical...spending almost $200 for a dress I don't even get to keep? Well if I were to buy a dress it was still only going to be worn once...I didn't see much of a difference. I used their handy-dandy filters to narrow down my options, choose my dress, reserve it 4 months in advance (played it SUPER safe), and then waited for it to arrive the day before my event.

Some people might hate that you don't have an opportunity to try it on (unless you live near one of their showrooms in New York or Las Vegas) but other women who have rented this dress will post a photo and list their measurements (This helped me pick my heel height). You can even put your measurements and body type in the site and it will show you photos of women with your same measurements so you can see what looked good on them. Also, you can get a second size in the dress free. So I ordered mine in the regular length and long length so I could see what would work best for my heels.

The dress I reserved was the Badgley Mischka Award Winner Gown, which you can now rent for $70! More than half off of what I spent! WELL THAT'S FRUSTRATING... But anyways...this dress is $620 retail so it's a steal. The back is open but we made it work for my specifications... probably broke a few rules but it came back to them in good condition so what they don't know won't hurt them...Once I was done I put both dresses back in their plastic covers, folded them up, placed them in the prepaid envelope, and dropped it off at UPS by the deadline they gave me. They take care of the cleaning once it gets to them. It was beautifully simple and hassle free.

This company is refreshingly down to earth. They recognize that a whole class of the financially conscious were missing out on luxury. They have made a world of fashion available to us that was once undeniably out of reach. It is no longer as much of a requirement for us to live for our budgets to fit these dresses. High end fashion is coming to us for a change and forming to our needs by making them affordable and offering a variety of sizes including plus sizes. I appreciate what RTR is doing for those of us who know the worth of a dollar but still want to feel glamorous. So thank you RTR and keep up the good work.