With my writing I am covering different events every week and I love it! The only remotely stressful thing about my job is what on earth to wear to all these different events! Being a fashion blogger I need to keep up with fashion and make sure I appear fresh and up to date. As much as I would love to buy a new dress every single week, I can’t. So it becomes this huge juggling act of what dress to wear where, what people will be there and have they seen me in this dress or what dress was I in when I was snapped and put in this newspaper or that magazine or someone else’s blog! So far so good! But when it came to New Years Eve I wanted something special. I go out to beautiful events so often and put so much effort into what I am wearing that I really wanted to amp it up. I spent $400 on my NYE ticket to Versace and I wanted to look nothing short of fabulous! So I started browsing Net-A-Porter and instead of looking in my price range of a few hundred dollars I found myself clicking onto the dresses worth a few thousand! Dolce & Gabbana, Roberto Cavalli, Versace, Valentino, Oscar De La Renta and well… you get the point! Ahhh dream dresses! Then it occurred to me….! I cant afford the few thousand to buy them but I most likely could afford the few hundred to borrow them, if that was possible! So I Googled ‘rent a dress’ and Can I Borrow That? came straight up! It is a gorgeous easy to use site. I had so much fun browsing through the dresses and actually spent longer than I care to divulge on this addictive site! Now you know that you can actually afford to wear that Dolce and Gabbana it turns into a frenzy of ‘Wow I would look good in Roberto Cavalli!’ ‘oh but I could get this Halston Heritage dress and be just like Carrie off Sex and the City!’ or ‘OoooOoo but I love that Brian Lichtenberg dress and it looked great on Kim Kardashian so maybe it would suit me too?’. So yes I did spend a long time oooing and ahhhing at the dresses and trying to remember what celebrity I saw in which dress and trying to figure out which ones would suit me and which clothing label is more to my taste. So after, ahem, hours of browsing the dresses I found a leopard print Just Cavalli dress (RRP $999) and a Roberto Cavalli clutch (RRP $1599) that I thought would be perfect for my ‘Pop’ themed NYE Party at Versace!
So I selected my size and I also selected the “Try Me” option which is brilliant as it lets you try the dress before committing to hire it. They merely send the dress out to you, you try it on, call immediately to let them know if it fits and suits and then you send it back and they will resend it for the date you requested! I put in my credit card details and waited to hear from them. It took a couple of days before I heard from Michelle (who is the owner of CIBT) which is understandable with Christmas and New Years Eve looming only a couple of weeks away I can imagine how busy they would have been. I did this all as if I was a ‘normal customer’ (I did not inform them that I was a fashion blogger or I was going to write a review), I had put in that I wanted a size 12 and Michelle asked me if I was more of a 12-14 or a 10-12 because the Just Cavalli sizes are a little smaller than regular Australian sizing. I said that I was more of a 12-14 and she informed me it was probably safest for her to send out the 12 and the 14 and see which one is the perfect fit. I got home late on Christmas Eve to the package. Wow was I excited! I opened it with all the excitement of a child on Christmas day would open their biggest present! The box was huge and had beautiful purple ribbon around it!
There was the gorgeous clutch and dress, but just one dress, a size 12. I raced to my bathroom and tried it on and FAIL. I couldn’t get it done up. I thought maybe it was just me and I needed help. So I hung the dress in my cupboard and continued getting everything ready for Christmas.
Boxing day my mother came over and as soon as she walked through the door I said I need help getting into a dress! So I raced once again to the bathroom and put it on, raced back out and asked her to do the zip up… but no. Damn! Damn! Double damn! It was just too small. I spoke to Michelle and she said she could send me out the 14 but with all the public holidays and the Christmas mail jam I didn’t want to risk not getting it in time so I declined. I popped the clutch and the bag back into the self-addressed prepaid mail bag that you get in the package, which makes the whole process even easier, and reluctantly sent my first taste of Cavalli home.
My verdict
Would I do it again? Absolutely. My birthday is coming up and I will definitely consider hiring a dress for that. I think it is a brilliant idea. You get the dress for a whole week so if you have two unrelated events in one week you can wear it twice!
You don’t have to get it dry cleaned, you merely send it back as is and they take care of it. It is such a piece of cake to do and you can look and feel amazing for a fraction of the price.
The communication could have been a bit better but I am understanding due to it being the crazy season. Michelle is also lovely, easy to deal with on the phone and I love the hand written note from her in the package, it makes it that much more special!
The site is so incredibly easy to use and clear. It is a real pleasure to browse (unlike some of the other competing sites). There are also packages put together so you can hire the whole look for a reduced price. There are dresses for all different occasions so if you even need to make a super impressive statement at a job interview there is a “Corporate Girl” package with the most gorgeous structured D&G dress. Your future employer possibly wont know its D&G but it will give you that extra boost of confidence you get when you look great!
Advice
- Book well in advance, at least a month. It takes the stress out of the whole process and you can try it on and send it back well in advance so if it doesn't fit or you don’t like it you can ask to try on another size or a different dress all together.
- I personally would only hire a dress if I am going out to a nice venue. You always run the risk of getting a drink spilled on you just like you run the risk of getting hit by a car if you walk outside. I would hire the dress for NYE Versace but not for NYE at a less than reputable night club... if you get my drift. If the dress is damaged the cleaning bill is on you and if it is irreversible damage you will be charged accordingly. I don’t mean to scare you as I have never ever ruined a dress whilst out, only shoes!
- I also suggest that you sign up to their newsletter. It lets you know when there are discounted rates (lately there has been 25% off which is great) and also when new dresses come in! So go ahead… try it out!
Stay fabulous!
CLE
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