Photo: © 2009 Jupiterimages Corporation

Photo: © 2009 Jupiterimages Corporation

A woman’s social calendar inevitably includes events that require dressing up. There’s the dress to think about, of course, plus matching shoes, a handbag and jewelry too. It’s all fun and frivolous until you see the bill. An evening gown can cost hundreds of dollars, even at an affordable department store. Add those essential accessories, and you’ve got yourself quite the credit card bill.

Sure, you might look glamorous for an evening, but more often than not, your party garb never sees the light of day again. Even if you do end up wearing that sequin number more than once, chances are you won’t wear it often enough to get back what you paid.

This age-old wardrobe conundrum has inspired a handful of companies to deliver a new solution for the modern woman who wants a shiny new dress to wear for a special occasion, without having to spend a small fortune to do so. The solution: dress rentals. And shoe and handbag and—yes!—even jewelry rentals.

The concept is simple: Rent a dress of your choosing for a few days, wear it, then return it. Pay a small amount extra for insurance (sometimes included in the price) in case you spill some Merlot on your Marni. It’s a captivating concept that’s been gaining steam in these tough economic times, especially with the ease of ordering online. Here’s a roundup of some of the companies leading the way in the fashion-for-rent game.

Rent the Runway (RenttheRunway.com)
As the name suggests, Rent the Runway lets customers rent dresses from top-name designers such as Diane von Furstenberg, Hervé Léger and Proenza Schouler. Rentals run $50 to $200 for a four-night loan and are shipped directly to the customer’s doorstep.

Wear Today Gone Tomorrow (WearTodayGoneTomorrow.com)
Borrow a beautiful designer dress for 5 to 10 percent of its retail price (with a minimal cleaning free). As part of its environmental commitment, Wear Today Gone Tomorrow uses an organic dry cleaning process as part of its business model, which it calls “recycling designer clothing.”

Girl Meets Dress (GirlMeetsDress.com)
For residents of the UK, this wallet-friendly service allows you to rent dresses from such designers as Marc Jacobs, Tibi and 3.1 Phillip Lim from £31 a day. Try on your dress before an event at no extra cost.

Avelle (BagBorroworSteal.com)
Formerly Bag, Borrow or Steal, this site went mainstream when it was mentioned in the Sex In the City movie and has been renting authentic designer handbags, accessories, sunglasses, watches and jewelry since 2006. With no limit on the amount of time you can rent, you can keep that Louis Vuitton “it” bag as long as you’d like.

The perks and perils of renting

Why Rent?

It’s affordable. You can rent designer duds for roughly one-tenth of what you’d pay in a retail store. Besides, men have been renting tuxedos (and saving money by doing so) for ages.

It’s green. Rather than relegate old frocks to the back of your closet (or worse, a landfill), dresses are cleaned and rented to somebody else.

It lets you dream. Keep up with the latest trends and your changing whims by renting looks you love, then leaving them behind.

The Perils of Renting

Sizing: Designer gowns are notoriously inconsistent when it comes to sizing. Rent the Runway ships dresses in two sizes to try and compensate for this fact. Regardless, many designs aren’t even offered beyond a size 8. Ouch.

Label lust: The need to “dress like a celebrity” can get a bit out of hand. When so many people are struggling to afford necessities, renting a dress for its luxe label can seem excessive.

Selection: It remains to be seen whether designer rental companies can keep fashionistas’ discerning palettes satiated, especially in an industry where what’s “in” today is “out” tomorrow.

Dianna Baros is the editor and founder of TheBudgetBabe.com, a blog about fashion, beauty and style for women on a budget.

5 must-have pieces worth the investment

Read the article at Oprah.com

Don’t buy…Rent!

Transumers renting books from BookSwim.com keep their wallets from being emptied, trees from being cut down, and the paper wastebaskets (and worse, landfills!) from books being tossed out.

Changing The Way America Reads

Could the price of books possibly have gotten any more expensive? During any given week, the average bestseller costs more than $20. Read three of these in a month and you’re spending over $60! What you’re paying for is the right to own the book… but is ownership what you really want?

An Idea Is Born

March 2006 – George Burke and Shamoon Siddiqui spent their Thursday night as always, freeloading books in the local behemoth bookstore café. When asked to pay for the books along with the coffee, they replied, “No, we’re just gonna read them and put them back… but thanks for asking.”

Now this kind of behavior should never be condoned, but George and Shamoon noticed a pattern: everyone else was doing it, although maybe not so openly. If all of these people were simply reading, why aren’t they vagrantly loitering at a library? It’s free! Well, there’s no double mocha lattes at the library… but through researching the answer they discovered that the whole literary distribution model needed to be turned upside down.

