Rent-a-Dress
Lusting after designer dresses goes hand-in-hand with watching Hollywood’s many red carpet affairs. With each glamorous award show, we long to wear what the celebs wear, even for only one night. Now there’s a new, less expensive way to make your dress lust a reality.
A new Chicago boutique, Borrow a Dress Couture (BADC), is one of those new retail concepts helping your designer dreams come true for a night—literally. The premise is simple: Go to the store, find a dress, and it’s yours for three days. Rental prices are a fraction of the retail cost, saving you hundreds of dollars on a dress you may only wear once. If you want, keep it a little longer for an additional $10/day. When your dress lease is up, BADC takes care of the dry cleaning for the next borrower.
BADC’s owners, Bree and Teonna, opened the boutique six months ago after borrowing dresses from each other for various events and engagements. Though the boutique is different from standard retail, Bree and Teonna run their store like any other boutique. They place orders directly with designers and change the inventory seasonally, filling the store’s racks with labels like Alexander McQueen, Badgely Mishka, Hervé Léger, Vera Wang, Marc Bouwer, Abaete, and more. BADC customers are renting the eveningwear for any occasion they see fit, including a date, girls’ night, a holiday party, wedding, or black tie gala. “Women have various occasions that they need special dresses for in their life, so it has been great for us,” says Bree.
Renting designer dresses is not only new to Chicago—it’s taking off around the county. With websites like Rent the Runway and Topshop’s Dress Me Up program, this is a trend that could soon become the norm. Rent the Runway is similar to BADC, except the members-only website mails the dress to your home, with a backup size just in case your chosen size isn’t the perfect fit. Topshop’s Dress Me Up allows you to “hire” a dress temporarily for the holidays, and the proceeds benefit two Topshop charities.
So, if you’re designer fund is running a little low this season, renting a dress may be your opportunity to look like a celebrity, even if it’s only for three nights.
Borrow a Dress Couture, 3221 N Sheffield Avenue, shopbadc.com
By Danielle Parker
Tags: Abaete, Alexander McQueen, Badgely Mishka, Borrow a Dress Couture, Chicago Shopping, Herve Leger, Marc Bouwer, Rent the Runway, Topshop Dress Me Up, Vera Wang
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December 14, 2009 | No Comments
