What nobody tells you about trying to rent a new wardrobe
As Marks & Spencer starts its own dress loan scheme, Katherine Bergen sounds a note of sartorial warning
When the delivery of a leaf blower generated as much excitement as the arrival of a glamorous new dress and vertiginous heels once had, I knew I was totally out of practice with party wear.
Yet I had the pressing need to wear something fancy for two big events, and the echoes of Cop26 ringing in my ears. In the interests of the planet and to sort out my own confusion – long, midi, mini? – I decided to raid the fashion sensibilities of women more up to date than me and rent a dress. Even Marks & Spencer have highjacked this trend, announcing the start of partywear rental this week, which will allow shoppers to borrow dresses costing up to £299 for as little as £13.
I am not a dress-rental virgin. Nor is the concept new. As an undergraduate at Cambridge University in the late 1980s, and invited to three May Balls in one week, I took myself off to One Night Stand in Pimlico Green and spent a happy afternoon trying on the dresses they had for hire. From that moment I was a devotee, but there followed something of a rental culture hiatus for a decade or two.
Then came Hurr Collective, billed as the “Airbnb of fashion” and the brainchild of ex-chartered surveyor Victoria Prew and Matthew Geleta, who founded the company in 2017: “In response,” says Prew, “to the shift from ownership to access, particularly among consumers of the millennial generation.” Peer-to-peer renting is certainly innovative, although herein also lies a problem.
I signed up to Hurr, and chose a dress made by The Vampire’s Wife, an expensive label. I paid £146.20, a lot less than the retail price (£695 and upwards) but not an inconsiderable sum. Hurr sent me a receipt – then I heard nothing. I emailed and they verified that my rental request had been approved. Four days later I received a refund for the amount paid, but no explanation.
After emailing, I got this reply: “I can see that the lender unfortunately declined this request. You should’ve received an email or message with the lender’s reasoning so I’m very sorry if you haven’t! If there’s a ‘managed’ item (a dress that is held in-house) we can get it out to you this week, please let me know.” It was what I imagine being ghosted is like after an online flirtation; no meeting the dress IRL, no enjoyable evening going out together and no explanation as to why.
Feeling snubbed, I downloaded By Rotation, the “social fashion rental app” and rented a beautiful full-length silk Rixo dress from lovely Hannah.
‘There was no meeting the dress IRL, no night out together and no explanation as to why’
She missed the post to send it to my home address but readily agreed to drop it off herself before the event in London. I wore it, it was much admired, and I posted it back.
Emboldened, I applied for another rental, a gorgeous floral midi. It never arrived. I telephoned and emailed, and received this: “We tried to get in touch with you over email and text but we did not hear from you, it appears you gave us an incorrect email. That dress was late to be returned by a previous customer and we asked if you would like a replacement via email but we did not hear back from you. I’m so sorry about this, a refund has already been processed for that.”
So partly my fault, but I never received any texts and I had left phone messages. As a result, I turned up at a smart book launch in the clothes I stood up in (leather trousers and a T-shirt) while my hostess was ravishing in red Roland Mouret.
Then lovely Hannah got in touch to say the Rixo dress hadn’t arrived back, although I had posted it first class on the agreed date. It arrived nearly two weeks later, during which time I was panicking that I would have to pay for it.
There is much to admire in the peer-to-peer system – the renter has a huge choice of clothes and accessories, and Hurr say renting garments increases the life of clothing by an additional nine months and reduces the carbon, water and waste footprints by 20-30 per cent per item.
Yet inevitably, with the whimsy of some lenders, the vagaries of the postal system, misunderstandings or – mea culpa – a letter wrong in an email address, disappointment can occur.
The system back in the olden days, when I went to a boutique, tried on a few dresses, paid for the rental, which I took with me and returned in person, certainly had virtue in simplicity.
But maybe I am just still miffed I didn’t get to be a vampire’s wife.