By Corrie Dyke
One-hundred and sixty designers, 25,000 dresses and 90 percent off retail price. Sound like a dream or something created by Cinderella's fairy godmother? This place is reality and it could be the answer to all of your break-the-bank problems multiple weddings and parties this summer create.
Welcome to RentTheRunway.com, an e-commerce business giving women the opportunity to rent designer dresses for any occasion at nearly one-tenth of retail price.
You have to create a membership account to view the online wardrobe, but it's free and as easy as an email address. From there, you can create your personal profile complete with questions from typical dress size and body type to where you are enrolled in school. It may seem strange to supply the name of your school when filling out an account on dresses, but the empire was created by two students at Harvard Business School in 2009.
Co-founders Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss met at Harvard where they became best friends, according to the backstory on RTR's website. After watching her sister struggle to find the perfect dress for an upcoming friend's wedding, Hyman was determined to end the full-closet-with-nothing-to-wear dilemma of women on a budget.
"Here was this young girl who loves fashion and was willing to spend a good portion of her salary on a dress that she's only going to wear once or twice, and I thought, there has to be a solution for this," Hyman said to The New York Times.
Hyman thought if girls like her sister had access to their dream closet, it would in turn benefit designers by getting their product in young, fashionable women's hands.
A few days later at Harvard, Hyman told Fleiss the dilemma and RTR was born.
More than 20,000 women signed up for the service within the first week, according to The New York Times. Both Hyman and Fleiss have won numerous entrepreneurial awards including awards from Fortune Magazine.
RTR's motto is "Love, Wear, Return" and it really is that simple. Renters find a dress they love, select the date for the dress to arrive and return the dress in a prepaid envelope after their four or eight day rental. Renters can receive same day delivery in New York City and next-day delivery anywhere in the US.
Two sizes are sent to the renter, the second size a complimentary back-up. With each rental comes a $5 damage insurance fee and in the case of destruction of the dress, the renter is responsible for full retail price. Members receive $50 off their first rental, and can receive up to $20 in credit for referring a friend.
Rentals range from $50-$200 depending on the retail price. Most dresses average a rental cost of $75, which comes as a relief to college girls who weep at the $595 price tag on a dream in the form of chiffon.
Most designers sell their dresses directly to RTR, while some give exclusive pieces to the site which aren't commercially sold, for a cut of the revenue according to The New York Times.
RentTheRunway.com is easy to nagivate and supplies renters with more information than most retail websites. Customer photos are available on the site, as well as short reviews where renters give their usual dress size, height, weight and tell how the dress fit. Clicking on a particular dress will give you jewelry recommendations and similar dresses the site thinks "you might also like".
The true wow factor of RTR is the personal stylists available for one-on-one styling advice six days a week. You are able to chat live with a stylist, a service usually reserved for celebrities.
The site also sells jewelry, beauty products, tights and shapewear at a reasonable price.
Currently, RTR has three million members and growing, according to Letty Lawrence, Publicist for RTR. The brand is also known on 200 college campuses nationwide with "The Runway Rep", a program of 1,000 college girls promoting RTR on their respective campuses. Through fashion shows and trunk shows, the "Runway Reps" gain business management skills in marketing and fashion.
RTR was created as the solution to a problem felt by any female. Now everyone can have that Cinderella moment, even those on the tightest college budget.