Humble Beginnings

March 2007 – BookSwim mailed out its first rental book, The Richest Man in Babylon, to the first of many members who knew they could do better than bookstore prices. For those who like longwinded explanations: if you don’t have to buy every book, you can afford more books, and when they’re conveniently delivered to your door, you’ve got more time to read them. Unless you’re a collector or a packrat, your home shouldn’t be cluttered with a mounting pile of books, although subscribers are welcome to keep all of the rented books they’d like through BookSwim’s try-before-you-buy option!

The Environment

Everyone is concerned about our planet’s dwindling resources, and the easiest first step we can all take is conservation.

* Twenty million trees are cut down every year for American book production. BookSwim encourages book rental, rather than purchasing new books, in part because it helps reduce that staggering figure.
* Additionally, the bags BookSwim uses to ship books to and from our subscribers are made from 100% recycled plastic.
* Finally, by receiving books by mail, rather than constantly driving to and from the bookstore or library, BookSwim helps Americans save quite literally millions of gallons of gas every year.

BookSwim knows that it’s both good business and good conscience to take care of the Earth, so we go a step further – for every gift card we sell, we plant a tree through a partnership with EcoLibris.net.

The Future

BookSwim’s rental plans, characterized by unlimited books for all plans except the 1 Book-a-Month plan, no late fees and free delivery both ways, are mantras inspired by Netflix’s popular DVD service, act as so much more than cost-conscious entertainment in the literary world. It’s a way to get America reading again. Books nourish our intelligence and nothing captivates our imaginations like a story. We want to take on a responsibility to put more books in more hands… 1,000,000 books to be rented out by 2010! And by the time we reach our goal, BookSwim will have saved subscribers $22,070,000 over list price!

“WELCOME TO THE BORROWING REVOLUTION”

They say it’s lonely at the top, but at Bag Borrow or Steal we’ve got legions of loyal members—handbag and jewelry enthusiasts just like us—to keep us company! Nobody offers a broader selection of tip-top terrific merchandise, and no one stocks their closets with more delightful fresh discoveries.

It all started years ago when our co-founders started asking some honest questions: Why should women have to endure the emotional and financial sacrifices that accompany the endless search for the “right” accessory for every event, wedding, and dinner party? Why should celebrities, fashion editors, and socialites be the only ones allowed to borrow fashion accessories? Why not give everyone access to the perfect accoutrement for every occasion?

And so Bag Borrow or Steal burst onto the scene, and there was much rejoicing. We set out to do something different, building an online borrowing experience that provides just the right something for everyone.

Renting designer handbags makes sense for a lot of reasons

1

You can carry handbags like celebrities! Get a fabulous “it” handbag for an event, special occasion, or even everyday…carry it and then return it!

2

No more “handbag boredom”! Isn’t there always a new handbag that you want? Now you can change your purse whenever the mood strikes.

3

Husbands love us! Seriously. They’re tired of expensive handbags piling up in the closet because we’re “over” them.

4

It costs less than you think! You can carry stunning designer handbags, jewelry, sunglasses and even watches from only $25 a month!

(Hubbies also like that about us!)

5

Best of all: Renting is easy! Browse our collection of purses, totes, satchels,
clutches (and more) and click. Enjoy them for a week, a month or as long as you wish. And when you’ve had your fun, send them back and rent something new!

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About Avelle – Bag Borrow or Steal

