BORROWED BEAUTY
The Kit’s Jennifer Berry hit the holiday party circuit in rented dresses. Now she won’t go back to buying
Hitting the town to celebrate? Rent the dress, own the party, E7
I was at a party in New York when I realized that everyone was doing it. My fellow editor told me she’d rented the sequin Rixo London dress she was wearing. Ringing in at around $800 retail, her delightful rainbow-striped confection would be roughly four times my usual party dress budget.
Lately, I’ve been feeling increasingly uncomfortable with my wasteful impulse shopping and have tried, to varied success, to stop rewarding myself for a job well done with a $60 Zara blouse or comforting myself for a bad week with a $20 lipstick. (“But $20 is basically free!” I tell myself.) I returned home to Toronto full of motivation to join the Sisterhood of the Travelling Dresses for my holiday party circuit fashion needs.
My first stop was The Fitzroy, founded in 2016 by Julie Buczkowski and Angela Pastor, who converted their traditional Toronto boutique to a rental service. “Our customers told us they would only wear certain pieces once, which made us realize we should just rent our pieces,” says Buczkowski. “It makes sense on so many levels: It’s more affordable than buying; it’s better for the environment; it’s a way to try a new look or wear something you wouldn’t normally buy.”
I trolled The Fitzroy website for days, snapping screenshots of flowing Reformation velvet and intricate Self-Portrait lace confections. But when I arrived at Fitzroy’s airy showroom in Toronto’s west end to try on options, glass of bubbly in hand (I could get used to this), a total wild card outfit ended up being The One. The black blazer dress with a satin lapel and a fully feathered skirt was designed by Forever Unique, a U.K. brand I’d never heard of. It was as extra as I like to be during the holidays (read: very), infinitely less itchy than all the sequin options I tried on, and — bonus — it fit like a glove. Lesson learned: Don’t be a slave to brands. I paid $100 for a four-day rental (including the cost of dry-cleaning) and walked away with a dress that retails for around $1,000. Not bad.
Next, I went the virtual route with a Torontobased rental service called Goldie, founded by stylist Francesca Abony this year. “I was inspired to develop a sustainable solution to the ever-growing issue of waste, consumption and fast fashion,” Abony says of starting the business. “As clichéd as it sounds, I believe in the power of fashion. It can lift us up and make us feel powerful, but also contributes to gruesome business practices. I wanted to create an accessible platform for women to find great clothes and accessories because it’s not realistic to think that we’re going to shift our consumer habits. We’ll always want beautiful, new things.”
When my Goldie packages arrived, I had to agree with Abony. I slid into an electric purple silk Dannijo slip dress with a sky-high slit. I shimmied into a floor-length Reformation gown that I will borrow the next time I have a fancy wedding to attend. But it was, again, the underdog dress that I ended up liking the best. The sheer, dark floral Iro dress with a drop waist and bell sleeves was comfortable and chic in that laissez-faire Parisian way I aspire to but rarely pull off. It was also just a little bit “pirate girl” — which turned out to be a good thing. The dress, which would retail in the ballpark of $800, was mine for four days for $50 plus tax.
With my party wardrobe sorted, it was time to hit the town. The first soiree was also the fanciest so I pulled out the big guns, pairing my black feathered frock from The Fitzroy with accessories from my own closet: charcoal satin heels with black feathers covering the heels, a black evening bucket bag and dangly diamond earrings. I decided to only drink champagne at the party because that is the perfect pairing to feeling yourself. Two days later, I dropped the dress back at the store and they took care of the rest.
Goldie’s floral Iro dress joined me for two more low-key holiday fetes including a family holiday “open house” and a work cocktail party. In keeping with the dress’s French girl vibe, I wore it with black leather over-the-knee boots and a red lip. The Iro went back by courier to the good people at Goldie to send to the cleaners and then onto its next partygoer.
I let the guilt I’d assumed came along with every party outfit purchase melt away. There’s magic in having your moment with a spe- cial piece and then sending it back out into the world to make another girl feel like a million (or rather $800) bucks. Suddenly, I was Blake Lively passing on the magical pants to America Ferrera. Sure, I was slightly apprehensive about wearing a dress that who knows how many other girls had worn (“Would the dresses smell like someone else’s perfume?” I wondered; they did not), but there was nothing even remotely icky about the rental process.
I remember leaving The Fitzroy, garment bag in hand and high off the experience of finding a dress I couldn’t wait to wear. I hopped into my Uber Pool (see, budgeting!) and one of my fellow riders, noticing my pickup location, said “That’s where I rent my dresses!” She asked me which one I’d rented, as if we were sharing a closet, which we kind of were. She told me with excitement that she’d recently borrowed a pearl-encrusted black Rachel Zoe jumpsuit for an event. Now, I wonder who I’ll share a closet with next.