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

“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!