• Avelle, the new Bag Borrow or Steal launched in April 2004, pioneering the rental of designer accessories-establishing a new fashion trend in the process.
• Avelle is now the premier destination for luxury designer accessory rentals with the world’s largest collection of designers and styles.
• Avelle is led by a seasoned team, which brings a wealth of knowledge from the realms of fashion, retail, subscription, and ecommerce. Members of the management team have almost 20 years experience at key retailers, such as Nordstrom, Lands’ End, Garnet Hill, and Eddie Bauer.
• Renting designer accessories at Avelle is a simple proposition. Handbags and accessories can be borrowed on an as-needed time frame, weekly for special events, monthly or as long as you want.
• Membership is not required to rent accessories. However, members have many added benefits in the form of discounted rental prices, special outlet savings, first notice of new items, Wait List access for popular items, and generous rewards toward free rentals. Many members rent multiple accessories at a time.
• The membership fee of only $5-10 per month is immediately available as a credit towards rentals. Items can be rented on a weekly, monthly or tri-monthly basis.
• For members who can’t bear to part with the beautiful accessory they’ve rented, they can request to “Steal,” or purchase it. And for most all accessories members can apply 50% or more of their rental fees toward purchasing that accessory.
• Avelle designer accessories are 100% guaranteed authentic. Everything is certified authentic and goes through a rigorous refurbishing and authentication process before it ships to a customer—so it arrives like new. If an item doesn’t pass our rigorous inspection, it won’t go out the door.
• The idea to offer luxury fashion accessories for loan was born when co-founders, Lloyd Lapidus and Greg Pippo, watched their wives and sisters raid each other’s closets to borrow the perfect handbag for every outfit or occasion. Assuming all women shared the same passion for designer accessories, the men founded Bag Borrow or Steal, now known as Avelle, creating the ultimate luxury accessory closet and the largest!
• Avelle is based in Seattle, Washington, home to a myriad of successful fashion, retail, subscription and ecommerce businesses.
• Avelle offers members the opportunity to rent more than 4,000 styles of luxury handbags, jewelry, sunglasses, watches and luggage from more than 150 designers, including Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, Coach, Stephen Dweck and Vera Wang.
• Avelle has a member base of more than 1.5 million women across the United States, including both members and guests.  Our core member is a well-educated, high-income, urban woman who absolutely loves luxury accessories – especially handbags.  These women – from college students to grandmothers – are passionate about beautifully crafted accessories and delight in how the right bag pulls together their look and makes them feel fabulous.
• Avelle, the new Bag Borrow or Steal was featured in the Sex and the City movie that came out in May 2008.
• In June 2009, Avelle expanded its service offerings and launched the first major nationwide Professional Handbag Cleaning and Repair Service. This new refurbishment service helps women Keep their favorite designer handbags looking like new and avoid buyer temptation.
• Avelle is focused on feeding women’s passions for luxury, fashion and style by offering them more ways to enjoy designer accessories and allows them to have more luxury, more often. Renting designer accessories provides our members with the freedom to indulge in every popular fashion trend (not just one) and easy access to the perfect handbag, jewels or other accessories for every occasion.

“Netflix for Dresses” is a turn on for fashionista transumers who want to dazzle everyone with an expensively stunning evening gown without the high cost of buying.

What if your closet was big enough to hold all the latest runway trends? What if, just for a night, you could experiment a little – say, try a one-shoulder dress in a deep, sexy red? What if that dress you saw in Vogue, the one with the stratospheric price tag, was suddenly affordable? What if you had an entire rack lined with styles that were perfect for any special occasion, another filled with cheeky ’80s redux? And what if you had a team of stylists to constantly update everything and offer tips about what size to wear and how to accessorize?

Now all of that is a reality, and it is called Rent the Runway. Rent the Runway gives users access to high fashion without any of the headaches. There’s no need to scour 20 different stores, worry about a piece selling out, or stress over when you’ll wear an investment dress again. Pushy salespeople with intimidating attitudes? Not anymore. You can even shop in your pajamas (we won’t tell!). In addition to the convenience, RTR makes high fashion affordable. We buy pieces directly from top designers and then offer rentals at just 10% of retail prices. It couldn’t be simpler: just browse our pages until you find something you love. Put it in your basket, tell us when you’d like it delivered, and it’ll appear on your doorstep—in two different sizes, just to be safe. Yes, it’s that easy. After your date, or wedding, or cocktail party, is over, just repack it in handy, pre-paid packaging and just drop it in a mailbox. (And don’t forget to tell us how it went!)

How RTR works:
1. Love
Browse through our array of A-list designers and find a dress you love. Or two!

2. Wear
Schedule a delivery date, and your dress will appear on your doorstep. Next-day and even same day delivery (if you live in NYC) is available, for last minute wardrobe crises. And we’ll send you a second, backup size- just to be safe.

3. Return
Put your dress in our handy prepaid packaging and drop in the nearest mailbox (we take care of the dry cleaning!)

The Backstory
Co-founders Jennifer Hyman (Jenn) and Jennifer Carter Fleiss (Jenny) met as sectionmates at Harvard Business School, where, over frequent girls nights, they became fast friends. During a trip home to New York City, Jenn watched her sister, Becky—an accessories buyer at Bloomingdales, and about as fashion-savvy a girl as there is—struggle over what to wear to an upcoming wedding. She knew she wanted to wear something stunning—Herve Leger, maybe, or Proenza—but her modest salary meant that everything high-end was out of reach. If the Beckys of this world can’t wear a designer dress, Jenn thought, what hope is there for the rest of us? Not to mention the designers themselves: If they’re not able to get their pieces into the hands of young, fashionable women, how could they build their brands?

