Reflections on a better fashion rental system

Bring on community closets

Weddings are such a fun opportunity to play dress up and lean into the aspirational (née rarely touched) side of your wardrobe. 

Next weekend, I am traveling to Fort Lauderdale for a friend’s wedding. The venue is absolutely stunning: lush, green, outdoor. The dress code is festive cocktail attire, and the bride is encouraging guests to lean into the garden aesthetic and embrace bold colors and floral patterns. 

The conflict? I don’t feel anything in my wardrobe is appropriate for the occasion. My current lineup of formal dresses are 1) white or cream (off the table, duh), 2) black (not the vibe), or 3) animal print (fun, but inappropriate for this particular event). 

Which puts me at a crossroads. Do I buy a new dress for the wedding, and spend upwards of $200 on a dress I may never wear again? Or do I look towards another solution? 

To add another layer of complexity, this year, I’m prescribing to the Rule of 5, and only adding five new garments to my wardrobe. If I’m adding something new to my wardrobe, I want the piece to be versatile, not something I wear once before immediately hanging in the back of my closet. 

Rental felt like a natural solution. Admittedly, I didn’t shop around for long before immediately jumping to Nuuly. I was attracted to the value (6 items for $98), and figured that at least one of those six dresses had to work. My roommate uses the service to refresh her work wardrobe every month, and only had positive things to say. I perused their rental marketplace, and after finding a few solid options, decided to pay the monthly fee and submit my first rental request. 

I placed my order for six wedding guest-worthy dresses, and am eagerly awaiting their arrival (takes about 5 business days). 

sneak peek

Reflections and Opportunities

Nuuly’s catalog of clothes spans a wide range of styles and occasions, and I found there were plentiful wedding-appropriate options, flattering for a range of body types. The service operates as part of URBN, Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie’s parent company, which was reflected within the assortment. 

But during the process, I had to ask if there was a better way. While Nuuly does a comprehensive job of showing the garment on different sized models and having a transparent reviews section, where renters of different body shapes and sizes post pictures and share their experiences, I still felt like I was gambling. 

I was frustrated that Nuuly didn’t share a size guide or measurements for the pieces (especially since vanity/inconsistent sizing has been a rampant problem for women’s clothing), and yearned for a fitting room. 

Buzzy peer-to-peer fashion rental company Pickle just opened their first brick and mortar store in the Village late last year, and I considered dropping by. However, after quickly screening their app, I felt disappointed in the lack of variety for larger sizes (and by larger, I mean anything bigger than a M… not even plus sizes) – likely a symptom of their influencer-forward user acquisition strategy. 

Someone needs to marry peer-to-peer rental with a brick and mortar consignment model and we’d be golden. Imagine a place you could try on pieces to rent so you’re not forced to order an excessive selection of items in the hopes that one will fit right. (Alternatively: if anyone knows of something like this that already exists, please let me know). 

Or even better: we could take capitalism out of it altogether and just start a community closet. This Threads user got it right!! 

Crazy how the act of opting out of consumption has spurred this new, resourceful way of approaching my closet and getting dressed. While Nuuly served as a time-sensitive solution for this particular occasion, I’m excited to use this low buy period to get creative and think out of the box for cases like this (asking to borrow from a friend? starting a NYC-based community closet? opportunities are endless…). 

My order isn’t set to arrive until next week, so I’ll plan to share how things worked out then. I’m also planning to share my broader reflections on rental as a crutch and how I’m planning to engage with it during my Rule of 5 year, so stay tuned!

Until then, I would love to hear your thoughts: Have you tried fashion rental before? What was the occasion? How did you feel about the experience?