Cut to: Cambridge, Massachusetts, several days later. Jenn told Jenny about Becky’s dilemma, and, this being business school, they started creating a company. A few business plans later (okay, more than a few), along with a formative meeting with Diane Von Furstenberg (in their next life, Jenn and Jenny plan to come back as the effortlessly chic DVF), and Rent the Runway was born. It’s a community designed to fill the needs of women just like Jenn and Jenny and Becky—women who know and love high fashion, who want to look glamorous for all their nights out (or even a special night in!), who want to have fun with fashion but who don’t want to deal with all the anxiety of investing in piece after piece. Users benefit from the expertise of professional stylists and the shared wisdom of like-minded fashion-forward members. Through exclusive relationships with top designers, Rent the Runway is able to continually update its stock with the latest pieces.

And to think: it all started with that age-old complaint: I don’t have anything to wear. Now you do, and you’re going to look amazing!

How It Works

Enjoying a guitar from Guitar Affair is a simple process:

1. Join – You must be a member in order to rent guitars from Guitar Affair. Because a rental is essentially a credit transaction, we run a credit and background check on all of our members. There is a $50, one-time membership application fee. You can apply for membership by completing the registration form.

Also note that our customers get very advantageous incentives on all of the products we sell. It’s easy to earn back your membership fee through the money you will save on everything from strings to guitars.

2. Select and reserve a guitar – Simply search our inventory to find an instrument that is available during the desired time frame. You can search the inventory by date, by manufacturer, or by genre. Remember that we are here to help you find guitars you will enjoy, so please do not hesitate to ask.

3. Receive your instrument – Your instrument will be shipped via UPS to your destination, be it a home, hotel, or vacation home. Our guitars ship in custom made Guitar Affair Gig Bags inside a custom made CaseXtreme shipping container. The container will have a lock and you will be provided with a PIN as part of the reservation. If you have also ordered a Road Trip Package with a headphone amp, cord, headphones, strap, and training DVD, everything will arrive in the same container.

4. Have fun – Enjoy the guitar for as long as you have it reserved.

5. Return it – On the return ship date, simply put everything back in the shipping container and ship it back. A return UPS label will be provided to you inside the case. There’s no tape or fuss. Just put the guitar in its gig bag and put the gig bag and other materials into the shipping container, close it, lock it, and either drop it off at any UPS center or arrange for a pickup.

About GuitarAffair

Guitar Affair has one clear goal – to give our customers a great guitar experience. Whether you are renting one of our high-end fleet instruments, or purchasing one of our boutique guitars, we strive to treat you like the valued customer that you are.

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We call our rental experiences “Affairs” because we want each rental to be a positive emotional experience for you. Whether you are on a business trip, a family vacation, or just want an escape at home, we stock a variety of superb guitars that we can deliver to your location for you to enjoy. If you’re on a trip, our Road Trip™ option will deliver a guitar, headphone amp, headphones, cord, strap, and your choice of a variety of instructional items or backing tracks, all in a single road case. When you’re done, just slap on the return shipping label and send it back. What could be easier? All of our guitars are professionally maintained to give you the best experience possible. All of our accessories are selected for their performance and luxury. Even our suppliers of straps and cords are individually selected from the best products on the market.

When purchasing a guitar from Guitar Affair, whether it is a used instrument from our fleet, or one of our amazing boutique guitars, you can always expect to be pampered with service and you should never expect to be forgotten once the transaction is complete. All of our instruments are set up to a professional level, unlike the instruments you find in most retail music stores. We also carry an array of boutique guitars that you will not easily find in stores at all. Try them out through our Affair program. If you like one, you can purchase the guitar directly from us, often at a significant member’s discount and often with a refund of some, or all, of your Affair fee. We also offer a large variety of high-end accessories to our members, often at substantial savings over the large retailers.

We hope that you’ll give us a chance to earn your business.

We urge you to learn more about how our program works, and to browse our fleet of well-known and boutique guitars.

Game Rentals Delivered to Your Door
As a GameFly member, you can rent as many games as you want and play them as long as you want for only $22.95 per month. Manage your own personal wish list of games, what we call “My GameQ.” Check out 2 games at a time. When you’re done, send your games back to us and the next picks in your GameQ will automatically be sent to you.

About GameFly
Founded in 2002, Los Angeles-based GameFly is the world’s leading online video game rental service, delivering the best selection and availability. GameFly also offers high-quality used and new video games for sale at competitive prices.

Over 7,000 Titles
We have the best selection of video games for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PSP, Xbox 360, Xbox, Wii, GameCube, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy Advance. Open 24 hours every day, our rental library of over 7,000 titles makes renting hard-to-find classics and hot new releases as simple as a few clicks of your mouse. You can also find upcoming titles to add to your GameQ.

Members Earn GameFly Rewards
As gamers, we believe that when you play more, you should get more. The longer you’re a GameFly member, the more Rewards you’ll receive for great discounts on game purchases. Become a member today and begin receiving your GameFly Rewards.